It’s obvious that extending sets with forced and negative reps crushes the nervous system and can derail muscle gains—if you’re not on drugs… [Read more…]
Add Reps, Not Sets, to Grow Like Crazy
Yesterday I mentioned that once Mike Mentzer retired from bodybuilding and began training drug-free bodybuilders, he got rid of forced and negative reps. They were too demanding, creating way too much damage… [Read more…]
Stretch Partials for More Mass (new study)
Quite a coincidence. As I began writing this series on stretch overload, a new study appeared on the subject.
It was one I was hoping would eventually be done—although the trainees weren’t exactly to my specifications. The study… [Read more…]
Resistance Bands for the Muscleman?
Lately, I’ve been harping on the perfect resistance curve, mostly because I know the key ideal-exercise factors create efficiency of effort in the gym to build muscle quickly…
At my age, I don’t have time to waste with workouts longer than about 40 minutes 3 days a week. The lifetime finish line is looming… [Read more…]
Fast-Mass One-Hit-Wonder Workout
Q: Now that summer is coming to an end soon, my motivation to train is going down. Is there any way I can build muscle going to the gym two or three times a week? Like, is there a program you can recommend with just one exercise per bodypart that will keep me building muscle without taking hours in the gym?
A: We’re all about efficiency-of-effort muscle building, so you’ve come to the right place for fast-mass workouts, and many of our newest programs are just three days a week.
Most of the time, we preach multi-angular training (Positions of Flexion). That is, using a big midrange exercise followed by a stretch-position exercise and ending with a contracted-position move. That ramps up growth stimulation along three different pathways: max force (midrange), stretch overload (stretch), and occlusion/tension (contracted)… [Read more…]
X Reps and the Fat-to-Muscle Hustle
Q: I read your last e-zine on fat-to-muscle tips with great interest. I added your recommendations to my training immediately. My question is, What about X Reps? Do they help? Should I add those in as well?
A: Yes, X Reps are excellent for a faster fat-to-muscle hustle. For the uninitiated, X Reps are eight-inch partials that you add onto a set after you hit exhaustion. You do those end-of-set partials at the point on the stroke at which the target muscle is somewhat stretched—for example, near the bottom of an incline press, bench press, or chinup…
[Read more…]New Density for Muscle Immensity Workout
I just saw Jonathan’s new read-me page about XRX and the workout he is now using. I turned 48 and am making the best size gains of my life with the [high-rep-set-first] Reload program. Is Jonathan’s similar? Is it better? Should I switch?
The reason Jonathan put together his new after-40 workout is that he Hates—with a capital H—high reps…
While he made amazing size gains when he first went on the high-rep-set-first program outlined in [Read more…]
What Are Stage Sets? (Hint: They Work!)
Q: I read in one of your previous articles where you mentioned that you sometimes do Stage Sets. What are Stage Sets, and is that a good mass technique for me?
A: Many years ago, even before we developed X-Rep partials, we noticed that every time we introduced Stage Sets to our workouts, we got sudden muscularity and vascularity increases—and now we know why: The technique is essentially a unique type of X overload—an intense out-of-the-blocks blast right at the max-force point where the target muscle is semi-stretched, like near the bottom of an incline press… [Read more…]