Dedicated to Your Physical Transformation
Q: I’ve been on one your four-days-a-week Heavy/Light Program, and I’ve put on lots of
A: First, you need to clean up your diet. If you don’t have a fast metabolism, which it sounds like you don’t, you’ll also need to start doing some cardio if you want to see more muscle detail; however, if you’ve been following our newsletters for a while, you know there are ways you can change your weight workout so that you burn more fat during recovery (and you won’t need as much cardio)…
[Read more…]Q: In the Pre-Ex 3X Mass Workout and Size Surge 2.0 e-books I just got, you have bent-arm bent-over laterals for midback. The illustration shows palms facing back, but I feel them better with my palms down. Which way is best for midback mass? I need more thickness between my shoulder blades.
A: The bent-arm bent-over lateral raise is a CONTRACTED-position midback exercise in the Positions-of-Flexion mass-building protocol. You do them like a bent-over lateral raise for your rear delts, only you allow more of an elbow bend so you can better squeeze your middle traps to thicken your back. [Read more…]
Q: I have the 4X Mass Workout e-book, and I’m convinced it’s the best way for me to build muscle now after years of high-intensity training. I’m ready to start, but I want to include some negative-accentuated (NA) sets for better fat burning. I have both the X-centric Mass Workout and the Fat-to-Muscle Workout [which both include NA]. Lots of good info and workouts, but nothing that really merges 4X and NA the way I want. I need to add NA sets to the Direct/Indirect 4X Mass Workout. How?
A: Keep in mind that negative-accentuated sets are very traumatic and can require more recovery. With the Direct/Indirect 4X Mass Workout, most upper-body muscles are getting THREE hits a week, be they major or minor. That’s already a lot of muscular trauma. But you’re right: Adding an appropriate dose of NA work—one second on the positive and six seconds on the negative—without overtraining, can stimulate more fat burning on a couple of levels… [Read more…]
Q: I’m looking to drop fat like a bad habit. My question is, what’s the difference between your X-treme Lean e-book and The Ultimate Fat-to-Muscle Workout? Is one better than the other for my goals?
A: The simple answer is that X-treme Lean contains more diet and nutrition info while The Ultimate Fat to Muscle Workout is more about the right type of training to max out fat loss as you gain muscle mass… [Read more…]
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…]
Q: I got The Ultimate Fat-to-Muscle Workout e-book and am amazed at the great information. I’ve already started applying it and am seeing quick fat-burning results (I can already see the top two rows of abs). My question is, Why didn’t you include diet information?
A: We wrote The Ultimate Fat-to-Muscle Workout as an e-training program. Its purpose is to explain the research on achieving a transformation via muscle microtrauma combined with growth hormone release.
[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
Q: In The Ultimate Fat-to-Muscle Workout routines, you have short cardio sessions as optional after the workouts. Can I do the quick cardio before my weight-training workout to warm up instead of after?
A: You must’ve jumped right to the workouts without reading the text. No problem. We realize lots of trainees do that because they’re anxious to get started; however, there are important points in the text that can help you understand and get the best results from the workouts. The optional postworkout cardio session is a good example… [Read more…]
