Q: Old Man Young Muscle has been incredibly helpful in building more size at age 56. Thank you. I am having some trouble with a few muscles, like my triceps. Should I add more sets? You mention volume increases as a hypertrophy booster in Chapter 8 with a chest example. Should I follow that volume-increase recipe for triceps too?
A: For the uninitiated, the volume-boosted chest example in OMYM was resting 10 seconds after the last set of each exercise and continuing to rep out…
So you do an additional set of the ideal, dumbbell decline presses, and an extra set of close-grip bench pushups, the add-on.
Resting only 10 seconds instead of 20 or 30 keeps fatigue high so you get fewer reps but emphasize firing the fast-twitch growth fibers.…
And those two additional sets don’t add much time to your overall workout due to the short rests…
There is another way, however, and it may be even better…
Add the missing position so you that you train all the Positions of Flexion for the lagging muscle at each workout. Before we get to that, here is how I described the Base triceps workout in OMYM…
I make dumbbell decline extensions my primary move for triceps. I often add either high-incline overhead dumbbell extensions for full stretch OR kickbacks as a contracted-position exercise.
To spur a lagging muscle into new growth, change the OR to AND—do both. Start with decline extensions using the STX method, then follow with one or two sets each of overhead extensions (stretch) and kickbacks (contracted)…
Full POF provides a more thorough hypertrophic stimulus due to variation in fiber recruitment and unique loading at different torque points. Overhead extensions have max torque at full stretch while kickbacks have it at full contraction…
You’ll see the three positions and corresponding exercises on pages 42-43, The Positions-of-Flexion Exercise Matrix.
Remember, the exercises pictured above are for a bare-bones home gym. The POF exercise list has some commercial-gym alternatives, such as triceps pushdowns instead of kickbacks. Cables can be more efficient at building mass than free weights in some cases…
There will be more on that in the upcoming Old Man Young Muscle 2, which should be available in a few weeks.
Your Efficient Mass-Building Handbook: For complete mass workouts that include Speed Sets, the ideal exercise for each muscle, and the best stretch and contracted add-on moves, get your copy of 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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