We’ve been discussing interesting new hypertrophy discoveries that can have a significant impact on your muscle growth–perhaps even double your muscle. How? Well, first there’s this from researcher Jerry Brainum, a trusted bodybuilding authority for more than 40 years:
“Some emerging evidence shows that the muscle fibers most affected when training with lighter loads and higher reps are the type-1 muscle fibers. These fibers are often referred to as ‘endurance fibers,’ since they are slower to fatigue compared to the type-2 muscle fibers. In the past, it was thought that most muscular growth resulted from a hypertrophy of type-2 muscle fibers, and while this is still true, it’s now known that type-1 fibers are also capable of showing a significant level of muscular hypertrophy.”
So to get as much muscle size as possible, and potentially double your muscle, you want to build the slow-twitch fibers with high reps (20+). And to build the fast-twitch, the ones with the highest growth potential, you want to do lower reps (6-10). Research shows that you may want to combine them all in one sequence. It was recently completed in Brazil and published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology….
Researchers had one group do a preliminary set of leg extensions to failure with 20 percent of their one-rep-max before moving to heavier sets. The other group did only standard sets with 75 percent of their 1RM. Rests between sets for both groups were 30 seconds to one minute.
The results? More muscle size and strength occurred in the group that included a preliminary high-rep set because “muscle failure (principally of [slow-twitch] type-1 fibers) and metabolic accumulation induced by prior exhaustive exercise [promoted] a greater global recruitment of type-2 [high-growth] fibers during traditional training sets and, thus, further stimulate muscle performance and adaptations.” [Ergo-log.com]
Downward-Progression 3X
In other words, the high-rep set fatigues slow-twitch fibers to allow more fast-twitch growth fibers to fire on the heavier sets, resulting in a better hypertrophic muscular response.
We incorporated the high-rep-set-first protocol from that study into our Max-Muscle X-pansion System in the new e-book, MMX Fast Mega-Mass Workouts. And one of the most efficient methods to accomplish that is Downward-Progression 3X…
Set 1: Pick a weight with which you can get 20+ reps and go to failure (20 to 30 repetitions).
Rest 35 seconds, then do…
Set 2: Add weight so you hit failure at around 9 reps.
Rest 1 minute, then do…
Set 3: Add more weight so you hit failure at around 6 reps.
Notice that you rest longer between sets 2 and 3, which is a change from our original method. That’s because you are training primarily fast-twitch on those last two sets, and new research shows that longer rests of one minute or help trigger better hypertrophy when training those more power-oriented fibers.
There are more slow-to-fast methods to potentially double your muscle mass in the MMX e-book, and we’ll cover more in future e-zines, like X-centric-First Supersets and 8-10-8. Till then, try the PS 3X method with hi-lo to trigger new eye-popping growth.
> MMX Fast Mega-Mass Workouts is available HERE.
Till next time, train hard–and smart–for BIG results.
X-Rep.com