Q: I just got your Triple-Shred 3 e-books [X-treme Lean, Ultimate Fat-to-Muscle Workout and X-traordinary Abs]. Looking over the workouts, I’m wondering which is best for me, The X-treme Lean High-Definition Workout or The Ultimate Fat-to-Muscle Workout? I need to lose fat and also build muscle, so what’s the difference? Is one better than the other?
A: You may have heard the saying that the best program for you is the one you’re NOT currently using. In other words, change ignites gains. So neither the X-treme Lean program nor the Fat-to-Muscle Workout is the best lean-machine workout—only different—and both ignite all of the key fat-off, muscle-on components…
The X-treme Lean High-Definition Workout emphasizes growth hormone surges and force production via postactivation. That is, you do a big compound exercise, rest, do an isolation exercise for higher reps, rest, then do the compound exercise again. That has extreme fat-loss, muscle-building effects, as we’ll explain…
Here’s an example of a postactivation series for chest. First hit decline presses, one or two sets of eight to 10 reps…
After a rest you do cable flyes for continuous tension/occlusion—15 to 20 reps. That will cause some muscle burn and flush your pecs with excess blood.
Rest again as your pecs engorge with blood from the cable flyes, then go back to the first exercise—hit another all-out set of decline presses. You’ll feel it working, believe us, and the fat-off, muscle-on results will come quickly.
The excess blood flow from the higher-rep cable-flye set enhances both your ability to generate force [J Str Cond Res. 15:362-366] and stimulate growth hormone via even more muscle burn on your last set of declines [Can J Appl Physio. 22:244-255; 1997]. Incredible muscle-growth stimulation as well as fat incineration…
Getting your body to optimize its growth hormone production is key to many positive body-changing benefits, including mega muscle growth and fierce fat loss. Sounds like the X-treme Lean workout is the best lean-machine workout, but not so fast…
Another big key to both muscle-size increases and a lean-machine metabolism is muscle trauma. Research has shown that damaging the muscle enough to cause some soreness primes the anabolic environment as well as stoking the fat-burning furnace…
To repair the microtears in muscle your body uses extra energy until the regeneration process is complete—and it uses bodyfat to fuel that repair. That means you’re burning fat 24/7 for many days in a row as your body mobilizes energy stores (fat) to heal and build your muscle bigger and stronger. Exciting stuff!
So a set of a big compound move on which you raise the weight in 1.5 seconds and lower it in about SIX seconds—slow lowering—will ramp up the fat-burning muscle trauma you’re looking for. That’s the key tactic built into The Ultimate Fat-to-Muscle Workout…
For example, after you generate force by adding weight over two or three sets of a compound exercise (pyramid), like squats for quads, you do a final set with a lighter weight, but you lower each rep in six seconds—slow and controlled to trigger more muscle trauma…
What about growth hormone release? You get some of that too—you’ll get muscle burn on the slow-negative set; but there’s more: You also end each bodypart routine with one or two sets of a high-rep contracted-position exercise, like leg extensions for quads—we’re talking continuous tension/occlusion for a growth hormone infusion!
Wow, now it sounds like The Ultimate Fat-to-Muscle Workout is the best lean-machine workout—but, like we said, it’s not better, just different. Both routines have all of the key fat-to-muscle components—force generation, growth hormone activation and muscle-trauma initiation—just in different doses…
That’s why we suggest you use The Ultimate Fat-to-Muscle Workout for four to six weeks; then move to the X-treme Lean High-Def Workout for four to six weeks. And don’t forget to use a lower-intensity downshift week between them—use either program during that week, but don’t go to failure on any of the work sets so you fully recharge, ready to do battle with your new program.
That’s it—your rocketship to ripped, the perfect plan for this time of year—to get your fat-to-muscle machine in gear! By spring your muscle size and definition will be clear…
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com
Build MASS with bodyweight training
One way you’re guaranteed to pack on stacks of muscle is through a process called muscle protein synthesis (MPS), which more than doubles 24 hours after an intense workout…
Until recently, MPS was only elevated when trainees would lift 70-90% of their one-rep max…
That’s not only dangerous for your joints, but it also sets you up for high injury risk every time you exercise…
It used to be believed that training with your own bodyweight couldn’t get you the same results as training with your 70-90% one rep max… Until NOW.