Once-a-Week Workouts

Q: I’ve tried training each bodypart once a week, but it doesn’t seem to work for me. I’ve read about guys making that sort of program work and making great gains. Maybe I’m just not working hard enough to require that much recovery time? Any suggestions on how to make once-a-week workouts work?

A: We’ve done a lot of research and experimentation over the years, and although our first attempts at once-a-week workouts didn’t produce muscle gains, we believe we’ve discovered a simple way to make it work—more fiber trauma.

In order for a muscle to require seven full days of recovery, you really have hammer it hard, but with specific techniques that produce enough microtears in the fibers. We have a few effective ways of increasing growth-triggering trauma…

Extra midrange-position work

When you hit two or three bodyparts at each workout, you can do a few more sets without exceeding an hour in the gym. The big exercises do a lot of damage to muscle fibers, so on most bodyparts, you’re doing two or three big midrange moves for each bodypart.

Negative-accentuated sets

It’s no secret that the negative part of the repetition is what causes muscle soreness. Some experts believe it’s the friction caused by the fibers dragging across each other in an attempt to slow the weight. To take advantage of that, you can do at least one set of a big midrange move, like presses, in a negative-accentuated fashion; that is, two seconds up and six seconds down. That exaggerated lowering forces more fiber trauma. We know because the first time we did NA squats, we had trouble walking the next day.

Slower stretch-position exercises

Try to slow down the negative on stretch-position exercises to three or four seconds—or all the way to six seconds as in NA style listed above. Stretch exercises are notorious for creating muscle soreness, especially at the muscle insertion, like inner chest. And slowing the negative amps up that trauma, which requires more recovery time.

You can adapt almost any of the workouts in our e-books to hitting each bodypart once a week. For example, you could take the popular Power Pyramid Program (Chapter 2 of the Freak-Physique Stretch-Overload Workout e-book) and divide it into that split, integrating the above fiber-trauma techniques.

And no matter what workout you use, don’t forget the X Reps on at least one set of a big midrange exercise. X Reps extend tension time and also get more growth fibers into the action for a faster anabolic response.

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

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

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Testosterone prescriptions do more HARM than good for older men

Millions of men are struggling with the problems associated with low-T in today’s world, such as extra belly and chest fat, low energy and stamina, lack of sexual desire, ED problems, and loss of muscle.

Sadly, millions of men also turn to Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) to try to overcome these problems and try to feel like a new man again…BUT there are some VERY concerning problems with TRT that every man NEEDS to know.  

After reading the article below, you might want to consider alternate routes of boosting your T levels naturally instead of through something that’s potentially as harmful as TRT…

–> Why Testosterone Replacement Therapy can do more HARM than good  (for any ladies reading this, please pass this on to your husband or boyfriend if they are using or have considered using TRT)