Doug had an interesting take on recovery and growth after a workout, something I totally agree with: 48 hours, or two days, is usually not enough… [Read more…]
Your Muscle Recovery Moving Target
Q: I’m 75 with years of lifting experience, but the [40-minute] Old Man Young Muscle 2 workout 3 times a week feels like too much at times. I do great for two weeks, but then I lose motivation and feel tired. Am I overtraining? Any suggestions?
A: I’ve mentioned here many times that your recover ability is a moving target… [Read more…]
Mass Mantra #44
Here’s an eye-opening quote is from former pro bodybuilder Tom Platz, who was third in the Mr. Olympia was third in 1981… [Read more…]
More Rest After Excess Stress to Grow Muscle
Q: The study you discussed that showed eccentric [negative] contractions cause more damage than concentric [positive] or isometric is interesting. Makes sense, but I wonder that if more rest days were included after eccentric training if that would make a difference?
A: I would say yes, however, each type of contraction may contribute to growth in different ways… [Read more…]
Muscle-Firing Frequency for Fat Loss
Q: You’ve said that training each muscle only once a week doesn’t work for most people. But I just got the Fat-to-Muscle Workout (thank you for the sale price!), and both the four-day and three-day workouts train each muscle only once a week. Am I missing something?
A: You’re not missing anything; we’re just insane. Seriously, in the Q&A section of The Ultimate Fat-to-Muscle Workout we mention a study on negative-style training and the need it creates for much MORE RECOVERY. That’s the answer… [Read more…]
Slow Down, Grow Muscle
In a recent article, we discussed how inflicting more muscle trauma requires more recovery time. If you do enough damage, you may only need once-a-week training for each muscle. And if you slow down and use the right techniques, your workouts will still be relatively short… [Read more…]
The Perfect Rest Time for Packing on Muscle Mass
Q: I’m an avid reader of your e-books as well as your website. I’ve been experimenting recently with a heavy set to failure (approximately 10 reps), adding X-Rep partials to the end. Then I do a second X-Only set, often with added weight. This is an excellent trigger for growth, especially if you warm up using the DXO [Double-X Overload] technique. On the warmup set, I do anywhere from four to five X Reps between [full-range] reps, and the burn is incredible! That [combination] has had such a strong effect on my body, that I now have some stretch marks appearing. I’m definitely getting much more muscular while dropping fat. Another thing I’ve been experimenting with is shortening the stroke of X Reps, to the point where I’m almost doing a static hold. I just pulse out very small partial reps. Which brings me to static holds. Research shows subjects adding a few pounds of muscle after only one workout, but that workout was followed by two weeks of rest. Surely two weeks off between workouts is ridiculous. I was wondering how you stand on recovery time and static holds?
A: Thanks for the feedback and your confidence in our methods. We discuss a lot of what you’re discovering and experimenting with in our X-Rep Update #1 e-book. Former Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler used a lot of X-Only sets, as we discuss in Chapter 5, Mr. O’s Wild X-O Workouts. Notice Cutler’s short stroke on this exercise…
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