bodyweight workout Archives

Muscle Mechanics for More Calf Mass

Q: I picked up your 10×10 e-book over the weekend and started using that style of training on calves immediately, but I’m doing 8×20 as you’ve suggested in the e-book. My question is, should I angle my feet differently on each set to develop the most calf mass? I was thinking toes in on the first three, toes out on the second three, and toes straight ahead on my last two sets.

A: It’s not foot angle that stresses the inner or outer heads of the gastroc, but rather which side of the foot you’re exerting the most pressure with. In other words, if you’re pushing with the inner part of the ball of your foot, the big-toe side, you will stress the inner head of the calf muscle. If you roll out onto the little-toe side of your feet as you rise, you will stress the outer head of the calf muscle.

Notice in this photo how the trainee is using a narrower stance and rolling out; that’s not what you want. Go wider than this for more calf mass…

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Training One Side at a Time

Q: How do you feel about one-arm and one-leg work? I’ve read that training one side at a time can help you contract more muscle fibers. Is that true?

A: We’ve seen studies that show unilateral work to be better at neuromuscular stimulation and therefore heightened muscle-fiber activation. Our main problem with one-limb exercises is time and energy expenditure.

Working one arm or one leg at a time takes longer, unless you move back and forth from one limb to the other without resting. Not resting, however, causes more systemic energy drain…

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Make this single change to sky-rocket your gains

Q: I remember reading in some of your previous e-mails that you talked about how some of the bodybuilders of the past added a lot of muscle fast, like 10 to 20 pounds in a month. Is high-rep leg work really that powerful? I’m wondering if I should try it.

A: You’re referring to the 20-rep squat results that some of the early bodybuilders got. For example…

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X-Rep Lies: Before and After Photos

Q: The before and after photos at your X-Rep site are pretty unbelievable. I mean, come on, four weeks to get those changes? You must’ve either lied about the time it took or manipulated the photos. You should be ashamed of yourselves. There’s too much of that deceptive crap on the Internet.

A: Ashamed? Actually, we’re very proud. Those photos are 100 percent authentic and accurate—no photo alterations, no steroids, and they were taken about four weeks apart. (The key technique that made it happen and a step-by-step how-to is coming up.)

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Anabolic Phasing: Muscle Hypertrophy Tsunami

Q: I’ve been following the current bodybuilding training trend of hitting each muscle once a week with lots of sets. Growth has been slow, but you’d think that with so much volume and intensity at one workout, it should take a full week for that muscle to completely recover, right?

Well, training each muscle with lots of volume once a week will produce some growth—if intensity is high enough to produce significant damage. The question is how much is enough?

Less volume for each muscle but with more frequent body part hits has proven a better, more sure-fire method for optimal hypertrophy in most cases and works as a sort of anabolic phasing… [Read more…]

Full Inch of New Arm Muscle in 3 Weeks

Q: You guys are awesome! Anabolic Reload put a half-inch on my arms in less than a month. My arms have always lagged, so I’m blown away. I hit each muscle twice a week with about 12 sets. I didn’t want to reduce my sets on all, so I just did [STX] for arms. I started with the high-rep set followed by a heavy set, then I added a rest/pause every arm workout like the program says. My sleeves got tight almost immediately. Just want to thank you for getting my puny arms up bigger than they’ve ever been. I plan on trying this for each muscle through the winter. [Read more…]

Freak-Factor Training (new muscle mass guaranteed)

Q: I used the 10-Week Size Surge program years ago and gained almost 10 pounds of muscle on it. I’m now getting close to 40, so I wanted to report how I’ve been using it to add a lot of middle-age muscle. I’ve merged Anabolic Reload and the Phase 1 Size Surge routine like this: On Mondays I use high-to-low-rep Reload [STX] on lower body and standard heavy Size Surge work on upper body. Then Friday I reverse that. Wednesday is arms and abs only, so I just alternate, doing Reload one week and heavy Size Surge sets the next. It’s been two months, and I look better than I did in my 20s.

Devising new mass routines that work for you as an individual is part of the fun of bodybuilding. Of course, packing on loads of new mass and looking awesome from your new freak-factor training is even better. [Read more…]

Your Anabolic Size Surge Winter Workout

Q: I’m thinking about the 10-Week Size Surge for part of my winter workout mass training while I’m piling in the calories (can’t wait for Thanksgiving). I know Phase 1 is big, basic work three days a week. But I also like the total-fiber swole of Anabolic Reload. Can I merge them somehow to really jack my gains?

You didn’t mention your level of training or your age, but we’ll address that in a moment. Let’s talk general mass-building terms… [Read more…]