Q: The Size Surge e-book is one of my favorites. Solid programs and talk about motivation—Jonathan gaining 20 pounds of muscle in two months. Wow. The Super-Size Crash Course shows Jordon Williamson gaining 18 pounds of muscle in 12 weeks or so. Why did it take him almost a month longer to gain less mass than Jonathan, and how much muscle is possible per month? [Read more…]
Back to Basics for More Mass
Q: I’ve been killing my workouts for about three months, using mostly heavy sets, finishing with 4X and TORQ. Making excellent gains, but I think it’s time to back off and get back to basics. What program would you suggest? I’m thinking three days a week for a while with basic mass-building exercises.
A: We have several. If you’ve never used 10×10, now may be the time. There is an excellent 3-way split routine in The 10×10 Mass Workout e-book. You could just use it 3 days a week, training each muscle once or train four days a week, so the Monday workout repeats on Friday… [Read more…]
Shift Your Anabolic Mass Machine Into Overdrive With Progressive Speed
Q: I love the 4X mass method and am already seeing new size from it after only two weeks. I notice you’ve been recommending different methods on each set sometimes. Does that work better for mass? Should I be doing that?
A: One method we often recommend is the progressive speed tactic. We know one thing about it for certain: The feel is unreal—deep ache with a muscle-expanding pump after only three sets… [Read more…]
Huge Pump, Big Gains, New Veins—Grand-Finale Mass Blast
Q: I have the new Size Surge Workout 2.0, and I like the idea of adding a unique finisher to top off the pump and stimulate new growth. You suggest using a different exercise than was used in each 3-exercise Positions-of-Flexion bodypart routine, such as ending quads with leg presses, and to do it in negative or speed style. What about using Pre-Exhaustion as you’ve been discussing recently instead—like finishing off quads with a leg extension-leg press superset, one round?
A: We like that idea a lot. The idea of isolating the target muscle and then immediately blasting it further past the growth threshold with the help of other muscles is an almost magical mass-building method. And the huge pump you get with Pre-Ex is unreal… [Read more…]
One Quick Tip to Pack on Muscle Mass Fast (it hurts, but it works!)
Q: I just got the Size Surge 2.0 e-book (thanks for the great price). It’s excellent, but you don’t mention X Reps much. I know you said when Jonathan got his great results with the original Size Surge program, you hadn’t developed X-es yet. I’ve built a lot of mass with that technique, so should I include X Reps in either phase?
A: For the uninitiated, X Reps are short eight-inch partials at the end of a full-range set. We’ll give you an alternate end-of-set mass move in a moment, but first, here’s a quick explanation of X Reps… [Read more…]
Muscle-Building Mistake You Can’t Afford to Make
Q: A lot of bodybuilders go all power in the off-season. They push for more strength so size will follow. I’m thinking about using the Phase 1 program in Size Surge for that purpose—mostly big exercises with heavy weights training three days a week so I get plenty of recover-and-grow time. Would that program be okay to use for the entire 10 weeks instead of moving to Phase 2?
A: You’re right, even Arnold used to do a two-to-three-month power phase in the winter—but it wasn’t heavy low reps on every exercise, as we’ll explain. That’s the problem with the way most trainees do it: They go heavy on ALL exercises all the time for too long and neglect critical sarcoplasmic size, which can be a big muscle-building mistake… [Read more…]
Do One Set Slow For New Muscle Growth
Q: I’m having a lot of trouble with delts. I don’t feel any of the exercises, and my delts never get sore. Right now I’m using a [Positions-of-Flexion] routine. Should I add exercises for some new muscle growth in my shoulders?
A: One of the big problems with delts is that they don’t get enough eccentric, or negative stress. And science says that lowering is the most important for muscle growth (the negative is what causes muscle soreness)…
Think about it. On lateral raises, the leverage shift is extreme, with high resistance through the top third of the stroke and almost zero through the bottom third. [Read more…]
Build Your Future Freak Physique Now
Q: Now that the weather has cooled down a bunch, I’m looking for a mass workout program for winter, to build as much size as possible. Then I’ll start to lean out in the early spring thaw. What type of program should I use? Big, basic power-bodybuilding routine or something like 4X Positions of Flexion? I can’t decide.
A: Winter is a long haul, so why not do both? A good place to start is with something like Jonathan’s Size Surge program—but you can do it with a few twists… [Read more…]
The 10-Minute Muscle Maker
Q: If 4×10 [as in the 4X technique] is so effective at achieving both power and density for maximum muscle mass, why would one bother with 10×10? You wrote that a trainee should only stay on 10×10 for three to four weeks since staying on it longer may compromise the power component. If you believe 4×10 is clearly superior, why waste time on 10×10?
A: 10×10 is a PURE DENSITY shock tactic that can produce big gains in muscle size quickly—and you only do it on one key exercise for each bodypart. That means it takes only 10 minutes to thoroughly and completely blast a muscle into the growth zone—but we only recommend this pure density approach for a four-week shock phase… [Read more…]
10-Minute Big Arm Blast
Q: I’ve been using the Size Surge Phase 1 routine for only 2 weeks, and I’ve already added almost a half inch to my arms. I was skeptical since there’s only one direct arm workout each week [Wednesday], but I guess it’s like you said: the chest and back work on Monday and Friday hit arms hard too. Anyway, thanks for opening my eyes. I was wondering what you thought of supersetting the biceps and triceps exercises on Wednesday. I know Bill Pearl used to do that. BTW, I’m using 4X on my arm exercises.
A: It’s hard to argue with Bill Pearl considering his incredible mass—and his heyday was when steroids were in their infancy; minor use, if any, was happening back in the ’60s. Pearl was a staunch proponent of supersetting a biceps exercise with a triceps exercise because it made his arms so huge and full. Talk about in-the-gym motivation! The photo of Pearl above says it all. [Read more…]
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