Dedicated to Your Physical Transformation
Q: In Chapter 6 of The Super-Size Crash Course, you outline an alternate Phase 1 with Progressive-Speed 4X at one workout followed by Downward-Progression 4X+ at the next. Can I do both methods at the same workout?
A: Before we answer, let’s describe both mass tactics for those who aren’t familiar with them: [Read more…]
Q: Maybe I missed it since I’m a relatively new subscriber to your newsletter, but what is the Ultimate Exercise for shoulder size; wide-grip dumbbell upright rows or dumbbell presses?
A: We first identified each Ultimate Exercise for every major bodypart in our first e-book, The Ultimate Mass Workout. There’s a comprehensive chapter on each one, why they are best, and also a few complete programs with just those moves—like V-handle chins for lats… [Read more…]
Q: I want to do a weekly rotation of light, medium, and heavy POF. For
A: Your “weekly rotation” sounds like a great idea for adding mass along all pathways. And the variation should keep you stoked…
However, at 49 you are right on the cusp of heavy-training tolerance…
[Read more…]Q: I just got your Super-Size Crash Course. Great programs in it! I’m older (48) and have been training for almost 20 years. Thinking about using Phase 2 with Downward-Progression 4X, but I’ll alternate with TORQ for “lighter” training days. Do you think that’s a good plan?
A: We think it’s a great plan, and one we’ve used for excellent change—and good pain—to gain. For the uninitiated, here are the two methods to alternate:
Pick a weight with which you can get 15 reps, but only do 12. Rest 45 seconds as you add weight, then do 10. Rest 45 seconds as you add weight, then do 8. Rest 45 seconds as you add weight, then try to get 6.
So your reps look like this: 4 x 12, 10, 8, 6, adding weight on each set.
You could call that semi-heavy training, and it’s perfect for older trainees–or anyone who doesn’t want to hammer their joints with ultra-heavy poundages. The short rests between sets prevent that…
At your next workout, you’ll do lighter DENSITY training with TORQ—tension-overload repetition quantity.
Take your 30-rep max weight and go to failure. Yes, 30 REPS. Rest 45 seconds, then go to failure again, shooting for 20. Rest 45 seconds, then go to failure one last time for 10 to 15 reps. You get high-end hypertrophic tension times…
Alternating those two methods from workout to workout is great for SAFER power work alternated with lighter, sarcoplasmic-expansion hits.
It’s really a less-joint-stress version of Power-Density for new muscle immensity.
Note: DP 4X and TORQ, as well as Progressive-Speed 4X and pyramid training, are explained—and included in the programs—in The Super-Size Crash Course e-book.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com
Researchers from The Proceedings of The Nutrition Society are suggesting this “blood flow hack” is the fastest way to melt off frozen belly fat with minimal effort.
So if you want to switch on your fat burning switch in just 7 minutes—without going to the gym or running on the treadmill, then check this out:
Q: I’ve been following your newsletters and noticed you guys talking about rest/pause not too long ago. Can you explain the technique a little more and the reasoning behind it?
A: Rest/pause is basically taking a very short break after you hit exhaustion on a set, and then repping out again with the same weight. The brief rest/pause allows the lactic acid to clear somewhat from the muscle and the nervous system and ATP to regenerate to a degree as well.
Our first exposure to rest/pause was through scientific-minded pro bodybuilder Mike Mentzer. He used the technique on a series of heavy singles. He would do around four max singles with 10 to 15 seconds of rest between each. The first two singles he would usually get on his own; then on the third he would need help (forced rep). For the fourth rep, he would either reduce the weight enough so he could get another single by himself or do another forced single.
Mentzer’s is a good variation for big midrange movements every so often. The drawbacks are that singles are very dangerous—especially if you let your ego get involved—and that type of low-rep training is more geared to strength development than muscle size—although trainees with a lot of pure fast-twitch fibers like Mentzer may get an equal amount of size and strength from max-single rest/pause.
Another rendition of rest/pause is DC training. Here you take a weight that allows you to get about nine reps. Then you rest for 20 seconds and do another set with the same weight—getting around six reps. You rest for another 20 seconds and do a third and final set with the same weight, getting around four reps.
That’s geared more toward building size than strength, and it’s an excellent variation for big midrange movements, like presses and rows. [There’s more about DC and other rest/pause styles and how to apply them in the 3D Muscle Building e-book.]
We’ve found that rest/pause is a good shock tactic that adds muscle size quickly during our ripping phase, but we’re not so rigid with the application. For example, we’ll rest/pause for 15 seconds and then rep out for five or more extra reps on any exercise, be it midrange, stretch, or contracted—and we may even add X-Rep partials to that second phase. Another favorite is to use it after a Double-X Overload (DXO) set.
On incline presses, do one straight set of about nine reps. Rest for two to three minutes and reduce the weight by about 20 percent. Now do a DXO set, putting an X-Rep partial at the bottom between each full rep.
That gives you a more explosive-style set that stresses the semi-stretch point at the turnaround for extra fast-twitch activation. When you reach exhaustion, probably around six or seven, rack the weight and count to 15. Then unrack the weight and do standard reps to exhaustion—and, if you’re looking for max-growth effects, add X-Rep partials at the back end of that set.
That’s a very concentrated anabolic stimulus. You get extra force generation, pump, burn and plenty of out-of-control profanities—it’s an all-encompassing technique that can reshape your physique.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com
Mike Westerdal is a renowned personal trainer and national best-selling physical preparedness author, but he’s also a father and a husband… who would do anything to protect his family.
He used to get pushed around when younger and spent years building up his body and becoming stronger, getting mentally and physically tough the hard way. As he got bigger, he learned to handle himself, and working in security, he learned first-hand how violence really plays out.
Some of the other guys online who show off their self-defense videos and books need to get a grip. The level of skill needed to pull off their basic moves is CRAZY for most ordinary people.
If a defense system requires more than a few hours to master, it’s not a program.
The only techniques you will ever use are the simple ones.
They need to work for an ordinary person without prior training, technique, or ability.
So even if you think you don’t have time to learn how to defend yourself…
You don’t need to spend years training to be a martial artist.
Q: Looking in the mirror, I see that somehow I’ve gotten very fat. I go to the gym, but I guess my eating has been out of hand for too long. Is there anything I should concentrate on during my workouts to help lose the fat? I plan to do cardio after every weight workout, something you’ve suggested. I desperately want to be ripped enough to see abs!
A: First, get your diet under control. You must start eating clean—cut down the junk—and get on an anabolic-meal schedule. Your best bet will be a typical bodybuilding diet, so eat at least 25 grams of protein at six meals a day. Try to eat every two to three hours, and get some carbs too—enough to refill muscle glycogen stores, which is about 200 grams a day. If you need examples, see X-treme Lean; it contains our complete meal-by-meal diets to help you get ripped…
[Read more…]Q: I got your X-centric Mass Workout. Motivating info, and I messed around with some X-centric variations in my last workouts. Enjoying the new muscle soreness. I want to start using the Direct/Indirect X-centric Mass Workout [outlined in that e-book]. It has a standard heavy pyramid on the big exercises, last set X-centric. What do you think of using downward progression 4X instead with the last set X-centric?
A: For those who don’t have the X-centric Mass Workout e-book, the workout being referred to is Positions of Flexion, with a pyramid + X-centric set on the midrange exercise, a straight set or two on the stretch move, and a 4X sequence on the contracted-position exercise.
For example, for middle-lower chest it’s…
[Read more…]Q: I’m intrigued by the Super TORQ ultra-high-rep approach. But I’m also making great gains with your standard 3-exercise Positions of Flexion training. Can I use his method on one of the three exercises for each bodypart in the POF routine, or would that be too much?
A: If you’ve read the interview with Doug Brignole in The Ultimate Power-Density Mass Workout 2.0 and checked out his program there, you can see that he only does ONE key exercise for each target muscle with that extreme high-rep approach…
[Read more…]Q: I got your Power-Density Mass Workout 2.0, and I really like the 3-way split of the Basic Workout. I also like doing only one or two exercises for each muscle with a power hit and a density hit at the same workout. My question is, I’m 48 years old and not sure I can handle pyramiding down to 5 reps on big exercises, so should I just do regular 8-rep sets to failure? These days my joints don’t like anything below 8 on most exercises.
A: That’s a good solution. For example, on chest-supported dumbbell rows for mid-back, your set sequence would be…
[Read more…]Q: I just got The Ultimate Fat-to-Muscle Workout e-book because of all the positive feedback I’ve seen. Looking over the program I notice that it’s a four-days-per-week system, but you only hit each muscle once. Is that really going to be enough work for each bodypart? I really want to lean out quickly and still build muscle.
A: If you traumatize a muscle enough, it will require several days for full recovery. And that’s one of the goals with that program…
[Read more…]
