Dedicated to Your Physical Transformation
I like puzzles—but most people would give up on one that lasts 50 years and is constantly changing…
Building muscle is a moving target because the body adapts, is subjected to various life stresses, plus it’s always aging. Those factors make finding the perfect long-term mass-building routine difficult, if not impossible. [Read more…]
Q: Reading Old Man Young, Muscle and how an initial high-rep set tires the slow-twitch fibers makes sense. But wouldn’t using a continuous-tension exercise be best for that first set? The blood-blocking [or occlusion] on those exercises you talk about in OMYM should tire and shut down the slow-twitch sooner, right?
A: That’s an interesting idea and one I addressed a few newsletters ago: “Occlusion and the Mass-Exercise Shuffle.” It’s great that you’re thinking about making our workouts more efficient rather than just blindly following… [Read more…]
Q: I’m astounded by Jonathan’s Size Surge transformation in only 10 weeks. His arms got huge, and he said his gains really took off during the second phase when he started using Positions of Flexion. I was thinking that I should do POF for arms in phase 1 too. Like for biceps, he has two sets of barbell curls and two sets of concentration curls. Wouldn’t I make better gains if I did two sets of barbell curls followed by one set of incline curls [for stretch] then one set of concentration curls? That’s the same number of sets, but now it’s full-range POF. I could do the same for triceps too.
A: That sounds like a good plan—at least until you realize one reason phase 2 in the Size Surge program works so well is because the muscles get a progressive-shock size effect when you shift to full-range training for the last four weeks. In other words, you force more growth adaptation to happen when you add stretch-position exercises like incline curls for biceps and overhead extensions for triceps at week 7… [Read more…]
Q: Alternating arm routines at every workout is working great for me! My guns are looking large and in charge! I’m using [the arm-specialization routines] in the 3D HIT program [as outlined in the X-traordinary Arms e-book], and I notice that on many non-arm exercises you have an alternate listed as well. Like on delts for the stretch-position exercise, you have one-arm cable laterals or incline one-arm laterals. Since alternating arm exercises is working so well, can I alternate all the exercises that have substitutes listed?
A: That was a perfect question to go with the first one—and based on our discussion of adaptation, absolutely. Shake things up! In fact, we do that often for many muscle groups. Doing something a little different can be a killer get-bigger trigger! One of our favorites is what you list—alternating one-arm cable laterals with incline one-arm laterals at every other delt workout. It’s a great way to get some variety into your routine and hit the muscle with a slightly different stimulus—cable vs. dumbbell—in the stretch position. [Read more…]
Q: I just want the best workout program for building muscle. Please simplify all the rhetoric and just tell me which one is the absolute best.
A: That’s easy. There is no best routine. It’s the nature of how the human body adapts. We always say it takes
That’s the reason our own programs are constantly evolving—a new exercise, a new X-hybrid tactic, a drop set, etc. And after 10 weeks or so, we often move to a new program from one of our e-books (Jonathan recently went all the way back to our first X-Rep transformation program, with a few new alterations).
[Read more…]Q: I’ve made the best gains of my life the past year with X Reps, going from 185 to just under 200 pounds. But my gains have stalled. You talk a lot about muscle adaptation, so I’m wondering if I’ve adapted to X Reps. Should I stop doing them for a while so I can pack on more muscle?
A: Adaptation to training techniques and even bodypart routines can happen in as few as six workouts. If you train a muscle twice a week, that means you can adapt in three to four weeks. We’ve talked about phase training, which is downshifting intensity for one week with sub-failure workouts after four to six weeks of all-out workouts. But sometimes even that’s not enough to kick-start new gains once you resume a high-intensity phase. Usually, you have to mix things up somehow…
Q: I get confused. Should I try to change exercises at every workout to keep my muscle adapting and growing?
A: The problem is that your body really needs to adapt to a movement pattern over the course of a few workouts before you change exercises—at least that’s the theory… [Read more…]
Q: You recently referenced Mike Mentzer, and I’m wondering if you guys have ever trained with his HIT style. One-set-to-failure training seems to work for some people, and I know Mentzer’s training evolved into that after he stopped competing. Have you tried it or something similar?
A: One of Steve’s early influences was Mike Mentzer. He trained with Mike’s Heavy Duty style in his 20s, and even won his first bodybuilding contest using a Positions-of-Flexion version of Heavy Duty that he devised (more on that below)… [Read more…]
It’s becoming clear that muscle elongation is very important for accelerating hypertrophy to a new level.
In other words, loaded stretching can provide another layer of freaky size quickly.
An older study that we often reference showing that was performed by Jose Antonio, Ph.D., et al.—and it produced incredible muscle size increases. Here’s what he said about it: [Read more…]
We’re not going to beat around the bush. The dumbest thing you can do if you want extreme mass is to believe there’s only one way to build muscle. You know, a stubborn narrow mind that is set on “this way is the only way.” For example…
Do you train each muscle group with a number of sets once a week? It’s a popular trend in bodybuilding—chest on Monday, legs on Tuesday, arms on Wednesday and so on. That can work—for a while. Then you adapt… [Read more…]
