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Muscle-Building Mistake You Can’t Afford to Make

Dumbbell flyes, stretch position - Muscle-Building Mistake You Can't Afford to Make

Q: A lot of bodybuilders go all power in the off-season. They push for more strength so size will follow. I’m thinking about using the Phase 1 program in Size Surge for that purpose—mostly big exercises with heavy weights training three days a week so I get plenty of recover-and-grow time. Would that program be okay to use for the entire 10 weeks instead of moving to Phase 2?

A: You’re right, even Arnold used to do a two-to-three-month power phase in the winter—but it wasn’t heavy low reps on every exercise, as we’ll explain. That’s the problem with the way most trainees do it: They go heavy on ALL exercises all the time for too long and neglect critical sarcoplasmic size, which can be a big muscle-building mistake… [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: 4X, 4x mass method, actin, arnold, arnold schwarzenegger, atp, bulking, cardio, creatine, Doug Brignole, force-generation, glycogen, hiit, mitochondria, Mr. America, muscle fibers, muscle size, muscle-building, muscle-building mistake, myofibrillar expansion, myofibrillar growth, myofibrillar size, myofibrils, myosin, off-season, phase 1, phase 2, Power, sarcoplasm, size, Size Surge, sterngth, testosterone, winter workout

Last-Set Shuffle to Pack On More Muscle

Steve helping Jonathan with forced reps on hammer curls

Q: I like the idea of doing something different on the last set of a 4X sequence. You mentioned a drop set, and that works great. What about a heavier pure-negative set? Like on curls my partner would lift it for me, and I would lower [a heavy weight] slowly for six negative reps.

A: That depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. Pure negatives—your partner lifts the weight, and you lower in six seconds—are designed to attack the force-generating myofibrils in the muscle fibers, which means they are primarily for strength building with only minor size effects, so not really building a lot more muscle… [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: 4X, actin, build more muscle, burn fat, drop sets, fat burning, more muscle, muscle damage, muscle fibers, muscle fullness, muscle soreness, muscle trauma, muscle-building, myofibrillar expansion, myofibrils, myosin, negative-accentuated, pack on more muscle, Power, pure-negative sets, rest/pause, sarcoplasm, sarcoplasmic expansion, size, size building, strength, strength building, tension time, testosterone, x-centric

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