Dedicated to Your Physical Transformation
I was Iron Man magazine’s editor in chief for 27 years, and for 20 of those I worked out with our advertising coordinator Jonathan Lawson, who was about 15 years my junior.
But youth wasn’t the only thing he had over me from a bodybuilding perspective. He was also much more [Read more…]
I’ve mentioned that going to failure—grinding until you can’t get another rep—can derail mass gains. Too much of that and you can’t recover by your next workout, which cancels out growth…
The reason is usually said to be muscle damage. Hitting failure on multiple sets creates a lot of trauma, but not just to the target muscle… [Read more…]
Q: Reading Old Man Young, Muscle and how an initial high-rep set tires the slow-twitch fibers makes sense. But wouldn’t using a continuous-tension exercise be best for that first set? The blood-blocking [or occlusion] on those exercises you talk about in OMYM should tire and shut down the slow-twitch sooner, right?
A: That’s an interesting idea and one I addressed a few newsletters ago: “Occlusion and the Mass-Exercise Shuffle.” It’s great that you’re thinking about making our workouts more efficient rather than just blindly following… [Read more…]
I’ve been putzing around with my workouts, trying to put more mass on this 62-year-old body while staying healthy and injury free. The older I get, the more elusive extra muscle becomes…
Through all of my tweaks, I let one important mass accelerator fall by the wayside—and I didn’t even realize it until I looked back at my workouts listed in Old Man, Young Muscle. [Read more…]
Mechanical tension, or mechanical loading, is resistance stress on the muscle fibers. It’s the big key to hypertrophy.
And for the purpose of muscle growth, we want mechanical loading that targets fast-twitch engagement. That occurs optimally with a cascade effect, activating slow-twitch fibers first followed by fast-twitch… [Read more…]
We harp on the Size Principle of Muscle Fiber Recruitment a lot. Why? Because it explains how to get the most muscle growth possible—in both the fast-twitch as well as slow-twitch fibers… [Read more…]
We’ve mentioned our friend and colleague Doug Brignole, who recently won the 2019 Drug-Free Mr. Universe Open division at age 59. Below is a great shot from that contest. It’s proof that old men can build plenty of muscle… [Read more…]
This is a great photo of Lee Haney at his peak, standing relaxed outside. Absolutely flawless mass. Imagine him holding a leash with a poodle at the end. Like a moving sculpture in a Speedo out walking his dog. LOL… [Read more…]
Q: I have the updated Quick Start Muscle 2.0. Thank you! The new home-workout section is just what I needed. One question: I remember you guys talking about an all-stretch-exercise workout a while back. Is that something I should try to increase mass gains while I’m training at home?
A: Yes, absolutely. Doing ONLY stretch-position exercises at a workout for every bodypart can do some great things for muscle growth… [Read more…]
A few Zens back, we mentioned that our friend and colleague Doug Brignole recently won the 2019 Drug-Free Mr. Universe Open division at age 59.
He’s not a mass monster, but rather cut from the aesthetic-physique mold. Nevertheless, even in a T-shirt, his physique is very impressive, as you can see from this flexing pic [photo courtesy of Doug Brignole]… [Read more…]
