We often look back through our ebooks for motivation and to find mass-boosting techniques we haven’t used in a while. We recently reminded ourselves about Stage Sets from our second e-book, Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building, which also discusses the X-Fade technique, Double-X Overload and X/Pause. When we first used Stage Sets and other X-hybrid techniques within the program outlined in that e-book, we each gained 10 pounds on top of our previous year’s great gains. Definitely something to add back into the mix once in a while when you have a training partner…
We made such great gains because many of those tactics, including Stage Sets, gave us both a power and density component in one set. That means we were building the key 2A fast-twitch muscle fibers that are most prevalent in the biggest bodybuilders. Here’s how we explain Stage Sets for Smith-machine incline presses in the Beyond X e-book.
You position yourself on the incline bench, grip slightly wider than shoulders. Unhook the safety catches and then lower the bar to about an inch above your upper chest. From there you drive it back up, but only to just slightly higher than the midpoint of the stroke. When you reach that point, lower back to the semi-stretched position, and so on, doing low-range partials till you can’t stand the burn. You’re essentially doing piston-like exaggerated X Reps right off the bat through the max-force point…
When you can’t do another exaggerated X Rep—you should get about 10 of those lowdown partials—get the bar to lockout, with help from your partner. Now you do the top stage of the stroke. First, squeeze your pecs hard, contracting them in the lockout position, then lower through about the top one-third of the movement. Blast back to the top and squeeze your pecs again. Flex at lockout on every one of those top-end reps.
This is a great method to do exaggerated X Reps first, then get top-end squeezes for a longer tension time. In other words, you combine both power and density for more muscle immensity.
NOTE: Several proven mass-building X-Hybrid techniques can be found in the Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building e-book, and a training partner is not required for many of them.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com
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