I’ve touched on the top-six change-to-gain methods below over the past few newsletters…
1) Exercise switch
2) Altered rep speed
3) Stretch overload
4) More or less rest between sets
5) Exercise shuffle
6) Rep-range change
There is a seventh, which is to change your workout split—but that’s usually not feasible for most. Whether it’s personal preference or time constraints, we all have our way—full-body (my wife’s choice—get it all over with), two-way split (my preference outlined in Old Man, Young Muscle), three-way split.
Why are all of the above methods so important? Because once your strength gains tail off and you can’t add volume, something in your workouts must change to promote new gains.
Incidentally, most top-name bodybuilders were their strongest at young ages. And that’s when they built most of their size—after only a few years of training. The genetically gifted tend to get big and strong quickly. For example…
Here’s Mike Mentzer at 19 vs. 29…
He squatted over 500 pounds in his teens. Notice that he was only slightly bigger a decade later in his prime, but a lot more refined…
And I can guarantee that 10 years later he wasn’t much stronger; however, he did change things in his training often to create some new size, muscle density, and detail….
It’s the same for Arnold. Here he is at 19 vs. age 30 (John Balik photo)…
How about Frank Zane, age 20 vs. age 30…
The point is, even the best bodybuilders peak out strength-wise, which is also when they have most of their size. After that, it’s all about strategic changes, such as switching exercises, different rep speeds, etc. Variation for new mass creation…
If something doesn’t change in your workouts, it’s what my friend Bill describes as “stale to fail.”
The change-to-gain tactics will help you avoid that and continue to add more size, no matter what your genetics. A good example is me…
As you know, I’m not genetically gifted like the above bodybuilders, so it took me a lot longer to get even a little stronger. In fact…
I wasn’t my biggest until I was in my late 30s—and even then, I wasn’t all that strong (keep in mind that I was drug-free, unlike Mentzer, Arnold, Zane, and most of the Internet muscle bros these days)…
Here are shots of me after six months of training at age 15, at my biggest age 39 and now, age 62…
Most of my size came from the change-to-gain tactics I’ve outlined, many of which you can find in Old Man, Young Muscle. There’s also a chapter on how to volumize for size, but as I’ve said, you can only increase volume so much—especially if you’re old like me.
If you use the above tactics along with emphasizing the ideal exercises and adding on stretch- and contracted-position exercises while controlling muscle damage, you should grow like never before and avoid stale to fail.
Latest Release: 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 and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com
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