Q: I’ve got a tip for you guys: Get off your butts and work out more often, and you’ll get bigger. It looks like you’re only working out three to four days a week. I train six days a week, two hours per workout, and I compete in bodybuilding shows.
A: Hey, are you calling us lazy? Hmm, maybe we are. Everyone is to a degree, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing if you channel it to produce progress. Laziness has been the catalyst for innovation throughout history—like cars and jets. Those things get you to your destination faster and more efficiently…
“Efficiently” is the key word… We’ve found that 3D Positions of Flexion, X Reps, and X-Rep hybrid techniques are efficient mass-building methods—they help get us to our muscular destination without wasting time. At our peaks, we trained just four days a week on our lunch break, and we attained bodybuilder-esque physiques without having to camp out in the gym every day of the week…
Could we be bigger and better with longer more frequent workouts, as you suggest? Maybe, or maybe not. Research points to both styles of training, volume and intensity, as effective muscle builders; however, we have obligations that force us to search out the most efficient muscle-building methods in the gym…
Yes, we want to be as muscular as possible, but we must have balance in our lives and time for our families, work, and outside interests. We also feel an obligation to help those in our situation train as efficiently and effectively as possible so they can attain a bodybuilder-type physique without living in the gym. Extremely long, drawn-out workouts are simply not appealing or are not possible for most people. We’re here to help those trainees make big gains without excessive time drains.
As for competition, we haven’t been interested in competing in bodybuilding shows (we’ve done that) for many years. If that’s where you’re at, great; keep at it. A contest gives you a definite goal to shoot for. And if you like training six days a week, two hours at a pop, that’s great too. As we’ve explained in our e-books, you can make good gains with long less-intense workouts (volume); however, we’ve discovered that you don’t have to train that way to build a competitive physique.
If you get bored spending so much time in the gym, or you run into a time crunch—which you probably will as you grow up and take on more responsibility, like a family—may we suggest that you incorporate at least a few training phases that are made up of shorter, more intense workouts. Or perhaps a volume/intensity program that has you do a volume routine for a bodypart at one workout and a shorter, intensity routine at the next. You may be pleasantly surprised at how switching every so often to a more efficient and intense workout protocol can provide a new muscle-building stimulus and net you bigger gains.
NOTE: For those interested in maximum efficiency and results, take a look at any of the options we have in our X Shop.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com
Get Ripped with Anabolic Fasting
With proper intermittent fasting, you can transform your physique faster than ever…
Brad Pilon’s book Eat Stop Eat is THE book on Intermittent Fasting. Besides the nuts and bolts of what to do and when to burn fat and build muscle simultaneously, Brad covers all the research on IF-related topics…
From how fasting affects blood glucose/insulin/leptin/testosterone to how it jacks the muscle-building process. You’ll see all the latest science.
Grab your copy now because Eat Stop Eat is only $10 till the end of this month (it’s a $49 value!). Check it out here…
> Get THE Book on Intermittent Fasting (only $10 for a few more days)