Dedicated to Your Physical Transformation
In a number of recent newsletters, I’ve mentioned the term “garbage negatives.”
It basically refers to the negative, or eccentric, stroke on a standard-tempo set. Lowering slowly is easy thanks to “friction” in the muscle—actin-myosin pairings “dragging” across one another… [Read more…]
Q: Your recent truth about muscle growth newsletters were enlightening. You’re right about growth not being visibly noticeable on a day-to-day or even week-to-week basis. You also said that 20 pounds of muscle a year is spectacular, but didn’t Jonathan gain 20 pounds of muscle in only 10 weeks with the Size Surge workout?
A: Your memory serves you well. Yes, Jonathan did pack on an incredible 20 pounds of muscle in 10 weeks; however, he was regaining a lot of that beef… [Read more…]
In my excitement putting together my list of change-to-gain tactics, I left out a key one—probably because I only use it about once a month…
I meant to include it within #1, exercise switch, because it is just that—although more of an exercise shuffle… [Read more…]
You saw some of the problems in getting giant leaps in muscle mass for the average drug-free bodybuilder… [Read more…]
Yesterday I explained the misguided notion that you should be stronger and bigger at every workout. (Photo of Jonathan Lawson by Michael Neveux) [Read more…]
The goal is to trigger hypertrophy at every workout. So you should grow before your next one.
True—in a perfect world. Pro bodybuilder Mike Mentzer thought that was possible after he retired and began training people…
He said that if his clients didn’t get stronger, and therefore bigger, at each workout, something was wrong. [Read more…]
I’ve touched on the top-six change-to-gain methods below over the past few newsletters…
1) Exercise switch
2) Altered rep speed
3) Stretch overload
4) More or less rest between sets
5) Exercise shuffle
6) Rep-range change
Jonathan and I first began experimenting with Double-X Overload, or DXO, way back in 2005, the year after we introduced end-of-set X-Rep partials into our training… [Read more…]
I’ve mentioned how the mind, as in perceptions and attitude, can affect muscle gains.
While I’m no psychologist, I know that what and how you think can often determine outcomes. To paraphrase martial-arts star Bruce Lee…
Don’t ever say negative things about yourself; it can program the warrior within for retreat and possible defeat. [Read more…]
