Q: I was reading in one of my IRON MAN back issues about the “Blood Theory” of muscle growth. Can you explain it and tell me how to take advantage of it to grow?
A: Way back in the 1970s, an Iron Man author named Dennis DuBreuil explained his Blood Theory….
Basically, he said that there is a direct relationship between how well a muscle pumps and how well it grows…
If you think about it, that makes sense. If you have a body part that responds and grows easily, it probably pumps easily as well.
Before Dennis and his Blood Theory, there was the Iron Guru, master trainer Vince Gironda, who said that maximum pump was necessary for growth, and not to go past that point in a workout. He suggested getting a pump as quickly as possible, which was part of his “Density” training method…
You may recognize that term from our “growth-threshold” training, like the 4X mass method. Vince said that one of the keys to maximum muscle size was doing the most work possible in the shortest time…
Vince used to come into the IRON MAN offices after he retired and often regaled us with his Density method and various exercise techniques. Great memories for us…
John Balik worked at his gym back in the ’60s when Vince was training the very first Mr. Olympia, Larry Scott. So Vince, in his ’70s, visited us often because he had much respect for John and IRON MAN as well. (He liked us too because we listened—he only screamed at us once. LOL)…
One of the things Vince told us was that you should try to pare down your rests between sets if maximum muscle size was your goal. He got many of his trainees down to 15 seconds of rest…
In 4X we suggest around 30 seconds, but paring it down from there will do very good things for growth—it just hurts.
A way to take advantage of that with our 4X method is to start at 40 seconds, and reduce it by 5 seconds every workout or every second workout until you’re down to 20 seconds. Talk about max pump and major growth.
You incrementally increase the demand on the target muscle and accelerate anabolism…
Again, that is an off-shoot of Vince’s method. We give him a lot of the credit for our latest muscle-building advances. He was the true Trainer of Champions.
For more on the Iron Guru’s methods, grab a copy of Vince Gironda: Legend & Myth. It’s a big 330-page anthology of all of his training methods, unique exercises, carb cycling and other diet principles. There are also a few freebie e-books, like his complete 8×8 system. See it HERE.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
X-Rep.com