This is a great photo of Lee Haney holding the Sandow trophy, his muscles almost busting out of his V-neck. You can even see his abs through the fabric—and who wouldn’t want to stretch their shirtsleeves with those gargantuan guns…
Lee still trains hard today—but not too hard to avoid damage. Even during his Mr. Olympia years, he used only moderate poundages, which is why he has zero injuries in his 60s. His famous quote says it all…
“Exercise to stimulate, not annihilate.”
Great advice. Consider that many Mr. Olympias who trained with mega-heavy poundages can’t lift now without severe pain. In fact, a number of them had to retire early, and some are nearly crippled.
We got on the “stimulate don’t annihilate” bandwagon as we approached middle age. That got us growing again pain-free.
We stopped the insanity—before it was too late. That was after we finally embraced something legendary trainer Vince Gironda continually tried to hammer into our heads during many of his visits to our Iron Man offices: moderate weights and short rests are best—Density Training…
One reason it’s a superior way to build muscle is that it efficiently trains multiple muscle-fiber types—from slow-twitch to fast-twitch—and ignites a skin-stretching pump at every workout…
One of our favorite Density methods is outlined in our 4X Mass Workout ebook. We highly recommend you try 4X for multi-muscle-fiber growth success—with no joint stress.
And if you can’t let go of mega-heavy training, at least use 4X every few workouts to heal and allow growth. Remember, stimulate rather than annihilate…
> The 4X Mass Workout 2.0 is available HERE.
Or for our other favorite density method, check out STX growth-threshold tactic based on an eye-opening Brazilian study. It’s all in our latest retooled ebook, that includes many mass-building home-gym workouts…
> Quick-Start Muscle-Building Guide 2.0 is available HERE.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com
Recommended
Get Stronger Without Moving a Muscle (say what?!)
Yeah, it sounds ridiculous, but it’s really not. We’ve always said to get the most out of any muscle group, you have to *think* about the muscle you’re training, and the research proves that…
In fact, group of medical experts out of Ohio University found that you can increase strength by up to 212% without moving a muscle.
And studies out of The Cleveland Clinic, The University of Washington, and New York University all confirm the same thing. As stated by one of our often-quoted colleagues…
“The best way to build a bigger and stronger chest is to think about your pecs during the chest exercise.”
— Brad Schoenfeld
Check it out for yourself:
>>> Discover the ‘Imaginary” Exercises guaranteed to build more strength & muscle