Q: I just read your X-Rep Update #1 e-book and also your Ultimate 10×10 Mass Workout. I am thoroughly impressed. What great info. I learned a lot and am applying many of your methods. I was especially intrigued by the fascia-expansion workout in X Update. It makes sense to end a bodypart routine by supersetting the contracted-position exercise with a stretch one to make room for extra growth to happen; however, I can’t superset in my crowded gym. What do you think about just ending each bodypart workout with 10×10 on a stretch-position exercise to expand the fascia?
A: Man, we love it when trainees use their heads and come up with a killer idea. That’s an excellent way to use 10×10 to get major muscle expansion, one we hadn’t originally considered. It’s an ideal solution for trainees who want to continue to use heavy weight on the big exercises, but still add on 10×10 to get a BIG bang in muscle gains…
In fact, here’s an idea to try: You do a few heavy sets of a big midrange exercise, like chins for lats, and a contracted-position move, like stiff-arm pulldowns. Now you’ve got a major pump going. Then you end with a stretch-position exercise, like pullovers, for 10 sets of 10 reps to elongate the fully-engorged muscle over and over. Talk about extreme fascia expansion—but that’s just the tip of the hypertrophic iceberg…
By ending with a stretch move for 10 sets of 10, you will be getting an extreme amount of target-muscle elongation—100 reps worth, to be exact. That produces other key mass-building reactions, like anabolic hormone release in muscle and possible fiber splitting. Remember the animal study that produced a 300 percent muscle-mass increase from only one month of stretch-overload workouts? You’re mimicking that effect, which, as researchers showed, can produce incredibly fast size results from the muscle expansion…
Thanks for another great addition to our mass-building arsenal.
[Note: For the uninitiated, 10×10 is taking a weight with which you can get about 20 reps, but you only do 10; rest for 30 seconds, then do 10 more, and so on until you complete 10 sets in about 10 minutes. The first few sets will be easy; the last few will be brutal. For more information and programs, see The Ultimate 10×10 Mass Workout e-program.]
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com
ATTENTION OVER-40 BODYBUILDERS: One of the most interesting read-me pages on Testosterone and other muscle-building hormones we’ve seen is The Truth About Testosterone.
It even talks about a fruit, a specific part, that can up your T naturally. Cranking up your testosterone will not only get you jacked in the gym, but in the bedroom too—not to mention help rip up your midsection as it ignites fat burning. If that interests you, there’s more from our colleague and registered dietician, HERE.