• X Shop
  • Checkout

X-REP.COM

Dedicated to Your Physical Transformation

  • Home
  • About Us
  • X Shop
  • X Files
    • Latest Articles
    • FAQ
    • Ezine Archive
  • Testimonials
  • Contact Us
  • Gallery
  • Subscribe

Fatigue, Light Weights, More Mass

Steve from the side in his backyard after 10 weeks of his diet

I’m often asked how I could possibly build muscle with only a 50-pound PowerBlock dumbbell set and a bench, as chronicled in Old Man Young Muscle.

It’s a common misconception that you need heavy weights to trigger hypertrophy—and besides, I had no choice… [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: Chris Beardsley, fast-twitch fibers, fatigue, high-reps, hypertrophy, light training, light weights, mass building, muscle fatigue, pandemic, transformation

New View on LIGHTER Loads for Mass

Jonathan doing PowerBlock dumbbell curls

In yesterday’s newsletter, we looked at a new interpretation of hypertrophy research that suggests going to all-out muscular failure may do more harm than good with heavier loads.

Researcher Chris Beardsley says that heavier sets to failure do most of the damage on the last two reps; therefore you should stop two reps short to achieve most of the hypertrophy stimulation while avoiding that severe damage. [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: Chris Beardsley, fatigue, high reps, high-rep, hypertrophy, light training, light weights, mass building, metabolic stress, muscle failure, protein synthesis

Our At-Home Mass Workouts (what we’re doing)

Steve doing incline curls

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…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: alain gonzales, at-home workout, athletic-aesthetic physique, brad pitt, Brad Schoenfeld, fast-twitch fibers, growth fibers, heavy training, home gym, Home Gym Handbook, home gym workout, hypertrophy, iron man magazine, jose antonio, light training, mass tactics, muscle hypertrophy, perfect physique, powerblock, pre-exhausting, quick-start muscle building, quick-start muscle building 2.0, slow-twitch fibers, training at home, type-1 fibers, type-2 fibers

:: Get the latest news and specials :: Sign Up for our Ezine!

Shopping Cart

Number of items in cart: 0

  • Your cart is empty.
  • Total: $0.00
  • Checkout

Log In

Copyright © 2026 · X-Rep.com