Q: Okay, your before and after photos at X-Rep.com are unreal. I can’t believe you made those changes in only one month, and my friends say you used drugs. What’s the truth? How did you do it, what kind of training did you do, and were drugs involved? Please be honest.
A: Trust us, no drugs were involved. Truth: Jonathan is a drug-free for life bodybuilder and Steve experimented with 5 milligrams of Dianabol once a day back in his early 20s—but after three weeks of dreams that his liver would explode, he stopped. BTW, he saw no visual improvement during those 3 weeks on that dosage.
For our X-Rep transformation, we used nothing but basic supplements—whey/casein protein powder, creatine, postworkout shake, etc.—and a very clean diet to etch in the cuts. We actually lost fat and gained muscle at the same time, primarily due to our new (at that time) training style…
That was our first experimental phase with X Reps. Those are partial reps at the end of a set to extend the tension time right at the spot on an exercise’s stroke where the best fiber activation occurs. Where is that? At the semi-stretch point, like near the bottom of a chin-up or incline press…
At failure, you lower the resistance to near the bottom of the stroke, where the target muscle is semi-stretched, and crank out 8-inch controlled-but-explosive reps—a short stroke, but power packed…
Those end-of-set X-Rep partials do two important things: 1) They increase the time under tension of a set to failure—usually 5 to 10 seconds, depending on how many 8-inch partials you get; and 2) they get more muscle fibers to fire, often awakening dormant ones—new fibers, explosive growth.
We didn’t realize it then, but increased tension time expands the sarcoplasmic energy fluid in muscle, getting it larger faster. Before we added X Reps, we had been training heavy all the time, reps around 8 or lower on every set. Tension time per set was only about 30 seconds max…
By adding X Reps, we pushed the tension time closer to 40 seconds, which is the minimum for OPTIMAL hypertrophy. By finally stressing the muscles for size instead of strength, we got a major mass boost…
To further that tension-time layer of hypertrophy, our one-month X-Rep program also included drop sets and double drop sets, usually on contracted-position exercises, like concentration curls (check out Jonathan’s arm in this shot)…
And we also included supersets, such as lateral raises with wide-grip upright rows and pullovers with rope rows. All of those extend the time under tension for more sarcoplasmic size…
So the program we used for our spectacular transformations included heavy work for myofibrillar thickening as well as extended tension times for sarcoplasmic expansion. Even back then we were getting that key double dose of muscle growth, even though we didn’t know about those two layers of mass development. or the key dual-component 2A muscle fibers that dominate in the biggest bodybuilders…
Now, to be perfectly fair, our before shots were taken in our warehouse gym under crappy light. Plus, we had no tan. The after photos were taken by Mike Neveux, the best muscle photographer in the business, and he lit us just right so our size and cuts popped. Oh, and we were golden tan. All of that made a big difference…
Nevertheless, our transformation even shocked us—occurring in just under five weeks. Exciting stuff—X Reps really made the biggest difference from an intensity standpoint and got us some explosive growth from simultaneous myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic stimulation—plus exceptional fiber activation.
Try mixing drop sets and X Reps into your program for a mass-in-a-flash transformation. It works.
Note: The complete X-Rep program we used is in our first e-book, The Ultimate Mass Workout, which is 136 pages and identifies the single Ultimate Exercise for each muscle, outlines other X programs, and contains loads of mass-building tips and tricks. AND it’s only $9 right now; Go HERE <==
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com
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