X-REP.COM

Dedicated to Your Physical Transformation

Massive Tradeoff? Cardio vs. Muscle Size

Q: Love Old Man, Young Muscle. It’s helped me get bigger with shorter workouts. My joint pain is almost gone too. In the ebook, you mention your runs. You’re doing four miles twice a week. Don’t you think that is detracting from your muscle-building endeavors? I’ve heard cardio makes it harder to put on mass.

A: I’ve seen studies that show cardio can make it harder to build muscle, and I’ve seen others that say just the opposite—with a boost in testosterone. [Read more…]

3 Fat-to-Muscle Secrets to Get You Leaner and Bigger

Q: I always get fat over the winter. Outdoor cardio is hard to do, and I hate the treadmill. Plus, I tend to miss workouts. Three days a week is about all I can handle. Should I just do that and try to starve myself more often to stay closer to lean shape?

A: The good news is, you don’t have to do cardio to burn fat; you just have to use a few key fat-to-muscle tactics, the first of which is doing some muscle damage. [Read more…]

Best Time for Cardio

Q: When is the best time for cardio? I’ve tried first thing in the morning before breakfast, but I felt tired and burned out by mid-morning, and my job suffered. Is right after a weight-training workout good? If so, for how many minutes? I’m trying to get lean while it’s still summer.

A: Steve interviewed two top researchers, Gabriel Wilson, M.S., and Jacob Wilson, Ph.D., and they believe cardio first thing in the morning on an empty stomach is HIGHLY catabolic. In other words, it wastes away your hard-earned muscle tissue. That makes sense considering you’ve been fasting for eight hours or more while you slept and your body is in the early stages of starvation. [Read more…]

3 Shocking Fat-Burning Facts

It’s the time of year when body-conscious folks are working to look their best for summer. A flat belly is great, and etched abs can really grab attention—but there’s nothing like phenomenal abdominals WITH overall muscularity and rugged rippedness.

The problem is, most people fail to even get to the first level—a flat, no-fat midsection. Why? It usually has something to do with the following 3 fat-burning facts you should be aware of. Knowing these will help you succeed in exiting the Chub Club and joining the Buff Brigade… [Read more…]

Get Ripped Without Cardio?!

Q: I read the info on The Ultimate Fat-to-Muscle Workout page. So you’re saying I can get ripped without cardio? I seriously doubt that.

A: That’s not what we’re saying. With The Ultimate Fat-to-Muscle Workout, or using the metabolic-momentum methods from it in your current program, you can stay leaner without much cardio. [Read more…]

“Radical” Diet for Mass and Cuts

Q: Steve’s “roller-coaster size-shreds” diet [in the Super Size Crash Course] has me rethinking my plan. The results he got with it are spectacular, but I have a few questions. He lists his two ultra-strict diet days a week, but how did he eat on the other five days? Also, how was he training, and what was his cardio schedule?

A: Yes, his results were fairly “spectacular,” as the pics below show (there are more in the e-book; apologies for the crummy old iPhone images—old man needs a new phone. Lol). These results were after about 8 weeks on the new diet. [Read more…]