Dedicated to Your Physical Transformation
Q: Love Old Man, Young Muscle. It’s helped me get bigger with shorter workouts. My joint pain is almost gone too. In the ebook, you mention your runs. You’re doing four miles twice a week. Don’t you think that is detracting from your muscle-building endeavors? I’ve heard cardio makes it harder to put on mass.
A: I’ve seen studies that show cardio can make it harder to build muscle, and I’ve seen others that say just the opposite—with a boost in testosterone. [Read more…]
You know the stereotype of the grumpy old man. Sometimes it fits me like a glove.
Take this muscle-building thing, for example. Last October I significantly upgraded my pathetic home gym with a multi-functional cable unit. [Read more…]
Q: I remember working muscles twice a week, and we used the heavy/light method. Do you ever do that? Do you think it helps the muscle-building process? [Read more…]
I remember back in my late 30s, Jonathan and I were at Mike Neveux’s studio for one of our Iron Man magazine photoshoots… [Read more…]
In the new Muscle-On, Belly-Gone “Diet” ebook, Steve outlines how he used 12-to-14-hour fasts a few days a week to get ripped in 10 weeks.
From mid-June to the end of August 2021, he hunkered down, muscled up, and leaned out. [Read more…]
Q: Many years ago, I tried negative-only sets on most of my exercises. My partners lifted the heavy weight for me, and I lowered it slowly, six seconds on each of six reps. I got some decent strength gains but not much mass at all. That’s what gives me reservations about your negative-accentuated [or X-centric] technique. Will it build muscle for me even though pure negatives didn’t?
A: The heavy, pure-negative sets that you tried are great for building neuromuscular efficiency—the nerve connections that improve strength. You also get some muscle trauma; however, you lose muscular tension between each rep when your partners lift the weight for you… [Read more…]
After more than 50 years in the muscle-building game combined, we’ve seen lots of anabolic “magic potions” come and go—like powdered deer antler…
But a few have risen above as solid mass builders. In fact, without them, your gains may be sluggish or even nonexistent.
These are the ones that work big time, and they’re especially critical for older bodybuilders (like us). Let’s count down our top 4 muscle-size nutrients… [Read more…]
Q: Thank you for clearing up the muscle-growth mystery for me. I always believed in going heavier and heavier to get bigger. Now I know that’s only a small part of the puzzle. Working in the 4X method, X Reps, drop sets, and even some of your high-rep TORQ sets has already gotten me bigger in just a few weeks. My question is, Do you think some people get a better size response from power training and others get more size from density [endurance] work?
A: Absolutely. As we mentioned in a previous newsletter, the BIGGEST powerlifters don’t train for sarcoplasmic (endurance fluid) expansion yet have good muscle size. That’s because they were big dudes in the first place, which may signify more myofibril-building capacity. That would explain their extraordinary strength. The myofibrils are the actin-myosin strands inside the muscle fiber that generate force, but for most trainees that’s not the key to ULTIMATE SIZE… [Read more…]
Q: I’ve read a lot of Mike Mentzer’s high-intensity info, and he said that the pump didn’t matter as far as muscle growth is concerned. He said a lot of the biggest powerlifters never get a pump yet carry a lot of mass. So shouldn’t heavy sets be the core of a mass-building routine?
A: Mentzer was partially right—but leaning more toward being mostly wrong. You don’t need a pump IF you’re only after primarily myofibrillar growth (strength). The myofibrils are the strands of actin and myosin inside the muscle fiber. Those grab onto each other to generate force. Training heavy increases their size and your strength—but science is finding that they are more about producing strength with less-than-stellar effects on muscle size… [Read more…]
Q: In a previous newsletter you talked about using DXO [Double-X Overload from the Beyond X e-book] on stretch-position exercises like flyes. I tried it on squats , and it felt incredible! I backed off on the weight, but my quads were on fire and I really felt them working better than a regular set. Is it good to use DXO on the big midrange exercises like squats and bench presses along with stretch-position exercises?
A: Absolutely. You have to use less weight, and that allows you to do the DXO set in perfect form and really connect with the target muscle—plus get unique muscle-fiber activation for new growth. You could end your squats with a DXO set… [Read more…]
