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Photos and Freakiness

Q: I saw your before and after photos from your first X-Rep year contrasted with the following year when you gained 10 more pounds of muscle [with X-hybrid techniques]. Personally, I don’t think you look better. You both look bigger, but I think your physiques are more impressive the X-Rep year.

A: Well, that’s not a question, but it’s a relevant opinion—bigger is not necessarily better. In Jonathan’s case, you are seeing his most-muscular pose, and when you gain more muscle, your physique can look more “crowded” in that pose. You could argue that his muscles are starting to look too big for his frame. Steve, on the other hand, is in a semi-relaxed pose in the X-Rep photo, and a twisting ab shot in his Beyond-X photo. He looks considerably bigger in the “after” photo, but it’s a different pose, which makes it difficult to judge.

Steve and Jonathan, after photos from the first X-Rep year and the following Beyond X year - Photos and Freakiness

Obviously, sometimes packing on more muscle doesn’t make you look better—but that boils down to opinion. Some people write to us and say they want a sleek physique like Spiderman’s (the way he is drawn in the comics, not how he looks in the movies), while others just want a freak physique, with no regard to aesthetics (Incredible Hulk?). The muscle-building techniques we’ve developed can help you no matter which of those camps you’re in. X Reps and X-hybrid techniques, outlined in the Beyond X-Rep e-book, can obviously pack on muscle (as they did for us), be it aesthetically placed or not, even if you’re a more advanced trainee.

Us? We strive for pleasing, balanced physiques—not training to just get bigger. To accomplish that, we often specialize on bodyparts that are lagging (usually delts, as we both lack wide clavicles) and refrain from training others that can ruin proportions (like the obliques on the sides of the waist—who wants a wide-looking midsection?). And while we both have chests that aren’t massive, we prefer that look rather than ponderous, sagging pecs. We’re also not big fans of thighs that rub together almost down to the knees (that’s why we usually squat with a narrow stance—to reduce adductor involvement).

That’s part of the fun and challenge of bodybuilding—the sculpting of your physique into your ideal (or as close as your genetics will allow). Use weight training and intensity techniques, like X Reps and X-hybrid tactics, to take yours to the level that pleases you—whether it’s to get the girls or make people wanna hurl.

NOTE: Our original X-Rep routine can be found in The Ultimate Mass Workout and the X-hybrid tactics we used the following year can be found in the Beyond X-Rep e-book. Those, along with EVERY e-book in our X Shop can be had this weekend only for 20% off with discount code BIGLEAN20.

Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.

—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com

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