Dedicated to Your Physical Transformation
Q: I started cleaning up my diet shortly after New Year’s with your X-treme Lean Diet. I lost about 8 pounds of fat, but my losses have stalled. Should I reduce my portions again (I’ve done this twice already)? Or should I do more cardio? Any help would be appreciated. Abs and veins are the goals.
A: Fat loss is a long-term proposition if you want to retain as much muscle as possible. Losing two pounds a week is the most you should shoot for…
[Read more…]Q: I’ve been using all-heavy training (6-8 reps) on everything up until now. I just started using your 4X method, and I swear I can already feel new growth happening. It’s also a relief on my tattered joints. I want to try it exclusively for a month or two. Will my weights increase or should I add sets? Just looking for the best “change to gain.”
A: Since this is your first time using the 4X mass method, you’ll get stronger as your muscle grow more adept at DENSITY training…
[Read more…]Intermittent Fasting is all the rage right now and for good reason—it works! Even jacked movie stars like The Rock, Terry Cruz, and Hugh Jackman use it for shredded muscle.
We’ve used it off and on for years. Check out Steve’s initial results, which were spectacular—and he’s in his 50s…
[Read more…]We’ve discussed our “iFast” method for simultaneous hypertrophy and fat loss (yes, it is possible)…
It’s basically a 12-hour protocol done only two non-consecutive days during the week…
We were apprehensive at first, but it works. Here are Steve’s results—and he’s in his 50s… [Read more…]
Q: The Anabolic Reload Mass Workout, with a high-rep set first to fatigue slow-twitch fibers (STX), has helped me add six pounds of muscle in four weeks. Now I’m ready to go back to a three-way split, but the STX method worked so well that I want to keep using it, but after my heavy work. I’m in my 20s, so heavy weights is not a problem. Any suggestions? (Title: STX + SEX for Massive Muscle Growth)
A: That’s exactly why we love The Anabolic Reload Mass Workout for a two-to-six-week mass burst… [Read more…]
A: Yes, X Reps are better because you extend the set at only the precise point in the exercise’s stroke that is key for force production and/or fiber activation. With forced reps, on the other hand, you writhe around as you strain through full range reps with help from your training partner. So while X Reps help you circumvent nervous system failure for an extra hypertrophic surge, forced reps waste a lot of nervous energy as you push through weak areas of the stroke with imprecise unloading (pushing or pulling from your partner). That’s why trainees who use a lot of forced reps tend to get tremors after training—they overstress the nervous system.
A recent study appears to confirm that (International Journal of Sports Medicine, 24:410-418. [2003]). It featured 15 male athletes engaged in either a maximum-reps routine or a forced-reps routine. Both types of training led to considerable increases in serum testosterone, free testosterone, cortisol and growth hormone; however, cortisol, which is a stress hormone that can cannibalize muscle tissue, was higher in the forced-reps group. Forced reps also produced a greater decrease in maximum muscular force, according to the researchers.
The greater loss of muscle power indicates that forced reps overstress the nervous system and the excess cortisol produces catabolism in muscle. In fact, many studies indicate that the biggest cause of overtraining is nervous system stress, and therefore forced reps do a lot to increase that probability—much more than X Reps. In other words, cue to X Reps short stroke, as opposed to full-stroke forced reps, we believe X-Rep training is a superior way to extend a set for a maximum growth response with less recovery and nervous system stress (Journal of Applied Physiology, 85:2352-2359. [1998]).
Q: I’ve been using X Reps for about a month now, and I’m noticing new muscle in places like my inner chest and lower lats. Even my lower biceps are higher and fuller. Is that normal? I love X Reps!
A: While X Reps—end-of-set partials at the semi-stretch point of an exercise—are excellent at keeping tension on the muscle and activating dormant muscle fibers, they can bring out size and detail with new muscle density at the insertion point, such as the inner pecs…
Here’s a quote from Jacob Wilson, Ph.D., that we used in our X-Rep Update #1, that explains:
Partial-range reps in the lower range of a muscle [a.k.a. X Reps], can actually add sarcomeres to a muscle fiber, which would fill out the area of a muscle where it is inserted.
We believe that’s part of the reason we made such dramatic progress so quickly that first year we integrated X-Rep partials at the end of some of our sets—adding sarcomeres to muscle fibers creates much more muscle size and detail, and it obviously did that for us in only five weeks with the X technique (no drugs, not trick photography)…
A good example of X Reps is at the end of a set of chinups. When you can no longer do full-range reps, you lower to near the arm’s-extended position, and pulse up to near the halfway point, doing as many of those low-end partials as possible.
That area of the stroke, where the target muscle is semi-stretched, is where you activate the most muscle fibers. So at the end of a set, you get at many more growth fibers by gritting your teeth and grinding out partials in that key area…
In a study reported in the 1988 issue of the Journal of Applied Physiology, three groups of men performed isometric exercise for their biceps:
Group 1: trained their biceps isometrically at 25 degrees (the X Spot—0 degrees is full extension)
Group 2: trained their biceps isometrically at 80 degrees—just below the halfway point
Group 3: trained their biceps isometrically at 120 degrees—near full contraction
While all subjects showed strength increases throughout the range of motion—not just in the position trained—the group that attained the highest increase throughout the range of motion was Group 1. That’s the group that was doing a static X-Rep at the semi-stretch position…
That shows the extreme muscle-fiber-activating power of the X Spot and why adding end-of-set X Reps can make any set three to five times more powerful at building muscle mass for more size and detail. And that’s why we love X Reps, too!
Note: For more info on the info above, see the X-Rep Update #1 e-book, and for our massively successful original X-Rep experiment, see The Ultimate Mass Workout.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com
One of the most interesting read-me pages on Testosterone and other muscle-building hormones we’ve seen is The Truth About Testosterone.
It even talks about a fruit, a specific part, that can up your T naturally. Cranking up your testosterone will not only get you jacked in the gym, but in the bedroom too—not to mention help rip up your midsection as it ignites fat burning. If that interests you, there’s more from our colleague and registered dietician, HERE.
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…]
Q: I know the big midrange exercises, like squats and presses, are most important for mass, but after that, do you think the stretch-position exercise or the contracted-position exercise is the best followup for extra muscle growth? The reason I ask is that I don’t have a lot of time to train, so I’m going to do the Ultimate Exercise for each bodypart [identified in The Ultimate Mass Workout e-book] and one more, either stretch or contracted, whichever you say will give me the most growth.
A: Interesting dilemma, but both the stretch- and contracted-position exercises are important for different reasons. Each triggers growth along different pathways (but there is an easy solution to your problem, as you’ll see)…
We often reference the animal study that produced a 300 percent muscle-mass increase—that’s a triple-size gain—in one month of progressive-stretch “workouts.” The researchers believe the stretch overload caused hyperplasia, or fiber replication, as well as hypertrophy. (Antonio, J., and Gonyea, W.J. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 25:1333-45; 1993.)
In another study that produced significant growth via stretch overload, the researchers said, “excess muscle stretch promotes the orderly lining of sarcomeres within muscle, leading to a stronger muscle contraction and setting the stage for architectural changes in the muscle that precede growth.” (Seynnes, O.R., et al. J Applied Physiol. 102:368-373; 2007.)
So stretch-position exercises like incline curls for biceps, flyes for pecs, sissy squats for quads, pullovers for lats, etc., are excellent for extra anabolic effects after the big midrange move; however…
Contracted-position exercises, like leg extension, leg curls, concentration curls, pushdowns, etc., produce continuous tension and occlusion. Japanese researchers got an 800 percent muscle-mass increase with occlusion compared to standard training that allowed blood into the muscles [occlusion produced 800 percent better results, not an 8-fold size increase]. Also, other studies show that tension/occlusion triggers more lactic acid and muscle burn, which is key to growth hormone production, setting up an optimal anabolic environment. (Can J of App Phys; 22:244-255; 1997)
So which do you choose? The easy solution is to alternate them at successive workouts. At one workout do midrange and stretch; at the next workout for that bodypart do midrange and contracted. That’s Split-Positions training, and it’s very effective due to automatic variation…
The X-Rep-Hybrid Mega-Mass Program on pages 67-71 of the Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building e-book is set up as a Split-Positions-workout regimen. Here’s a quote from that e-book with a specific example…
The midrange exercise stays constant, but the second exercise alternates between a contracted-position movement and a stretch-position movement…. Here’s an example from the 3A and 3B workouts for upper chest: The A workout has Smith-machine incline presses, the constant midrange exercise, followed by incline cable flyes, a contracted-position upper-chest move; the B workout is Smith-machine incline presses again, but that’s followed by incline dumbbell flyes, a stretch-position exercise.
Try it as is, or construct your own program with the Positions-of-Flexion exercises listed. Remember, change can bring big gains. [Note: There’s also a home-gym Split-Positions program with basic equipment on pages 72-75 in the Beyond X e-book.]
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com
The Anabolic After-40 Muscle-Size Manual contains new mass-building XRX workouts featuring Pure Positions of Flexion mass training with moderate-weight 3X density sequences plus rest/pause X-Reps. In addition, you’ll get 3 FREE bonuses—“20 Pounds in 10 Weeks Blueprint,” “Anabolic After-40 Bodyweight Edition,” and “X-traordinary Arms.” Add them all to your mass-building library for a limited-time price ($100 value) of ONLY $15 HERE.
