Q: I do four-week phases of different workouts from your various e-books. That strategy works great for me. I’ve gained 10 pounds of muscle in three months, and that’s after training consistently for 10 years. I’m getting ready to start the Modified Pre-Ex 3X Mass Workout. After all the positive talk about TORQ, I was thinking about using that on the first exercise, the isolation move. Is that a good idea for building new muscle mass?
A: Absolutely. We’ve talked about that before, and we used to use TORQ-ed up modified Pre-Ex as a shock tactic in our old Freaky Friday workouts…
Remember, modified Pre-Ex does NOT involve supersets. Instead, you do all of the isolation-exercise sets first, up front in a 3X sequence…
In your case, you’ll use TORQ on that first exercise—that is, Tension-Overload Repetition Quantity. You still do three sets, all with the SAME weight, but you do each to failure: 30-20-15, resting 45 seconds between.
After that, 3X TORQ on the iso move, you go to the compound, or midrange, exercise. In the Pre-Ex 3X e-book, the modified pre-ex routine has you do a standard 4X sequence on that second multi-joint exercise; however, we’ve found downward-progression 4X to be best…
For DP 4X, you take your 15-rep max weight, but you only do 12. Rest 45 seconds, add weight, then do 10. Rest 45 seconds, add weight and do 8. Rest 45 seconds one last time, add weight, then try to get 6. So your modified Pre-Ex routine for delts would start like this…
Contracted: Seated laterals (TORQ), 3 x 30, 20, 15
Midrange: Dumbbell presses (DB 4X), 4 x 12, 10, 8, 6
You will feel your delts working MUCH more on the DB presses after TORQ laterals. And the weight you use will not be mega heavy, even when you get down to six reps, which means you should NOT stress your shoulder joints…
If you already have shoulder problems, you may want to do DB upright rows instead…
But doing the presses after high-end hypertrophic fatigue will have you firing fast-twitch growth fibers to the max in your delts, especially with the progressively heavier poundages. You’re guaranteed a blast of new muscle mass…
To finish delts, you hit a stretch-position exercise, like incline one-arm laterals. You can do standard heavy sets, 4X, or a 3X sequence with drop sets, which is what we have listed in the Pre-Ex 3X e-book…
Stretch: Incline one-arm laterals or one-arm cable laterals (3X drop), 3 x 5(5)
The heavier version is for more stretch overload, which we discuss in the Pre-Ex e-book:
The heavier stretch overload can have unique growth effects on muscle—increasing anabolic receptors and satellite cells. Those were the big reasons an animal study produced a whopping 300 percent mass gain after only one month of stretch-overload ‘workouts.’
So by all means, TORQ up modified pre-ex to get some sizeable new muscle mass effects.
NOTE: The Pre-Ex 3X Mass Workout, that includes size-building tips and 3 complete workouts, is available HERE <==
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com
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