beyond x-rep Archives

Pack On More Muscle: Are You Making This Mistake?

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…

[Read more…]

Last-Set Roulette for new Freak on Your Physique

Many bodybuilders embrace our change-to-gain hypertrophy concept. They just aren’t exactly sure how to apply it.

Do they change exercises, change intensity methods, or what?

Well, there’s a way to jack some major growth at every workout, and it’s simple to apply on only one set. We call it Last-Set Roulette. [Read more…]

3 wicked mass tactics for new size (pain to gain)

Q: I like the idea of training quads by doing front squats supersetted with back squats. My quads get almost a pre-ex effect from the strict fronts, then my glutes get better leverage on the backs to drive my quads for more growth. But I’m not very strong on fronts and can get a lot of reps when I immediately go to back squats after. Should I just do high reps on the back squats—say 6 on the fronts and 12-15 on the backs? [Read more…]

Contract + elongate to pack on muscle weight

In most of our mass-training e-books we say that the semi-elongated, or stretch, position on an exercise’s stroke is most important to pack on muscle weight. Why?

Here’s a quote we used in The Ultimate Mass Workout from strength and hypertrophy researchers Steven J. Fleck, Ph.D., and William J. Kraemer, Ph.D. (Don’t fall asleep as you read it; we will translate—lol)… [Read more…]

Stretch Overload: Your Mass Gains Will Explode

Q: You’ve mentioned an animal study that produced a 300 percent muscle mass increase after only a month of stretch workouts. That’s truly incredible. Is there more info? How do I duplicate those stretch procedures in my workouts to get that kind of muscle growth?

A: We refer to that animal study by Antonio and Gonyea in many of our X-Rep e-books, but the most extensive analysis was in X-Rep Update #1. Here’s a quote from Jose Antonio, Ph.D., from that e-book: [Read more…]

X-hybrid Techniques: DXO vs. 1 1/4s

Q: I have your e-book with all the X-hybrid techniques [Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building]. I’m having some excellent workouts integrating one or two every time I train. My question is about Double-X Overload. As you describe it, I do a quarter rep down near the stretch position between each full rep, but I’ve also read you guys say you’ve used 1 1/4s. What’s the difference? Isn’t DXO the same as 1 1/4s?

A: The simple answer is that Double-X Overload (DXO) stresses the STRETCH or semi-stretch point—when the muscle is elongated. For example, at the BOTTOM of a press or flye. [Read more…]

Before and Afters: Steroid-Using Bastards?

Q: I’ve been a dedicated lifter and eating healthy for over 20 years, and if Jonathan Lawson achieved the huge ripped size he had in those photos at the X-Rep.com Web site drug-free, I’ll eat my shorts. 🙂 Steve Holman maybe would be believable as drug-free, but I’m skeptical there too.

A: We’re not sure which photos you’re referring to, but on the left below are our afters from our first X-Rep year (program we used is in The Ultimate Mass Workout) and on the right is the following year using many X-hybrid techniques (our program and methods are in Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building). We get the steroid accusation a lot—Jonathan especially because of his better bodybuilding genetics—but we’re both drug-free in all of our photos. Get out those shorts and start chewing… [Read more…]

One Key Change for Fast Size Gains

Q: I’ve been using the X Fade and Double-X Overload techniques from the Beyond X e-book, and I’ve gained six pounds in one month. My previous workouts were always heavy training, so I’m wondering if maybe I added so much muscle with those methods because they’re giving me some density I’ve been missing. They both make my sets last longer. Could that be it?

A: That’s a distinct possibility, although there’s more to it, as you’ll see. But as you suggest, most wanna-be-big bodybuilders rely almost predominantly on heavier, lower-rep training, and their sets last only 20 seconds or less (time your sets; you will be surprised!). That’s a mistake if you want maximum mass and fast size gains…

A set of 20 seconds or less is power emphasis—but you need BOTH power and density to get TOTAL growth in the majority of the muscle fibers. With those two X-hybrid tactics, X Fade and DXO, you definitely have been X-tending your sets—more so with DXO, which we really like on stretch-position exercises like flyes…

DXO: This is simply adding an X-Rep partial near the stretch position between EVERY full rep—so each of your reps is really a 1 1/4 rep. The “hitch” at the bottom between each full rep emphasizes stretch overload, which has been shown to induce everything from hyperplasia, or fiber splitting, to anabolic hormone release in muscle tissue. Plus, as you noticed, it puts more of a mass-building density spin on the set as well…

If you do 9 reps in DXO style, your set will last more than 30 seconds. Now you’re getting into density territory for adding size to that side of the key type 2A mass fibers. That’s a great get-bigger trigger, especially if you’ve been using mostly power sets. Your six-pound muscle gain in one month is no doubt due to a combination of density and heightened fiber activation. You get both of those with DXO—and the X-Fade technique…

X Fade: With this X-hybrid tactic you do a standard set of, say, cable flyes, a contracted-position exercise in the Positions-of-Flexion mass-building protocol. When you hit full-range exhaustion, where most bodybuilders end the set, you get the cable handles back up to the contracted position—a partner can help—and do three to five short partials there, flexing the target muscle…

Then you lower to the stretch position and do standard X-Rep partials there. If you can’t manage any movement at either position, just hold for a static pec contraction for a few seconds at each spot—top flexed and bottom stretched. Key growth fibers will still be firing and you should wake up some dormant ones as well for new size stimulation—you’ll feel it…

Doing end-of-set X-Rep partials at BOTH the top and bottom of the stroke with the X Fade will add maybe six to eight seconds to your tension time. Nevertheless, both DXO and the X-Fade tactic are excellent ways to get more density training, activate more growth fibers to fire and give you excellent change to fuel fast size gains.

Note: For more info on all the X-hybrid Training Tactics, check out the Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building e-book below:

Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.

—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com

ATTENTION OVER-40 BODYBUILDERS

One of the most interesting read-me pages on Testosterone and other muscle-building hormones we’ve seen is The Truth About Testosterone.

It even talks about a fruit, a specific part, that can up your T naturally. Cranking up your testosterone will not only get you jacked in the gym, but in the bedroom too—not to mention help rip up your midsection as it ignites fat burning. If that interests you, there’s more from our colleague and registered dietician, HERE.

X-Reps for X-tra Muscle—Pounds of it

Q: I’m thin and consider myself a hardgainer. I’ve been training with weights for two years and have managed to add only about 10 pounds of muscle. Not very impressive. I recently got your X-traordinary X-Rep Workout [e-book] and started using the X Reps in my workouts. They feel great, and I wanted to report that after using them for only a few weeks, I’ve added five pounds and look much bigger. I’m so thankful I found this technique! Are there any others I should be using? I feel like I’m finally getting the size gains I’ve been looking for.

A: Great progress! As we often say, hardgainers tend to have more of an endurance component to their muscles. You know how calves and forearms tend to respond better to longer tension times? That’s how most of the muscles on a hardgainer’s body are constructed, so they need longer tension times to grow… [Read more…]

Cut Back to Grow Muscle

Q: Before the start of my spring/summer job a month ago, my muscle development was progressing nicely. I was using your Positions of Flexion and X-Rep techniques on my three-days-a-week split: chest/bi’s, legs, and back/tri’s. My strength-and-size gains were steadily increasing. Then I started my summer job, and I was a lot sorer after my workouts, I take longer to recover, and I’m losing the size I had in my arms. The job is 40 hours a week of outdoor physical labor. I thought that by eating frequently with adequate protein and eight hours of sleep each night, I’d be fine, but that’s not working. Do you have any suggestions to help get me back on the muscle-building track, especially in the arm department?

A: A demanding physical-labor job can make it more difficult to grow, but not impossible. Even a high-pressure office job presents a similar problem: too much stress. It’s similar to being a hardgainer with low recovery ability and high cortisol output: You have to find the right balance and workload so you don’t overtrain, which means you sometimes have to cut back to grow.

As for your situation, we notice that while it appears you’re training each bodypart once a week on your split, that’s not really the case with arms…

When you do chest and biceps, you’re also training triceps during chest work—bench presses, etc. Then at the end of the week when you train back and triceps, you are also training biceps during back work (chins, pulldowns, etc.).

So you’re actually training arms hard and heavy twice a week, in addition to whatever you do at work, which may be why they are shrinking. Your arms are being hammered continuously with no time to recover.

First try altering your split as a way to cut back to grow: Day 1: back, biceps; Day 2: legs; Day 3: chest, triceps. If you don’t see results after a few weeks, cut back on your arm work. You may not need a full POF program for biceps and triceps, only the big midrange move plus one isolation exercise. So your anchor exercise for biceps would be barbell curls…

Do that for two sets, then follow up with one or two sets of the stretch-position exercise, incline curls…

The following week do two sets of the big midrange exercise again, but follow with one or two sets of a contracted-position exercise for biceps, like concentration curls…

That’s Split-Positions training—you still hit all three Positions of Flexion but over two workouts instead of all at one session. Here’s how your arm programs would look:

Biceps 1
Midrange: Barbell curls 2 x 9
Stretch: Incline curls 1 x 12

Biceps 2
Midrange: Barbell curls 2 x 9
Contracted: Concentration curls 1 x 12

Triceps 1
Midrange: Decline extensions 2 x 9
Stretch: Overhead extensions 1 x 12

Triceps 2
Midrange: Decline extensions 2 x 9
Contracted: Kickbacks or pushdowns 1 x 12

Feel free to substitute exercises and/or manipulate the set totals. For example, you may be able to handle two sets on the second exercises or maybe a drop set. You’ll have to experiment and monitor your recovery and hypertrophic adaptations to get the right mix of how much to cut back to grow (without cutting back too far), but the above is a good place to start to get your growth into gear.

Note: There’s more on Split-Positions training in Chapter 10 of the Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building e-book, including a complete Split-Positions mass workout program.

Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.

—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com