full-range Archives

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…]

Prime the Pump and Go Anabolic

Q: I’ve seen you guys talk about Mass Finishers in the past. Is that a Positions-of-Flexion term, a special exercise, or something to do with the Pope?

A: Lol. It relates to mass—as in muscle size—and you could say that it’s a “special” exercise…

We first outlined this technique in the Size Surge 2.0 e-book—in the chapter on Mass-4X training. You do it after a full-range Position-of-Flexion bodypart routine (there’s a complete sample program there for every muscle group)…

[Read more…]

The Perfect Rest Time for Packing on Muscle Mass

Q: I’m an avid reader of your e-books as well as your website. I’ve been experimenting recently with a heavy set to failure (approximately 10 reps), adding X-Rep partials to the end. Then I do a second X-Only set, often with added weight. This is an excellent trigger for growth, especially if you warm up using the DXO [Double-X Overload] technique. On the warmup set, I do anywhere from four to five X Reps between [full-range] reps, and the burn is incredible! That [combination] has had such a strong effect on my body, that I now have some stretch marks appearing. I’m definitely getting much more muscular while dropping fat. Another thing I’ve been experimenting with is shortening the stroke of X Reps, to the point where I’m almost doing a static hold. I just pulse out very small partial reps. Which brings me to static holds. Research shows subjects adding a few pounds of muscle after only one workout, but that workout was followed by two weeks of rest. Surely two weeks off between workouts is ridiculous. I was wondering how you stand on recovery time and static holds?

A: Thanks for the feedback and your confidence in our methods. We discuss a lot of what you’re discovering and experimenting with in our X-Rep Update #1 e-book. Former Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler used a lot of X-Only sets, as we discuss in Chapter 5, Mr. O’s Wild X-O Workouts. Notice Cutler’s short stroke on this exercise…

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Triple-Threat Approach to Massive Muscle Growth

Q: I’m a big believer in your Positions-of-Flexion workouts. I have gotten more growth with that [3-exercise approach] than with anything I’ve tried. One exercise I often have a problem with is incline curls [the stretch move for biceps]. Is there a substitute?

A: Thanks for the POF props. A lot of trainees find the simplified 3-way full-range approach a logical way to more size and muscle fullness. It’s an efficient method for picking exercises to train a muscle completely with just a few exercises. You get muscle synergy, stretch overload, continuous tension/occlusion, and anabolic hormone release as well as full-range fiber activation…

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3 Simple Changes to Get You Growing

You know our mantra: You can trigger bigger gains with one small change. But let’s multiply that for even more mass. We’ve got 3 simple things to get you growing immediately… [Read more…]

After completing an initial set to failure, do I go immediately to the X-Rep set or break and return to it after a set time? Also, do I only need two sets, with one being the X-Rep set?

A: You do one set to positive failure, to prime your nervous system for optimal firing with a heavy weight. Rest about two to three minutes if it’s a big compound exercise (multi-joint; rest a little less on isolation moves), then perform a second set to nervous system exhaustion with X Reps added to the end—no break; as soon as you can’t do another full-range rep, move to the X spot and crank out partials for max growth stimulation. Your second set, with X Reps, is the money set—that’s where you’ll get the most mass stimulation for your efforts. You’ll feel it happening, believe us!

That being said, we have had reports of great success from some trainees who are doing X Reps on the first set and then using the second as a burnout set with less weight. You may want to experiment with that method as well.

Get Bigger, Fuller Muscles with Wow-Factor Workouts

Q: I’ve been using the Full-Range 4X Mass Workout [on pages 46-48 of that e-book] for a month, and I’ve noticed that my muscles appear to be not only bigger, but rounder. I’m looking more like a bodybuilder! I’m not imagining this, as people have told me that at my gym. It’s fantastic, but I’m wondering why. Is it because of the extra sets with 4X on 3 exercises for each bodypart? I was only doing one or two exercises for each muscle before, so it must be the added volume.

A: That’s part of it. The extra volume with short rests during a 4X sequence helps deplete more glycogen from the muscles, and therefore they supercompensate and store more. That extra glycogen gives the muscles a fuller, rounder look, like Bob Paris’, who is pictured below (but there’s more to it than that, as you’ll see)… [Read more…]

No B.S.: 4X for Mass-Building Success—Even Mentzer Would Confess

Q: I’m a big believer in Mike Mentzer’s Heavy Duty system of one all-out set to failure for each exercise. That’s why I think your 4X method is total B.S. Mentzer cited studies and found from personal experience that intensity is the key to muscle growth. With 4X you’re using lighter weights and not going to failure, which wastes a lot of sets. It can’t work, and I think you should feel ashamed for promoting it as miracle mass-building system.

A: We didn’t say it’s a “miracle” system (although some trainees have said it worked mass miracles for them). We simply said that we GUARANTEE that our 4X programs will build NEW MASS for just about anyone. We’re absolutely positive of that because it’s got ALL the critical components to trigger bigger gains quickly—and that includes intensity (we think Mentzer would agree as you’ll see, and that’s no B.S.)… [Read more…]

New 3D HIT: More Muscle, Less Time?

Q: I’ve been checking out a lot of the high-intensity-training (HIT) stuff on the Web. Using one all-out intense set per exercise makes a lot of sense. But doing only one exercise per bodypart, as in most HIT programs, does not make sense to me. That’s why I want to try the more abbreviated HIT approach combined with 3D POF [training each muscle in three positions for full-range activation]. Any suggestions?

A: What you’re talking about is a key reason 3D Positions of Flexion evolved. It attacks the full contractibility range of a muscle for maximum fiber recruitment as well as [Read more…]