Dedicated to Your Physical Transformation
Mr. America/Mr. Universe Doug Brignole sent me into mind-bending mode by recommending that I delve into researcher Chris Beardsley’s work…
I’ve quoted Beardsley in this newsletter on a number of occasions, as he discusses many things that verify what I do in the gym, and his ideas have helped me tweak my workouts for significantly better mass gains—like [Read more…]
Yesterday I talked about training to failure and how it can have a negative effect on your nervous system, making each set after the first less efficient at stimulating mass.
A hammered nervous system doesn’t allow enough “juice” to engage the high-threshold motor units, which control the fast-twitch growth fibers.
Solution: [Read more…]
In Old Man, Young Muscle I talk about mechanical tension as being one of the bigger mass triggers.
It’s basically providing the target muscle with enough resistance to elicit activation of fast-twitch growth fibers. [Read more…]
In recent newsletters I’ve laid out some new theories on training to failure—basically that it can slow hypertrophy.
Not always, but too much creates severe damage, which saps recovery and growth. Doing only one set to failure while stopping others a rep or two short appears to be a better way to stimulate massive amounts of fast-twitch growth fibers (more on that below). [Read more…]
I’ve been putzing around with my workouts, trying to put more mass on this 62-year-old body while staying healthy and injury free. The older I get, the more elusive extra muscle becomes…
Through all of my tweaks, I let one important mass accelerator fall by the wayside—and I didn’t even realize it until I looked back at my workouts listed in Old Man, Young Muscle. [Read more…]
Back in the 1990s, Steve’s very first book was titled Iron Man’s Home Gym Handbook. Looks like we’ve come full-circle. At the moment, there’s no place like home—or nowhere else to train but home…
Like most iron men and women, we’re at home with limited equipment. Luckily, our decades of bodybuilding experience have resulted in multiple mass-training tactics and moves to keep gains coming. Here’s Steve’s report on what he’s doing in his bare-bones pump-atorium. [Read more…]
Q: I’ve seen speed reps in some of your routines. What are those, and how do they work to add more mass?
A: We call this mass tactic X-celeration, and it can pack on new mass FAST because of extra fiber activation, and it’s a technique that lends itself well to home-gym training… [Read more…]
Q: Do you think that a lot of intensity tactics work so well because they simply make a set last longer? For example, when you add X-Rep partials to the end of a set, you’re really extending the set for five to 10 more seconds and maybe getting into or at least closer to the best tension time for hypertrophy.
A: That’s an X-cellent observation. So many trainees go with their ego and train as heavy as possible, with sets lasting only about 20 seconds. That keeps them in the strength time zone… [Read more…]
Q: Your 4X training is fantastic. It has me growing again, and it’s perfect with 3-way POF. My question is about muscle feel. How important is it to feel your muscles working for size increases? I ask because I have trouble feeling some body parts, like shoulders and chest.
A: We believe it’s EXTREMELY important to feel your muscles working; if you don’t, you may be using other muscle groups to move the weight or simply not innervating enough muscle fibers for a big anabolic response. [Read more…]
Q: I recently went from training heavy on everything to [moderate-weight] 4X. I’m convinced that it’s genius. I gained four pounds in two weeks. My question is, What do you think of doing the first set heavy with low reps, then do a 3X after? That should get both size factors, right?
A: That’s a great variation. Of course, it’ll take a bit longer because you have to do some warmup sets. Then you do your heavy set, followed by a 3X sequence. We have a similar power-pump style of strategy in The Ultimate Power-Density Mass Workout…
In the Basic Workout, you do one exercise per bodypart. For example, for midback you do this: [Read more…]
