Elite trainer Vince McConnell and I correspond frequently about real-world hypertrophy methods that work. And he’s a proponent of Doug Brignole’s ideal exercises…
Vince has been at it for almost as long as I have, and he’s tried just about everything. These days he uses STX rest-pause frequently, says his clients love it, and he’s even created variations of his own. Here’s his overview:
“I’m still humored by those ‘experts’ who condemn anything but heavy-ass straight-set training. STX rest-pause is an efficient and safer way of applying what the muscles recognize as ‘heavy.’
“They say that high reps up to 30 can produce the same muscle hypertrophy BUT at a cost of acute fatigue accumulation and greater risk of overuse issues due to the higher volume of repetitions. AND it’s only the final 4 to 5 reps of high-rep sets near failure that matter.
“Well, STX rest-pause circumvents all of those ‘issues’ by having you do just one higher-rep set and then quickly following with one or more low-rep sets near failure. Why do I need to rest 2 to 3 minutes and then add weight to get my effective reps?”
Answer: You don’t. Multiple warmup sets are a waste of time, as are long boring rests between sets. See the recent study in Monday’s newsletter (Karimifard, M., et al. MDPI, Feb. 2023.): Rest-pause produced 10 PERCENT MORE MUSCLE than traditional long-rest-between-sets training.
STX gets you 15 or more EFFECTIVE HYPERTROPHY REPS in only 3 to 4 minutes per target muscle. It’s precision mass training to get you new seam-splitting muscle people will notice this summer.
NOTE: For the latest on STX, ideal exercises and add-ons for every muscle as well as complete workouts (3 variations), see Never Stop Growing and the free bonus ebook The Ultimate-Mass Workout Reloaded below.