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How Warmup Sets Build Muscle, Plus Pyramid Power

Q: A friend of mine e-mailed me about your 3D Power Pyramid Program. He said he’s making great gains with it in both muscle size and strength. He explained it, but I wanted to come to the source to see if you think it’s right for me. I’ve been training for about 3 years, and I weigh about 160 pounds. My genetics are closer to Steve’s [smaller ectomorph] than Jonathan’s [more of a mesomorph]. Should I go for it?

A: That is an excellent program and one of our most popular because it’s balanced for both size and strength. It’s a simple two-way split that has you train four days a week—with Wednesdays and weekends off. Plus, you cover all of the 3D Positions of Flexion for each target muscle…

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Major Muscle Expansion

Q: Your e-zines on fascia stretching are very interesting. I’ve been using your suggestion of supersetting a contracted exercise with a stretch exercise. It feels awesome, and I’m already seeing more muscle expansion, like on my inner chest. My question is, Why should I do actual full reps on the stretch move? Why not just hold in the stretch position so it’s a constant stretch on the pumped muscle?

A: We get excited and proud when bodybuilders take an idea and run with it. Congratulations. That’s an excellent variation that could make the fascia-expansion supersets even more effective—a Static X on the stretch exercise.

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Midback Muscle Building

Q: I’ve been reading about 3D Positions of Flexion, and it makes total sense. Most of the three-way hits for each muscle are straightforward, but I’m confused about midback. Is a row classified as the big midrange exercise? With a barbell row, the arms squeeze the shoulder blades at the top, which is the contracted position. Is a barbell row both a midrange and contracted exercise?

A: You need to look at the lats and midback together to understand the three positions of flexion for each. For lats, you use pulldowns or chins as the big midrange exercise. Then you follow with pullovers for stretch and stiff-arm pulldowns for contracted.

For midback muscle building, there’s no need for a midrange exercise—you get that on the pulldowns or chins for lats. Those exercises pull the arms down and back, which affects the lats as well as the midback…

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Aftershock Training to Jolt Muscle Gaining

Q: I was reading some past articles where you guys had mentioned something called Aftershock training. What is that, and should I try it?

A: Aftershock training is supersetting two exercises, but with a distinct reason—more fast-twitch fiber recruitment for new muscle growth quickly (it can rejuvenate standard straight-set 3D POF training, as you’ll see).

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Best Moves for Big Arms

Q: I love [3D Positions of Flexion training]. It makes sense and has helped me bring up my chest and delts with fewer sets. My question is about biceps. For the contracted-position exercise, which is best: one-arm spider curls or concentration curls? Or are they about the same?

A: In the X-traordinary Arms e-book we explain the in-for-out/out-for-in principle. For biceps that means that to focus on the outer head for peak, you use an inner-grip exercise. Concentration curls are about as “in” as you can get… [Read more…]

Single Day of Rest: Enough for Recovery?

Q: As a practitioner of 3D Positions-of-Flexion methodology who has seen tremendous results, I want to personally thank you for everything you both contribute to the bodybuilding community. Additionally, I had a question regarding the original 10-Week Size Surge routine that worked so well for Jonathan [who gained 20 pounds of muscle on it]. I’ve seen great results with that program, but no matter how short my rest periods are, the first POF workout (legs, chest, and triceps in Phase 2) always lasts well over an hour. Would the effects of the workout be diminished if I were to split it as follows: Day 1, Legs; Day 2, Chest, Triceps; Day 3, Back, Delts, Biceps, Abs; Day 4, Rest; Day 5, Repeat? Would the single day of rest be enough to allow my body to recover?

A: If you’re young and an above-average gainer (high recovery ability), you may be able to get good gains from that three-on/one-off split—but you must ratchet down your intensity every four to six weeks (as explained in the Phase Training section in the 3D Muscle Building e-book). It’s a lot to bite off and stick with having only a single day of rest, however. Here’s a better solution: [Read more…]

Bench Press Stress

Q: A guy at my gym told me that dumbbell bench presses are better than barbell benches for chest development. He said it’s because of the increased range of motion you can get with the dumbbells and the pec squeeze you can do at the top. What do you think? Should I switch?

A: Well, as we explain in The Ultimate Mass Workout e-book, neither of those is best for chest development; decline presses are a much better choice because that angle puts you in a more ergonomically correct position for hitting pecs and minimizing front-delt involvement (it’s why people lift their butts off the bench when doing them flat—to get into the more advantageous decline position). [Read more…]

Fat-to-Muscle Facts and Photos

Q: I saw before and after photos of Steve’s wife, Becky, on your site. Amazing transformation! My girlfriend would like to know what type of program she used. Did she use X Reps, or should women not use that type of intense training?

A: Becky’s transformation took a few months (she kept having to restart due to motivation issues—so much fat to lose was overwhelming to her—and she didn’t use X Reps because we hadn’t developed that technique yet; however, she did use static holds, which we call a Static X. At the end of a set to exhaustion, she would drive the weight up as far as she could and hold for a five count or so to extend the tension time. That had a similar muscle fiber-activation boost as well as occlusion effects. She added muscle and lost fat quickly, as you can see from her before and after photos… [Read more…]