Q: In Old Man, Young Muscle you say that you sometimes skip a workout when you feel drained or sore. How often does that happen? Is it something I should build into my month-long workout schedule?
A: That’s a great question, one that’s very important because of the obsessive-compulsive bodybuilding mindset. After 45 years of training, I still struggle with it…
When my gains level off or even start to regress, I’m inclined to push harder longer, when I should be backing off…
But to be honest, I rarely skip workouts now. It messes with my head in that I think I’ll lose muscle. A better tactic is to use an abbreviated back-off workout…
Recently I was feeling sore when my Saturday session rolled around. I didn’t want to skip because, you know, I’d shrink (no I wouldn’t, it’s just in my head)…
Instead, I decided to do an ideal exercise for each target muscle, hitting it with one sub-failure drop set. For example…
On cable chest presses, I used my normal 20-rep failure weight, but I did only 15 reps. I immediately reduced the weight slightly and did 7 reps. Chest done, next…
Those two quick sub-failure sets get blood flowing—a satisfying pump—and enough slow-twitch and fast-twitch engagement to enhance recovery and growth if you’re overtrained.
If you’re using the Old Man, Young Muscle workouts on pages 60 and 61, simply use the first exercise for each muscle and use the drop-set sequence outlined above. Skip the add-on move. So for chest you delete the close-grip bench pushups.
You asked if you should build recovery workouts into your monthly schedule. I have a lot of experience, so I don’t; I go by how I’m feeling, however…
If you’re a beginner or early intermediate, I suggest you do a recovery workout for lower body and upper body at the end of each month, then start the next month with the full OMYM workouts.
Hypertrophy researcher Chris Beardsley says drop sets “allow a larger number of [growth] stimulating reps to be performed very quickly, making them a very efficient use of workout time.”
Sub-failure drop-set recovery workouts help coax faster mass gains when you’re overtrained.
New: Get the ideal exercise for each muscle, the best add-on moves for ultimate mass, complete 35-minute workouts, exercise start/finish photos, and details on building muscle fast and efficiently in Old Man, Young Muscle.
And you still get The Muscle-On, Belly-Gone “Diet” ebook FREE for a limited time when you add Old Man, Young Muscle to your mass-building library. Go HERE.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
Steve Holman
Former Editor in Chief, Iron Man Magazine
www.X-Rep.com
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