Q: I’m a big believer in Mike Mentzer’s Heavy Duty system of one all-out set to failure for each exercise. That’s why I think your 4X method is total B.S. Mentzer cited studies and found from personal experience that intensity is the key to muscle growth. With 4X you’re using lighter weights and not going to failure, which wastes a lot of sets. It can’t work, and I think you should feel ashamed for promoting it as miracle mass-building system.
A: We didn’t say it’s a “miracle” system (although some trainees have said it worked mass miracles for them). We simply said that we GUARANTEE that our 4X programs will build NEW MASS for just about anyone. We’re absolutely positive of that because it’s got ALL the critical components to trigger bigger gains quickly—and that includes intensity (we think Mentzer would agree as you’ll see, and that’s no B.S.)…
For our new readers unfamiliar with 4X, you pick a weight with which you can get 15 reps, but you only do 10. Rest just 30 seconds, then do 10 more—and so on until you complete four sets. Your fourth set should be all out, and you should NOT get 10 reps. If you do, add weight to that 4X sequence at your next workout.
Read that again if you’ve never experienced it because we’re going to tell you something that should open your eyes and get you to try it. Ready? That 4X sequence is very close to how Mike Mentzer trained when he was competing at his most massive and vascular—as in the photo above. No B.S.!
We know that for a fact because Steve interviewed a bodybuilder a few years back who used to train with the Mentzer brothers, and he confirmed it. He said they would generally do three warmup sets, all close to failure, and work through them very fast. Then they would do ONE all-out set to failure or beyond with forced reps…
You probably didn’t realize that because Mentzer didn’t count his warmups as REAL sets—even though most of those warmup sets were very close to failure. Very interesting…
So his one-all-out-set-to-failure mantra was really three progressively harder warmup sets followed by one brutal all-out set. That’s a very close description of the 4X mass method—the first three act as warmups while the last is the major mass builder.
Now factor in that Mentzer usually did two to three exercises for each bodypart. That’s how most of our programs in The 4X Mass Workout are designed. In fact, our Positions-of-Flexion mass-training protocol calls for three exercises per muscle group so you train the midrange, stretch and contracted position.
POF is designed to trigger full-range mass stimulation, torching the target muscle at 3 unique spots on its range of motion. For example, for triceps, it’s close-grip bench presses (midrange), overhead extensions (stretch) and pushdowns (contracted). Blast each of those positions with 4X, and you’ve got an incredibly powerful full-range mass-building routine.
How does it work from a physiological standpoint? You may have heard us say in the past that on any all-out set you only activate 30 percent of the growth fibers due to nervous system failure. It’s a protective mechanism provided by nature to keep us from tearing the muscle from the bone.
That means ONE set, no matter how intense, cannot do all that much for building mass. The key is to prime the muscle with a few progressively harder warmup sets. That’s how you GRADUALLY reach the GROWTH THRESHOLD, which occurs on set 4…
That buildup to the growth-threshold climax is due to the all-or-none law of fiber activation. It states that a muscle fiber fires completely or not at all. So even on subfailure sets, many muscle fibers are firing at 100 PERCENT.
In other words, on sets 1 through 3 in a 4X sequence you gradually fatigue bundles of fast-twitch growth fibers. Then at set 4, when you go to all-out failure, you drive through the growth threshold—you have a substantial number of fibers activated and signals are sent for muscular supercompensation to occur.
And muscle supercompensation, or growth, happens fast with 4X training. No, it’s not a “miracle mass-building system,” but it’s no B.S. and it’s something you’ll return to again and again because it produces major surges in new muscle size very quickly—and that’s how you add freak to your physique, similar to how Mentzer did it…
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com
Over 40 and feeling a little “down?”
READ THIS…
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.