Dedicated to Your Physical Transformation
Q: I want to get strong over the winter. I heard that that’s what Arnold used to do. I know that if I get strong, I will eventually get bigger, which was how the Oak did it. What’s the best workout for that?
A: First let’s get some insight into Arnold’s winter training routine. Former IRON MAN Publisher John Balik was there, often training with Arnold, and this is what he had to say about it: [Read more…]
Q: You’ve mentioned supersetting a large muscle group and a small one within a 4X sequence. Like back and triceps or chest and biceps. But didn’t Arnold and some of the other Golden Era bodybuilders superset chest and back for old-school mass?
A: Yes, but they did not take short rests between sets. In fact, going from bench presses to rows takes a lot out of you and a rest of at least 1 1/2 minutes is required just to get your breath… [Read more…]
Q: You’ve sent emails about specializing for lagging muscle groups. What is your favorite way to bring up the slacking bodyparts?
A: One of our favorite methods is one we borrowed from Arnold—with our own density twist…
We call it Staggered Density because we fuse Arnold’s staggered-sets method with 4X density. What does that mean? [Read more…]
Q: A lot of bodybuilders go all power in the off-season. They push for more strength so size will follow. I’m thinking about using the Phase 1 program in Size Surge for that purpose—mostly big exercises with heavy weights training three days a week so I get plenty of recover-and-grow time. Would that program be okay to use for the entire 10 weeks instead of moving to Phase 2?
A: You’re right, even Arnold used to do a two-to-three-month power phase in the winter—but it wasn’t heavy low reps on every exercise, as we’ll explain. That’s the problem with the way most trainees do it: They go heavy on ALL exercises all the time for too long and neglect critical sarcoplasmic size, which can be a big muscle-building mistake… [Read more…]
Q: I love Positions of Flexion. I’ve gained about 10 pounds since I started using it, but one problem I have is biceps. I just don’t feel the last exercise for contraction, concentration curls. I’ve tried them Arnold style, with my arm hanging free, and I’ve also tried them seated with my arm against my inner thigh. Is there another exercise I can use?
A: We usually suggest spider curls, which are basically preacher curls on the vertical side of the bench… [Read more…]
Q: You guys don’t seem to like training each muscle only once a week like a lot of pro bodybuilders. How come?
A: More muscle-training frequency is a BIG size stimulator, especially for drug-free trainees—if you do it correctly. Many pros can get away with training each bodypart with excessive volume only once a week because of genetic superiority and, of course, excessive drug use. In fact, if you look back at the best bodybuilders of yesteryear, when steroid use was minimal, training each bodypart THREE times a week was the norm prior to a contest. It’s a bit of a forgotten muscle-size trick… [Read more…]
Q: The incline one-arm lateral raise is very awkward for me. Is there another exercise I can use for the stretch in my [Positions-of-Flexion] delt routine?
A: That exercise was an Arnold favorite in his prime because it provides some stretch overload to the medial- and posterior-delt heads. Arnold knew instinctively that stretch overload triggered significant mass gains (this was decades before the animal study that produced a 300 percent mass increase with one month of stretch overload—Arnold just had a knack for knowing what packed on muscle). [Read more…]
Q: I heard someone at my gym say that Arnold used X Reps. Is that true? I thought you guys came up with the concept a few years ago, so how could Arnold have used it?
A: Arnold used X Reps and many of the concepts we discuss in our X-Rep e-books. We know that because we worked alongside John Balik, former publisher of IRON MAN and Arnold’s former training partner and nutritionist. We talked to John a lot about Arnold’s past training. [Read more…]
Q: Your Power-Density explanations and methods in the Power-Density e-book make total sense—and if Arnold used it, I’m in. [Positions of Flexion] also makes total sense, something I know Arnold used for his biceps, among other bodyparts. My question is, Can I use only the ending contracted-position exercise for each bodypart to get my Density quota? Like for POF lats can I train chins heavy, pullovers heavy, and then use stiff-arm pulldowns with 5×10 in 10×10 style for Density?
A: A lot of bodybuilders have tried something similar; however, after analyzing Arnold’s workouts, we think they are missing a key mass-building component by not using Density on a compound move as well… [Read more…]
Q: I’m using The Ultimate Fat-to-Muscle Workout and making great progress. I’m bigger, with veins, and my abs are coming in. I just picked up The Ultimate 10×10 Mass Workout for something different, so I want to go to that program next. My question concerns muscle damage. Getting trauma from slow negative-accentuated sets is what makes the Fat-to-Muscle Workout work so well, so when I switch to the 10×10 Workout, won’t I be getting less muscle damage and therefore less fat burning? I still need to get leaner, so should I add NA sets somewhere when I go to the 10×10 Workout?
A: You could add an NA set for each bodypart. We discuss how and where to do that in the 10×10 Q&A section; however, it’s not necessary for trainees who are doing 10×10 at every workout. Believe us, you’ll realize that fact after you try the 10-sets-of-10 method. The muscle soreness you get will tell you that your microtrauma goal has been met.
For example, we had been training hard for many months using an NA set for every bodypart, and soreness was a common occurrence because of those negative-accentuated sets—1.5 seconds up and six seconds down on every rep. Yet when we first tried 10×10 on decline extensions, our triceps were sore for four days—yes, four whole days, and that’s after doing only one exercise. Amazing.
Here’s something else to consider: Back in Arnold’s competitive years he did little, if any, cardio work, yet when he shifted into contest prep, he got ripped quickly. No, he didn’t do negative-accentuated sets, but he did get significant muscle-fiber damage due to the sheer volume of his in-season workouts. He would build up to 20 sets per bodypart, with fairly short rests, and you can bet that the extraordinary number of normal-speed negatives after each positive rep triggered a lot of microtrauma for a fat-to-muscle effect.
Remember, you’re getting a high number of standard-speed negatives every time you use 10×10—100 total negatives, to be exact, along with 100 positives. You may be thinking that because you use the same weight on all sets, the first few sets feel light and don’t do much. Not true; you’re still doing work and resisting on the negative stroke. Then as the sets get harder, you’ll have to fight to resist the weight on the negative stroke. The last few sets will be brutal. All of that compounds the fat-to-muscle microtrauma…
The brief rests also amplify the effect. Taking 30 seconds between sets ignites a fierce burn and pump. The result is an intensified growth hormone surge. Remember, GH is a potent fat burner that works in tandem with muscle damage for a heightened fat-to-muscle effect…
In fact, as we recently stated, Olympic strength coach Charles Poliquin says,
Pioneering research by a Romanian exercise scientist [showed] that the lactic acid pathway is better for fat loss than the commonly accepted aerobic pathway. He found that high blood lactic levels decrease blood pH levels, which in turn sends a message to the brain to accelerate its production of growth hormone. Higher growth hormone levels increase fat loss.
Recent Canadian research substantiated the lactic acid (muscle burn)-GH link. As you’ll find out, you trigger loads of lactic acid with 10×10…
We’ve found that 10×10 is a lot like HIIT (interval training)—intense work alternated with short rests. As all the recent research shows, that’s the best way to burn significant amounts of bodyfat. With 10×10, you integrate progressive weight training into the interval mix—and you get a big-time muscle builder on top of an incredible fat burner.
Down the road, when you need something new, you can experiment by adding NA sets. For now, you can be sure that 10×10 will keep the fat-to-muscle effects rolling.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com
