It’s obvious that extending sets with forced and negative reps crushes the nervous system and can derail muscle gains—if you’re not on drugs…
So doesn’t that mean that end-of-set X-Rep partials have the same negative effects? After all, you’re extending the set with those as well…
As explained in Old Man, Young Muscle 2, you use X-Reps on only one set of an add-on contracted-position exercise, like leg extensions or triceps pushdowns…
When you can no longer get to the contracted position, as pictured above, you continue with three to four more partial reps in the top third of the stroke.
That top stretch position is the muscle’s strongest—where it has the best leverage for fiber activation…
So by doing end-of-set X-Rep partials, you can involve more fibers and squeeze more hypertrophy from that set.
Remember, one of the ideal-exercise factors is stretch loaded and contracted unloaded…
Note that contracted-position exercises have a backward resistance curve—harder at contraction and easier at stretch…
And that’s why you do a contracted-position add-on exercise after the ideal—to load that weaker contracted position…
You get variation in fiber recruitment as well as more density to the girth of the muscle, according the latest research—and X-Reps add to that…
In other words, why stop the set when you’ve exhausted the weak position? Why not continue in the area where the muscle is still able to fire?
Again, you only use X-Reps on ONE set per muscle, three short partial movements at the end. That takes maybe four seconds for extra growth stimulation…
It’s not even close to grueling full-range partner-assisted forced reps followed by damaging pure negatives. That’s extended-set overkill.
Incidentally, X-Reps are not necessary, and usually impossible, on the ideal exercises because of the near-perfect resistance curve…
For example, at the end of an ideal-exercise set, like lying extensions for triceps, you’ll have zero juice left in the stretch position. That’s a big reason it’s ideal…
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