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New Size With Full-Body One-Hit Mass Workouts

Q: I’ve been reading about the 4X training and am wondering if you have any advice on how to use it with a full-body three-days-per-week routine. I just started using the 4X method for each bodypart.  I do one exercise per muscle.  Monday I do chest, shoulders, back, bi’s, tri’s, abs, legs.  Wednesday I do the same body parts but in a different order and using different exercises. The same goes for Friday. I take the weekend off.  I’m drug-free, so I think I’ve been overtraining till now. I’m hoping that 4X will help spark some new gains.

A: That sounds like a great plan for building more mass. First, skeptical readers need to realize that three-days-per-week programs can do incredible things. We discuss the Colorado Experiment in Size Surge 2.0 and 3D Muscle Building, a four-week research project in which Casey Viator gained 60 pounds of muscle… [Read more…]

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…]

Ultimate Mass Workout (over-40)

Q: I wanted to report on my progress. I’m 53 and am making the best muscle gains of my life using something you haven’t really discussed. I get bored easily, so what I do is one week I use the Over-40 STX workout [Anabolic Reload e-book] and the next week I go to the Pure-Positions STX program [Stretch Overload e-book]. I think it’s working so well because every week I am getting all three of the hypertrophy requirements but with different splits and exercise mixes. I swear my shirts are already tighter after only three weeks. Just want to thank you guys for my new gains!

A: Hmm, very interesting—and a novel approach. We usually suggest doing one of those programs for four to six weeks, then switch to the other for another four-to-six-week mass phase.

But who are we to argue? Sounds like alternating them is working off the charts for you in the over-40 muscle mass department. Exciting stuff! Now… [Read more…]

Steve: Full-Body MMX (eat, train, puke)

Okay, I didn’t puke–but it was close. No question that full-body workouts are grueling, even with only two sets per muscle (I may have a solution; see Summary below). The major reasons for the nausea are training legs first, with some high-rep sets, and the fact that I’m including supersets–a high-rep stretch move followed by a semi-heavy compound exercise. It’s one of the quickest ways I’ve found to get a good pump, deep fiber activation and anabolic priming–oh, and to “relive” my breakfast. Lol.

[Read more…]

Steve: Full Body (Anabolic Aftershock)

I’ve been having such a good connection and fiber activation with one-set Compound Aftershock that I decided to keep it rolling exclusively for a while. Never thought one superset could hit a target muscle so effectively–but it’s working well, except for the puke possibilities toward the end of the workout…

[Read more…]