split positions Archives

Start Your Workouts With This

Q: I’m excited! I was looking for a 3-days-per-week program to use over the winter, and I think I’ve devised a great one. I’ll use the split-positions Phase 1 workout you outline in The Ultimate Super-Size Crash Course [Chapter 6], but I’ll start each workout with either squats or deadlifts. I remember you saying how that can increase overall mass gains. What do you think?

A: That sounds like a great winter size-building program to put to the test. For the uninitiated, the program split is simple: [Read more…]

Cut Back to Grow Muscle

Q: Before the start of my spring/summer job a month ago, my muscle development was progressing nicely. I was using your Positions of Flexion and X-Rep techniques on my three-days-a-week split: chest/bi’s, legs, and back/tri’s. My strength-and-size gains were steadily increasing. Then I started my summer job, and I was a lot sorer after my workouts, I take longer to recover, and I’m losing the size I had in my arms. The job is 40 hours a week of outdoor physical labor. I thought that by eating frequently with adequate protein and eight hours of sleep each night, I’d be fine, but that’s not working. Do you have any suggestions to help get me back on the muscle-building track, especially in the arm department?

A: A demanding physical-labor job can make it more difficult to grow, but not impossible. Even a high-pressure office job presents a similar problem: too much stress. It’s similar to being a hardgainer with low recovery ability and high cortisol output: You have to find the right balance and workload so you don’t overtrain, which means you sometimes have to cut back to grow.

As for your situation, we notice that while it appears you’re training each bodypart once a week on your split, that’s not really the case with arms…

When you do chest and biceps, you’re also training triceps during chest work—bench presses, etc. Then at the end of the week when you train back and triceps, you are also training biceps during back work (chins, pulldowns, etc.).

So you’re actually training arms hard and heavy twice a week, in addition to whatever you do at work, which may be why they are shrinking. Your arms are being hammered continuously with no time to recover.

First try altering your split as a way to cut back to grow: Day 1: back, biceps; Day 2: legs; Day 3: chest, triceps. If you don’t see results after a few weeks, cut back on your arm work. You may not need a full POF program for biceps and triceps, only the big midrange move plus one isolation exercise. So your anchor exercise for biceps would be barbell curls…

Do that for two sets, then follow up with one or two sets of the stretch-position exercise, incline curls…

The following week do two sets of the big midrange exercise again, but follow with one or two sets of a contracted-position exercise for biceps, like concentration curls…

That’s Split-Positions training—you still hit all three Positions of Flexion but over two workouts instead of all at one session. Here’s how your arm programs would look:

Biceps 1
Midrange: Barbell curls 2 x 9
Stretch: Incline curls 1 x 12

Biceps 2
Midrange: Barbell curls 2 x 9
Contracted: Concentration curls 1 x 12

Triceps 1
Midrange: Decline extensions 2 x 9
Stretch: Overhead extensions 1 x 12

Triceps 2
Midrange: Decline extensions 2 x 9
Contracted: Kickbacks or pushdowns 1 x 12

Feel free to substitute exercises and/or manipulate the set totals. For example, you may be able to handle two sets on the second exercises or maybe a drop set. You’ll have to experiment and monitor your recovery and hypertrophic adaptations to get the right mix of how much to cut back to grow (without cutting back too far), but the above is a good place to start to get your growth into gear.

Note: There’s more on Split-Positions training in Chapter 10 of the Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building e-book, including a complete Split-Positions mass workout program.

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

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

The Most Important Muscle-Building Exercises

Q: I know the big midrange exercises, like squats and presses, are most important for mass, but after that, do you think the stretch-position exercise or the contracted-position exercise is the best followup for extra muscle growth? The reason I ask is that I don’t have a lot of time to train, so I’m going to do the Ultimate Exercise for each bodypart [identified in The Ultimate Mass Workout e-book] and one more, either stretch or contracted, whichever you say will give me the most growth.

A: Interesting dilemma, but both the stretch- and contracted-position exercises are important for different reasons. Each triggers growth along different pathways (but there is an easy solution to your problem, as you’ll see)…

We often reference the animal study that produced a 300 percent muscle-mass increase—that’s a triple-size gain—in one month of progressive-stretch “workouts.” The researchers believe the stretch overload caused hyperplasia, or fiber replication, as well as hypertrophy. (Antonio, J., and Gonyea, W.J. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 25:1333-45; 1993.)

In another study that produced significant growth via stretch overload, the researchers said, “excess muscle stretch promotes the orderly lining of sarcomeres within muscle, leading to a stronger muscle contraction and setting the stage for architectural changes in the muscle that precede growth.” (Seynnes, O.R., et al. J Applied Physiol. 102:368-373; 2007.)

So stretch-position exercises like incline curls for biceps, flyes for pecs, sissy squats for quads, pullovers for lats, etc., are excellent for extra anabolic effects after the big midrange move; however…

Contracted-position exercises, like leg extension, leg curls, concentration curls, pushdowns, etc., produce continuous tension and occlusion. Japanese researchers got an 800 percent muscle-mass increase with occlusion compared to standard training that allowed blood into the muscles [occlusion produced 800 percent better results, not an 8-fold size increase]. Also, other studies show that tension/occlusion triggers more lactic acid and muscle burn, which is key to growth hormone production, setting up an optimal anabolic environment. (Can J of App Phys; 22:244-255; 1997)

So which do you choose? The easy solution is to alternate them at successive workouts. At one workout do midrange and stretch; at the next workout for that bodypart do midrange and contracted. That’s Split-Positions training, and it’s very effective due to automatic variation…

The X-Rep-Hybrid Mega-Mass Program on pages 67-71 of the Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building e-book is set up as a Split-Positions-workout regimen. Here’s a quote from that e-book with a specific example…

The midrange exercise stays constant, but the second exercise alternates between a contracted-position movement and a stretch-position movement…. Here’s an example from the 3A and 3B workouts for upper chest: The A workout has Smith-machine incline presses, the constant midrange exercise, followed by incline cable flyes, a contracted-position upper-chest move; the B workout is Smith-machine incline presses again, but that’s followed by incline dumbbell flyes, a stretch-position exercise.

Try it as is, or construct your own program with the Positions-of-Flexion exercises listed. Remember, change can bring big gains. [Note: There’s also a home-gym Split-Positions program with basic equipment on pages 72-75 in the Beyond X e-book.]

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

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

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