quick-start muscle building Archives

Home-Gym Training

Q: I’ve been following your Quick-Start Muscle Building Guide [for beginners]. I’m currently on week 4, and it’s a great program. I’m already seeing results, but I’ve been reading about X Reps and the Positions-of-Flexion approach to lifting. I want to start using those as part of my home-gym training. I currently have only a pair of dumbbells, an EZ-curl bar, and an adjustable bench. Which program I should follow next? I’m not sure I can do POF with my limited equipment.

A: That’s a limited gym alright, and if you’re going to with your home-gym training, consider adding some essentials. For now you can continue progressing with what you have—although you didn’t say if the dumbbells are adjustable or selectorized (so you can change the weight by moving a pin or twisting a dial; you may want to check out PowerBlock if you’re going to keep training at home; it’s pictured and explained on page 42 after the home-gym version of the Quick-Start program).

A good program to move to next is Jonathan’s 10-week Size Surge, but you may need to add some equipment to get the best gains. The first five weeks is a big basic program, three days a week; the second five weeks is full POF workouts for every bodypart (there’s also a chapter in the 3D Muscle Building e-book on X Reps and how to use them). Here are a few substitute exercises for a home gym:

•Leg extensions: Do old-style hack squats instead, heels on a 2×4 and bar held at arm’s length behind your butt; do squats, but flex your quads at the top of each rep.

•Leg curls: If you train alone, you may have to get some bands and connect them to an upright so you can hook your feet in them, lie on a bench and do band leg curls; if you have a partner, he or she can wrap a towel around your ankles and provide manual resistance through the leg curl stroke. If you have a set of PowerBlocks, you can also wedge your foot into a set of “plates” when the handle’s removed.

•Crossovers: Do flat or decline flyes with dumbbells, but squeeze your pecs for two seconds at the top of each rep.

•Incline cable flyes: Do incline flyes with dumbbells, but squeeze your pecs for two second at the top of each rep.

•Pulldowns: Do chins (you need some type of chinning bar—there are some good doorway-mounted ones).

•Machine pullovers: Dumbbell pullovers; then undergrip chins (as we said, you need a chinning bar).

•Behind-the-neck pulldowns: Delete these (the reasons why are explained in the e-book).

•Ab Bench crunches: Full-range crunches on a bench, your feet on a bar across the uprights and your upper back hanging off the end somewhat so you can get a stretch in the rectus abdominis.

All the other exercises in the program you can perform with heavy dumbbells.

If you’re going to continue training at home, we highly recommend adding more equipment so you have more variety and can train heavier.

Taking your gym and workouts up a notch will be worth it. Using heavy basic work in Phase 1 and following with five weeks of full-range POF training is how Jonathan packed on 20 pounds of muscle in one 10-week period with the Size Surge program…

Jonathan Lawson before and after photos from 10-Week Size Surge - Home-Gym Training

Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.

—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com

ANABOLIC HORMONE RESET SOLUTION

Yes, it is possible to simultaneously build muscle while losing fat…

The right form of intermittent fasting will help you gain more muscle while you burn fat…

That’s because it supercharges your anabolic environment, including testosterone and growth hormone production.

According to Dr. Michael Mosley, it results in “better metabolic adaptations, improved muscle-protein synthesis and a higher anabolic response to post-exercise feedings.” [J App Phys., Jan. 2011: 236-45]

Proper fasting will NOT have you burning muscle—just the opposite as your body fat decreases and your testosterone and growth hormone increase. [Webber, J., et al. (1994). Br J Nutr.]

Still on the fence? Our friend Shaun Hadsall used an approach similar to how The Rock does it, which is explained in the new 1-Day Hormone Reset protocol, developed specifically for the over-40 crowd (women use it too, as you’ll see). Check out his results at the link below…

–> Your anabolic hormone RESET to melt fat, build muscle, and slow aging

20 to 80 Pounds of Muscle

Q: I did the first [5-week phase] of Jonathan’s 20-pounds-of-muscle-in-10-weeks program [from the 3D Muscle Building e-book] and didn’t get much size from it. I gained about 3 pounds and still feel skinny. Should I go ahead and do the second five weeks of different 3D Positions-of-Flexion workouts? Do you think that by hitting all of the positions [in the Phase 2 workouts] that I will make better gains than with the first part?

A: Full speed ahead—continue with Phase 2 (your gains from Phase 1 are actually darned good; more on that in a moment). By shifting to training each muscle in the midrange, stretch and contracted positions, you should get another more sizeable muscular adaptation (growth jolt).

[Read more…]

Quick-Start Muscle Attack

Q: I just finished 8 weeks on your beginning program [in the Quick-Start Muscle-Building Guide]. What muscle attack should I do next?

A: After the beginning programs in the Quick-Start Muscle-Building Guide, try the workout on pages 21-23 of The X-centric Mass Workout. You will still be doing a big midrange exercise and a more isolated contracted-position exercise for each muscle, as you are now, but you’ll use more volume and specific mass-building variations (power + density)… [Read more…]

What routine should I do next?

Q: I have a few questions: 1) After the beginner’s guide [Quick-Start Muscle Building] what routine should I do next? 2) Is it unusual to “feel” bigger as you go [through the Quick-Start programs]? It’s like an awareness of my muscles that I’ve never had—strange but nice. 3) I’m unclear on what to do if I’m sore and it’s time to work that muscle again—like my chest is still really sore, it’s chest day again tomorrow, so do I work it or skip?

A: Great questions. We suggest you follow up with the 3D Muscle Building e-book after the beginner’s guide (Quick-Start). There is a 10-week program in it that Jonathan used to add a lot of muscle quickly (see his before and after photos below). You can try it as it’s listed, the exact way he used it, or the retooled version with X Reps. If you just started lifting, however, we recommend his first non-X-Rep version in Chapter 1 until you have about six months of training under your belt… [Read more…]

What Next?

Q: I have a few questions: 1) After the beginner’s guide [Quick-Start Muscle Building] what e-book do I go to next? 2) Is it unusual to “feel” bigger as you go [through the Quick-Start programs]? It’s like an awareness of my muscles that I’ve never had—strange but nice. 3) I’m unclear on what to do if I’m sore and it’s time to work that muscle again—like my chest is still really sore, it’s chest day again, so do I work it or skip?

A: Great questions. We suggest you follow up with the 3D Muscle Building e-book after the beginner’s guide (Quick Start). There is a 10-week program in it that Jonathan used to add a lot of muscle quickly. You can try it as it’s listed, the exact way he used it, or the retooled version with X Reps. If you just started lifting, however, we recommend his first non-X-Rep version in Chapter 1 until you have about six months of training under your belt.

No, it’s not unusual to feel bigger using the Quick Start Guide. The program is designed with that in mind—using force-generation exercises plus the neuromuscular stimulation of slow contracted-position exercises. That provides the perfect growth stimulus for the beginner, as the research studies we discuss in that e-book indicate. Most beginning programs don’t build muscle from the get-go; the Quick Start workouts do, as you’re finding out.

As for soreness, if it’s only mild, you can hit the muscle hard when it’s time. If soreness is more severe, you should train the muscle again, but use lighter poundages and don’t go to exhaustion on your exercises. In other words, make it an easy, pump workout to bathe the muscle in nutrient-rich blood. Keep the reps fairly high (around 12) on each exercise, with the 12th rep being fairly easy. You should strive for full engorgement to facilitate recovery and growth.

NOTE: The Quick-Start Muscle Building Guide is perfect for beginners, obviously, but it’s also ideal if you’ve slacked off and haven’t trained in a while but want to make a serious comeback. It’s a great addition to any muscle-building library, and you can get a copy HERE. The 3D Muscle Building e-book is the POF bible and full of great info that should be mandatory for anyone serious about building muscle. Grab your copy HERE.

Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.

—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com

ATTENTION OVER-40 BODYBUILDERS

One of the most interesting read-me pages on Testosterone and other muscle-building hormones we’ve seen is The Truth About Testosterone.

It even talks about a fruit, a specific part, that can up your T naturally. Cranking up your testosterone will not only get you jacked in the gym, but in the bedroom too—not to mention help rip up your midsection as it ignites fat burning. If that interests you, there’s more from our colleague and registered dietician, HERE.