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Back Work for Arm Size — Say what?

Q: Help! I need triceps sweep. Mine look flat from the side, and I’ve tried every exercise there is. Any suggestions?

A: We discuss a number of triceps “sweep” techniques and exercises in the X-traordinary Arms e-book, such as lying extensions, which mainly target the triceps’ long head, and dumbbell overhead extensions, which hit the long head with important stretch overload. If you’ve tried all of those long-head-specific exercises and programs, you may want to specialize on building some lat size. (Say what?) [Read more…]

Fast 3D Muscle Mass: Efficiency-of-Effort Back Attack

Q: I don’t have a lot of time to train, which is why I look to you for info. All of your techniques and workouts revolve around efficiency, which is great. I can’t afford to waste time. My question is about back training. When I do a 3D POF lat routine, doesn’t my midback get plenty of work too? And isn’t the opposite true as well: When I train midback, don’t my lats get enough stimulation? I just don’t want to do extra work that’s not necessary. Every minute I’m in the gym must count.

A: We hear you. We squeeze our training into a limited schedule, so our primary concern is efficiency-of-effort muscle building. That’s why we try a lot of things and discard what doesn’t work, constantly refining our workouts. [Read more…]

Bench Press Stress

Q: A guy at my gym told me that dumbbell bench presses are better than barbell benches for chest development. He said it’s because of the increased range of motion you can get with the dumbbells and the pec squeeze you can do at the top. What do you think? Should I switch?

A: Well, as we explain in The Ultimate Mass Workout e-book, neither of those is best for chest development; decline presses are a much better choice because that angle puts you in a more ergonomically correct position for hitting pecs and minimizing front-delt involvement (it’s why people lift their butts off the bench when doing them flat—to get into the more advantageous decline position). [Read more…]

Detail Your Delts

Q: I’m having trouble with the incline one-arm lateral raise [stretch-position delt exercise]. I tend to lose my balance when I’m on my side on the incline bench, and I can’t feel my center-delt head working. Any suggestions?

A: It does take some jostling and positioning to get set on the incline bench for incline one-arm lateral raises—but it’s worth the time to get it right since these can really help detail your delts. It was an Arnold favorite, and for good reason: It stretches the medial head as well as the posterior head, both of which add considerable roundness to your delts. [Read more…]

Fat-to-Muscle Facts and Photos

Q: I saw before and after photos of Steve’s wife, Becky, on your site. Amazing transformation! My girlfriend would like to know what type of program she used. Did she use X Reps, or should women not use that type of intense training?

A: Becky’s transformation took a few months (she kept having to restart due to motivation issues—so much fat to lose was overwhelming to her—and she didn’t use X Reps because we hadn’t developed that technique yet; however, she did use static holds, which we call a Static X. At the end of a set to exhaustion, she would drive the weight up as far as she could and hold for a five count or so to extend the tension time. That had a similar muscle fiber-activation boost as well as occlusion effects. She added muscle and lost fat quickly, as you can see from her before and after photos… [Read more…]

The Best Exercise for XL Triceps Size

Q: I’ve learned a lot from the X-traordinary Arms e-book I received with Anabolic After-40; however, I’m a hardgainer with limited recovery ability, so I’m looking for the single best exercise for triceps, one that hits all three heads. I also have your Ultimate Mass Workout e-book, in which you discuss the single best exercise for each bodypart. For triceps you list close-grip decline bench presses, but those don’t work for me. I just don’t feel my triceps. Any other suggestions?

A: Usually when someone doesn’t feel an exercise it’s because another muscle group is taking more of the stress, like chest and delts on close-grip bench presses. Also, neuromuscular efficiency may be deficient in the target muscle—your triceps are low in nerve-to-muscle connections. [Read more…]

The First-Set Secret to Muscle Size

Q: I have a hard time feeling warmed up for my first heavy set. I’ve tried three progressively heavier warmup sets before my work set, but I still don’t feel ready to blast on my first work set on most exercises. That’s a problem because it is my only work set, as I’m using your 3D HIT program [listed in X-traordinary Arms]. It’s like I’m wasting my big midrange exercise. Should I do two work sets for insurance?

A: We believe that not being warmed up properly is one of the biggest reasons high-intensity programs fail to build much muscle. Being completely “warm” for your first work set is important on any program, but it’s especially critical on one-work-set-per-exercise routines like our 3D HIT. We’ve got a couple of solutions for this first-set secret to muscle size… [Read more…]

HIT Hoax? 60 Pounds of Muscle in 4 Weeks—The Truth

Q: I just read a few of your articles about 3D Muscle Building, and you say some guy built 60 pounds of muscle in four weeks. Come on. I hate it when the impossible is touted as being the norm. That never happened, which is probably why you don’t show pictures of the guy. The only photos I see are Jonathan’s before and after. His 20 pounds of muscle in 10 weeks is impressive, but it’s a far cry from 60 pounds in a month. Got any pictures of the 60-pound gain? I didn’t think so.

A: We’re as skeptical as the next guy, but believe it or not, it did happen—back in 1971. It was called the Colorado Experiment, and it was Arthur Jones’ attempt at proving that his Nautilus machines and high-intensity training could build muscle very, very quickly (and we do have the pics; see below). [Read more…]

New 3D HIT: More Muscle, Less Time?

Q: I’ve been checking out a lot of the high-intensity-training (HIT) stuff on the Web. Using one all-out intense set per exercise makes a lot of sense. But doing only one exercise per bodypart, as in most HIT programs, does not make sense to me. That’s why I want to try the more abbreviated HIT approach combined with 3D POF [training each muscle in three positions for full-range activation]. Any suggestions?

A: What you’re talking about is a key reason 3D Positions of Flexion evolved. It attacks the full contractibility range of a muscle for maximum fiber recruitment as well as [Read more…]