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Gaining Like Crazy

Gaining Like Crazy

Q: I’m insanely stoked using the Size Surge program. I love Phase 1, and I’m gaining like crazy. My gains have been so good that I really don’t want to go to Phase 2 just yet. Can I stay on Phase 1 for another month or so, till I feel like my gains have stalled out?

A: Everyone has different genetics, so nothing is written in stone. The Size Surge program listed is what worked for Jonathan—he gained 20 pounds in 10 weeks using it as written: phase 1 for five high-intensity weeks, stuck with it for a sixth downshift week, then did the phase 2 Positions-of-Flexion program for the last four weeks where he was gaining like crazy. [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: 20 pounds in 10 weeks, anabolic primer, anabolic running, boost testosterone, cardio trick, full-range pof, gaining like crazy, gaining muscle, gains, hiit, intensity, occlusion, phase training, Size Surge, stretch overload, tension

#1 Mass-Building Discovery—Surprising Find

#1 Mass-Building Discovery—Surprising Find

Q: You guys have contributed so much to my ability to build lots of muscle. I want to thank you. X Reps are fantastic. Positions of Flexion is great; I build most of my workouts around that full-range principle. You’ve also created 4X and negative-accentuated [X-centric] training. So what do you think is the best of the bunch, your #1 mass-building discovery over the years?

A: Out of all of our mass-building tactics, X Reps are probably the easiest to apply. Well, maybe “easiest” is the wrong word because when you use them correctly, X-Rep partials at the end of a set are brutal—they hurt, but they work. X Reps make any set three to five times more effective at packing on mass… [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: #1 mass-building discovery, 2a fibers, 4X, bodybuilder, boost testosterone, cardio trick, end-of-set partials, fast-twitch fibers, full-range training, mass-building discovery, negative-accentuated, physique, power and density, X Reps, x-centric

Bigger Muscles Now: 4X FirePower

Bigger Muscles Now: 4X FirePower

Q: I’ve read about your 4X mass-building method in a few of your newsletters. I find it hard to believe that I can build bigger muscles doing only one exercise per bodypart for four quick sets with only the last set to failure. Will that really work?

A: You misunderstood the concept—we probably should’ve been more clear. Unless you’re a beginner, you should do more than one exercise in 4X style per bodypart. We mistakenly assumed that readers know we use Positions-of-Flexion mass training, which works a muscle through its midrange, stretch, and contracted positions. That usually requires THREE exercises per bodypart… [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: 4X, 4x muscle building, advanced, beginners, bigger muscles, boost testosterone, boost testosterone with cardio, failure, full-range, growth fibers, hiit, intermediate, mass building, muscle gains, POF, positions of flexion, testosterone boosting, x-rep partials

Great Gains—What now?

Great Gains—What now?

Q: I have about 15 years of lifting experience, and I’m also a certified personal trainer. I’ve worked out with high intensity for all of my years, but I’ve never done the type of training I’m now using with your routines. I’m currently at week 3 in the 3D Power Pyramid [from the Freak-Physique e-book]. Great gains so far! I run each routine for six weeks, and once I finish the Power Pyramid, I want to move to The Ultimate Power-Density Mass Workout. I love each program so far, and I push myself each and every workout. Is it okay if I go from workout to workout, or should I do something less intense between them? So far, I don’t feel overtrained. What’s your advice?

A: Thanks for the question and your confidence in our programs. First realize that overtraining is cumulative, so we suggest that you use the first week of each new program as a break-in period… [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: 3d power pyramid, anabolic environment, boost testosterone, break-in workout, build muscle, downshift week, estrogen, fat loss, freak-physique workout, great gains, medium intensity, overtraining, personal trainer, physique, power-density mass workout, testosterone, what next

Mass Merger—10X Power/Rep Range/Shock

Mass Merger—10X Power/Rep Range/Shock

Q: Great timing on your recent P/RR/S newsletter! I’m using the X-Rep Power/Rep Range/Shock Workout [on pages 103-114 in the 3D Muscle Building e-book], and my size and strength are totally thriving on the variation, like nothing I’ve ever tried before. What a great concept! Now I’m reading The Ultimate 10×10 Mass Workout, and I want to put that method into the mix, using mass merger techniques. Where should I use it, Power, Rep Range or Shock week? And on which exercises?

A: First, we must give credit where credit is due: a big thumbs-up to Eric Broser for creating the Power/Rep Range/Shock protocol. We simply altered it to include full-range Positions of Flexion and X Reps. To put it in simple terms, Power week you do all low reps; Rep Range week you do one exercise in the 7-9 range, another for 10-12 and the last for 13-15; Shock week is supersets, drop sets and other intensity techniques to totally thrash the muscles. [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: 10x, 10x10, 10x10 mass workout, 3d muscle building, boost testosterone, build mass, build muscle, eric broser, fascia expansion, lean muscle, mass building, mass merger, mass techniques, massthetic, p/rr/s, positions of flexion, power/rep range/shock, ultimate exercises, xreps

Heat: The Magic Muscle Maker

Heat: The Magic Muscle Maker

Q: This is kind of an odd question, but does hot weather help make muscles grow? I’ve noticed this summer, when it’s been blazing hot outside, I make my best gains. In the winter, my gains are much slower, sometimes nonexistent. Could it be the heat?

A: It could simply be more summer-time motivation—you train harder because you want to look good at the pool, lake, or beach. It could also be leanness and darkness—being more ripped and tan makes you look bigger and better. There’s a good chance that heat and/or sunshine may have something to do with it, along with sweating. Perspiring more sheds water from under the skin, and that means more vascularity more often, which adds to your bigger, more-shredded look. But heat may be the key… [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: anabolic, animal study, body temperature, boost testosterone, building muscle, gains, heat, hot weather, legend & myth, master trainer, motivation, muscle builder, muscle growth, muscle maker, muscle regrowth, muscle shrinkage, oxidative stress, perspiration, physique, ripped, shredded, summer gains, testosterone, vascularity, vitamin d, winter gains

Stretch-Position Exercises

Stretch-Position Exercises

Q: I’m using the three-position training of POF [as outlined in the 3D Muscle Building e-book] and have made excellent gains with it. I recently purchased your Quick-Start Muscle Building Guide for my nephew. It’s excellent, and I can already see changes in his muscles after three weeks, but I wonder why you don’t include stretch-position exercises, like incline curls for biceps, in the workouts. I’m sure stretch exercises are one reason I’ve added so much muscle with POF, so if beginners are to make the fastest gains possible, I would think they should use full 3D POF programs. No?

A: The reason we don’t include stretch-position exercises in the Quick-Start program is that they are more dangerous for beginners. Joe Horrigan, D.C., of the Soft Tissue Center, uses the often-injured lower-back as an example: [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: 3d muscle building, 3d pof, animal study, beginners, boost testosterone, comeback, gains, Joe Horrigan, myoelectric silence, POF, quick-start muscle building, soft tissue center, stretch position, stretch-position exercises, testosterone, testosterone boosting, testosterone replacement therapy, trt

Best Chisel-Your-Chest Exercise

Best Chisel-Your-Chest Exercise

Q: I’ve been using cable crossovers as my contracted-position exercise in my 3D Positions-of-Flexion chest routine. I do them last for tension, occlusion, and a final pump, but I’m not getting the right feel and not seeing much of a pump. Do you have any form suggestions to make them better?

A: Cable crossovers are a good contracted-position chisel-your-chest exercise—if you have decent nerve-to-muscle connections in your pec muscles. Those who don’t tend to shift the torso forward and backward during the exercise, to bring in more front delts and even lats. We prefer a similar exercise that forces strictness… [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: 3d muscle building, 3d pof, 3d positions of flexion, best chest exercise, boost testosterone, cable crossovers, cable flyes, chest, chest exercises, chest routine, chisel-your-chest, fat burning, fat loss, high-low cable flyes, hiit, muscle growth, nerve-to-muscle connections, pecs, pump, steady-state cardio, tension, testosterone boosting

Stairway to Mass

Stairway to Mass

Q: You’ve said that to get the best muscle-size gains, you have to use both power and density to build both sides of the 2A muscle fibers. But in The X-traordinary Size Surge Workout program, it looks like it’s all power with no endurance [density] work. So how could it produce such spectacular results in Jonathan?

A: The Size Surge program does have a dominant power emphasis, especially in phase 1, the anabolic primer segment. But there’s also some density, or endurance, work (and it expands for bigger mass gains, as you’ll see)…

Jonathan Lawson before and after Size Surge - Stairway to Mass

For example, if you use the optimal rep speed, which is about 1.5 seconds up and 3 seconds down, you’ll get about 40 seconds of tension time on the first set of each BIG exercise. That’s because you use a poundage that allows 9 reps on the first set.

If you watch most wannabe-big bodybuilders training, you’ll see sets that last less than 20 seconds—all power, zero density, which is why gains are so slow: they get no density size effects, which the key 2A muscle fibers require…

Also notice that for many muscle groups in the phase 1 Size Surge program, there’s a follow-up continuous-tension isolation exercise included, such as leg extensions for quads, leg curls for hamstrings, pushdowns for triceps, etc…

Jonathan Lawson, triceps push downs - Stairway to Mass

True, it’s usually for only one set, but that’s all it takes to choke off blood flow from the target muscle for a growth response. That 40 to 50 seconds of total tension/occlusion will do sizable things for the endurance side of the 2As! It’s the perfect chaser to the power-oriented big exercise you do first…

And power in and of itself is a key get-bigger trigger, so always strive to get stronger. As Arthur Jones, the creator of Nautilus machines and the father of high-intensity training, said:

When the actual progress of an individual trainee is carefully charted over a period of a few months, several rather surprising results will become immediately apparent; for example, while strength levels will increase in a series of gentle curves, increases in size of the involved bodyparts—and thus apparent increases in muscular mass—will result in a stair-step pattern.

What Jones is saying is that strength increases are usually fairly steady, fluctuating slightly up and down but on a distinctly upward trajectory, while size increases come in sudden spurts or bursts followed by plateaus—a stair-step pattern. Says Jones,

In effect, size increases permit strength increases—and strength increases force size increases.

At one point, Jones was fanatical about measuring his arms and noted that once they grew almost a full inch overnight. Now that’s a growth spurt!

Jonathan remembers his steady strength increases during the very first Size Surge experiment—and by the end, week 10, he’d packed on 20 pounds of muscle, so he obviously got a few significant stair-step size spurts along the way, just as Jones predicted.

The bottom line is that power is important, but density, or endurance, is a key contributing factor to muscle mass as well. And you do get density during phase 1, as explained above, then to stair-step your size gains, you get even more in phase 2 when you move to full-range Positions of Flexion…

With full-on POF mass training, you attack the midrange-, stretch-, and contracted-position of each target muscle. With that you get density size effects via blood-flow blockage during contracted-position exercises, like concentration curls, to finish off each muscle…

Jonathan Lawson, concentration curls - Stairway to Mass

Plus, you also get density size stimulation on stretch-position exercises. Most of those produce occlusion as well as ultimate anabolic stretch overload. Those are exercises like incline curls for biceps and sissy squats for quads…

Jonathan Lawson, sissy squats - Stairway to Mass

Whether you’re on Jonathan’s Size Surge program or something else, always be sure you get some longer tension-time sets to pack on extreme mass fast; don’t settle for sluggish gains produced by all lower-rep, short-set workouts.

NOTE: The X-traordinary SIZE SURGE Workout is Jonathan Lawson’s legendary two-phase mass program that packed 20 pounds of muscle on his frame in only 10 weeks. See all the changes he made to the original workouts, transcribed from his training journal and in printable templates so you can duplicate his incredible gains. You also get his eat-to-grow diet, anabolic acceleration methods, and loads of tips and tricks. Plus, an interview with a top-level bodybuilder who trained Size Surge style for incredible growth.

Size Surge Workout 2.0 cover

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

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


#1 Way To Boost Testosterone and Build Lean Muscle Mass Fast

Testosterone is converted to the female hormone estrogen inside of fat tissues, so the higher amount of body fat you carry, the higher rate of this conversion (resulting in you becoming less of a man).

In addition, we know testosterone is the single greatest factor in muscle growth and fat loss, which is why so many bodybuilders take anabolic steroids.

If your testosterone levels aren’t at an optimal level, any time spent in the gym can be a waste because your body won’t be in the right anabolic environment to build muscle and burn body fat…

Go to the link below to discover the best way to fix this problem and build more muscle quickly.

>>> #1 Way To Boost Testosterone and Build Lean Muscle Mass Fast

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: boost testosterone, massthetic, muscle mass, stairway to mass, stretch overload, testosterone

Arm Immensity with Ultimate Density

Arm Immensity with Ultimate Density

Q: I’m on The Ultimate Power-Density Mass Workout [pages 25-28 of that e-program], and I look and feel much bigger already. Thank you! My problem is that on some of the last isolated exercises I lose touch with the muscle, like on concentration curls for biceps. Arms have always been a problem area for me. Should I do a second double-drop Density set for that exercise?

A: Interesting that you should mention concentration curls, as we’ve found that getting the best Density effect on the contracted-position exercise for many muscles, like biceps, works best with a cable move.

What? Aren’t free weights best because they have more negative resistance due to zero weight-stack drag? Well, free weights are usually best for the big midrange exercises that trigger the max-force mass-building component—like presses and rows…

[Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: arm immensity, arm workout, arms, biceps, blood flow blockage, boost testosterone, boost your t, cables, density, double-drop set, free weights, low testosterone, negative-accentuated, occlusion, power-density mass workout, T Fix, testosterone fix, triceps, ultimate density, Ultimate Power-Density Mass Workout

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