X-REP.COM

Dedicated to Your Physical Transformation

Stretch-Position Exercises

Q: I’m using the three-position training of POF [as outlined in the 3D Muscle Building e-book] and have made excellent gains with it. I recently purchased your Quick-Start Muscle Building Guide for my nephew. It’s excellent, and I can already see changes in his muscles after three weeks, but I wonder why you don’t include stretch-position exercises, like incline curls for biceps, in the workouts. I’m sure stretch exercises are one reason I’ve added so much muscle with POF, so if beginners are to make the fastest gains possible, I would think they should use full 3D POF programs. No?

A: The reason we don’t include stretch-position exercises in the Quick-Start program is that they are more dangerous for beginners. Joe Horrigan, D.C., of the Soft Tissue Center, uses the often-injured lower-back as an example: [Read more…]

Exciting Muscle-Size Insights

Q: After reading one of your articles that discussed the study where light, longer sets built muscle, I was thinking that maybe that’s why X Reps build so much size. Because they’re partial reps where the muscle is stretched, you block blood flow and get more tension time by making the set last longer. Do you think that’s the case—that X Reps work because they make a set last longer?

A: No doubt that ex-tending the set with X-Reps is one reason those power partials are so effective at building more muscle. As you said, you not only pulse at the target-muscle’s strongest point, where it’s elongated, but you also force the muscle to continue firing for five or more extra seconds—which means a longer tension time on any set with X Reps tacked on. That was the ground-breaking finding of that study—that extending tension time was another way to trigger hypertrophic stimulation…

[Read more…]

Shirt-Splitting Muscle Size

Q: I am in need of some back width, or more specifically, lat development. I’m following your 3D HIT program listed in the X-traordinary Arms e-book, but I’m not getting a pump, and I have a hard time feeling my back working. Do you guys have any suggestions?

A: The 3D Positions-of-Flexion lat routine in that program is…

Chins (midrange), 1 x 9-12
Dumbbell pullovers (stretch), 1 x 9-12
Rope rows (contracted), 1 x 12-15

One reason you may not be getting a big pump is the last (contracted) exercise, rope rows…

[Read more…]

Moment of Bodybuilding Zen 7: Arnold & Son

Check out Arnold in his prime below and his son Joseph, age 21. The resemblance is uncanny. Are genetics important in bodybuilding? Absolutely, as is the case in most sports. 

Read more

Loosen Up to Unleash Extreme Muscle Growth

Q: Have you heard of FST-7 training, and if so, what do you think of it? It has to do with stretching the muscle fascia from the inside with 7 sets of a big-pump exercise at the end of a bodypart workout. 

A: The idea of stretching the muscle fascia, which is the fibrous encasements that surround muscle fibers, has been around a while in many incarnations. The original method had trainees use a rigorous, painful stretching regimen after they trained a bodypart.

For example, after working hamstrings, the trainee would sit on the floor, legs straight and together, and his or her trainer would force the trainee’s torso forward to fully elongate the hamstrings—and it brought tears to the eyes.

[Read more…]

Convert New Muscle Strength to Serious Muscle Size

Q: I’ve been using the Power Pyramid Program (Chapter 2 in the Freak-Physique Stretch-Overload Workout e-book) for six weeks. I’m getting incredibly strong, but I’ve only gained about four pounds of muscle. I realize it’s a muscle strength workout with a size side effect, but now I’m ready to use my new strength to go for major muscle mass. I also want to get leaner. I’m 5’10” and weigh 200 pounds with 14 percent bodyfat. What type of routine should I follow? I really like using Positions of Flexion in the Power Pyramid Program. Can I just alter that routine somehow for my new goals? 

A: Ah, so now that you’re strong like an ox, you want to get even bigger with some leanness to boot. Sounds good, and it can and will happen. You just need to take your new power in a slightly different direction—still using the multi-angular attack of POF, but altered so you pack on the most muscle size—complete development from origin to insertion. 

[Read more…]

How to Cut Back to Grow

Q: The idea of a few medium-intensity [subfailure] workouts after many weeks of going all out makes perfect sense to me. My question is, Should I reduce my poundages so I can do the same number of reps, or should I stick with my same working poundages and just do fewer reps? Which way is best?

A: We prefer to use the same phase-training approach Jonathan used on the 10-week Size Surge Program when he gained 20 pounds of muscle. For each of his two supercompensation weeks, he used the same work weights and just stopped two reps short of failure—and that worked amazingly well for him. He actually appeared to get bigger during each downshift week as his muscles and nervous system supercompensated.

[Read more…]

Jaw-Dropping Growth With the Austrian Oak

Q: I saw someone mention that Arnold used Positions of Flexion. Is that true? I’m thinking about trying it, but I’m not sure if it will work.

A: Arnold, the Austrian Oak, used a lot of exercises, so he definitely favored a multi-angular approach in his training. If you look at the workouts he used during his bodybuilding dominance, you’ll see shades of Positions of Flexion (POF), such as bench presses (midrange), flyes (stretch), and crossovers (contracted) for his massive chest.

One bodypart on which he did make a conscious effort to train those three particular angles was biceps. His favorite routine was barbell or dumbbell curls (midrange), incline curls (stretch), and concentration curls (contracted)…

[Read more…]

Ultimate Exercise for Hamstrings

Q: I have both the Ultimate Mass Workout and the Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building e-books. Congratulations on such well-researched, pertinent information and programs. My gains with X Reps and POF have been well above my expectations. My question concerns hamstrings. The Ultimate Mass e-book says that feet-forward Smith-machine front squats is the ultimate exercise for hamstrings, but the Smith machine at my gym isn’t bolted to the floor, so it moves easily. I don’t want to risk an injury, so I’ve been using feet-forward hack squats on a hack machine, but I don’t feel my hamstrings working when I do those. Should I try walking lunges instead? I’m 6’4” tall if that makes a difference.

A: Both feet-forward Smith-machine squats and feet-forward hack squats can be hard to feel in the hamstrings; we’re so conditioned to think about quads when we squat, it’s difficult to grasp that the opposing muscle group should be doing a lot of the work. Then there’s the fact that the front-squat version on a Smith machine can be uncomfortable for some people (Jonathan hates it with a passion, but he did pose for the photo below)…

[Read more…]

Stick to Only Big, Basic Exercises?

Q: I’ve been lifting for about 1 1/2 years, trying to build a mass base, but it’s just not happening very fast. I like the idea of 3D Positions of Flexion [training each muscle in its midrange, stretch, and contracted positions], but almost everyone I talk to says to stick to only the big, basic exercises and forget about isolation moves. Should I just continue using the big basics and hope I build size and strength, or is now the time for me to try 3D POF?

A: Using only the big, basic exercises, what we call midrange-position moves like squats for quads, is fine for, say, a six-week phase every so often (like winter); however, we firmly believe that those who make big gains using only big exercises have an abundance of pure fast-twitch fibers and exceptional nerve-to-muscle connections (neuromuscular efficiency). They are genetically gifted, unlike the majority…

[Read more…]