Size Surge 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

Step Back to Move Your Muscle Mass Forward

Q: I’m super impressed! I’ve been on the Size Surge workout for four weeks, and I’ve gained 7 pounds. My shirts are tighter with no increase in my waist, so it seems to be all muscle. The program calls for a back-off, or low-intensity, week between the two training phases. Is that really necessary, or can I go right into Phase 2? I don’t want to lose any mass. Any time I’ve taken a week off or even reduced my training, I’ve gotten smaller.

A: No, do not go right into Phase 2. The back-off week (#6) between the two phases has a definite purpose. It will allow your nervous system to recharge and your muscles to completely recover so you can push into the next phase with more intensity. And during that downshift week, you should get bigger, not smaller, despite what you thought you experienced in the past. Here is what hypertrophy researcher Brad Schoenfeld, Ph.D., says about the process… [Read more…]

How to Thicken Your Back and Re-Rip Your Abs

Q: In the Pre-Ex 3X Mass Workout and Size Surge 2.0 e-books I just got, you have bent-arm bent-over laterals for midback. The illustration shows palms facing back, but I feel them better with my palms down. Which way is best for midback mass? I need more thickness between my shoulder blades.

A: The bent-arm bent-over lateral raise is a CONTRACTED-position midback exercise in the Positions-of-Flexion mass-building protocol. You do them like a bent-over lateral raise for your rear delts, only you allow more of an elbow bend so you can better squeeze your middle traps to thicken your back. [Read more…]

Postactivation for More Muscle Separation

Q: I have trouble feeling my chest working on bench presses. I’m in phase 1 of Jonathan’s X-traordinary Size Surge Workout program, so my sets for chest are limited. Is it okay to do more bench press work sets, or should I add an isolation exercise like pec deck flyes?

A: First be sure you’re using the concentrated warmup sequence for big multi-joint exercises as we’ve mentioned in a previous article. For those who missed it… [Read more…]

3 Simple Changes to Get You Growing

You know our mantra: You can trigger bigger gains with one small change. But let’s multiply that for even more mass. We’ve got 3 simple things to get you growing immediately… [Read more…]

Anabolic Phasing: Muscle Hypertrophy Tsunami

Q: I’ve been following the current bodybuilding training trend of hitting each muscle once a week with lots of sets. Growth has been slow, but you’d think that with so much volume and intensity at one workout, it should take a full week for that muscle to completely recover, right?

Well, training each muscle with lots of volume once a week will produce some growth—if intensity is high enough to produce significant damage. The question is how much is enough?

Less volume for each muscle but with more frequent body part hits has proven a better, more sure-fire method for optimal hypertrophy in most cases and works as a sort of anabolic phasing… [Read more…]

2 Workouts a Week for a Massive Physique

Q: The Size Surge program is very motivating, and I want to start. I’m very skinny. My problem is that I can only make it to the gym two days a week. Can I make any progress doing that? Can you suggest how to alter the program for two workouts a week instead of three?

A: Yes, you can make progress on 2 workouts a week. In fact, our colleague, Stuart McRobert, who is a hardgainer expert, often suggests that high-strung “skinny” types (ectomorphs) train ONLY two days a week for best results. More than that, he says, can deplete too much recovery ability and slow or halt muscle gains. [Read more…]

Full Inch of New Arm Muscle in 3 Weeks

Q: You guys are awesome! Anabolic Reload put a half-inch on my arms in less than a month. My arms have always lagged, so I’m blown away. I hit each muscle twice a week with about 12 sets. I didn’t want to reduce my sets on all, so I just did [STX] for arms. I started with the high-rep set followed by a heavy set, then I added a rest/pause every arm workout like the program says. My sleeves got tight almost immediately. Just want to thank you for getting my puny arms up bigger than they’ve ever been. I plan on trying this for each muscle through the winter. [Read more…]

Freak-Factor Training (new muscle mass guaranteed)

Q: I used the 10-Week Size Surge program years ago and gained almost 10 pounds of muscle on it. I’m now getting close to 40, so I wanted to report how I’ve been using it to add a lot of middle-age muscle. I’ve merged Anabolic Reload and the Phase 1 Size Surge routine like this: On Mondays I use high-to-low-rep Reload [STX] on lower body and standard heavy Size Surge work on upper body. Then Friday I reverse that. Wednesday is arms and abs only, so I just alternate, doing Reload one week and heavy Size Surge sets the next. It’s been two months, and I look better than I did in my 20s.

Devising new mass routines that work for you as an individual is part of the fun of bodybuilding. Of course, packing on loads of new mass and looking awesome from your new freak-factor training is even better. [Read more…]

Your Anabolic Size Surge Winter Workout

Q: I’m thinking about the 10-Week Size Surge for part of my winter workout mass training while I’m piling in the calories (can’t wait for Thanksgiving). I know Phase 1 is big, basic work three days a week. But I also like the total-fiber swole of Anabolic Reload. Can I merge them somehow to really jack my gains?

You didn’t mention your level of training or your age, but we’ll address that in a moment. Let’s talk general mass-building terms… [Read more…]