ultimate exercises Archives

Tips to Gain Muscle, Lose Fat, and Integrate Intervals

Q: In The Ultimate Mass Workout you suggest doing the hills setting on a treadmill or interval cardio with sprints as the Ultimate Exercise for calves. Can you explain more about the interval sprinting and treadmill effects on calf training, as well as how to integrate intervals into my workouts?

A: The Ultimate Mass Workout is our first e-book, the original X-Rep manual, and after we published it, we discovered a big midrange exercise for calves you can do as part of your leg workout in the gym—knee-extension leg press calf raises…

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Ultimate Exercises for Mass

Q: I’m reading your original X-Rep e-book [The Ultimate Mass Workout], and you have the Ultimate Exercises listed for each muscle. For lats, it’s close-, parallel-grip chins. I have a hard time with chins because I weigh around 220 pounds. Can I do them on the pulldown machine instead?

A: Yes, do them on the pulldown machine for now; however, once you’re strong enough, do the chinup-bar version… [Read more…]

Mass Method Showdown: 10×10 vs. Super TORQ

Q: I’m going to the Heavy/Light Ultimate 10×10 Workout for about six weeks. Hitting one exercise with 10×10 for a muscle and then doing full-on Positions of Flexion heavy at the new workout sounds ideal to cover all the mass bases. My question is, do you think [Doug Brignole’s] Super TORQ might be better than 10×10?

A: Interesting idea. Remember 10×10 is taking your 20-rep-max weight, but only doing 10 reps. Easy. But you rest only 40 seconds, then hit 10 more—and so on until you complete 10 sets… [Read more…]

One-Exercise 2-Way Blast for New Muscle Mass

Q: In a previous e-zine you mentioned combining two workouts with different bodyparts, such as chest and back with delts and arms. And you suggested using an X-centric set for each exercise in a Positions-of-Flexion routine. I was thinking about your first e-book, The Ultimate Mass Workout, which I.D.s the best exercise for each muscle. How about doing only those exercises, one regular set followed by an X-centric set? That way you focus on the ultimate exercise and get some power and density work as well as standard speed and slow-mo reps.

A: Sounds like a great plan. And you’re right: focusing on only ONE “best” exercise for each muscle would help you zero in and provide the most mass bang for your effort buck… [Read more…]

Ultimate Exercises and Mass Machines

Q: I notice that in your Ultimate Exercises for each bodypart [listed in The Ultimate Mass Workout e-book] that some of them are on machines. Then in many of the programs in that e-book, as well as your others, you have some machine exercises in the workouts, such as pulldowns and Smith-machine incline presses. Most of the pros say to stay with free weights. If I want ultimate mass, shouldn’t I just stick with barbells and dumbbells?

A: Is it better to travel by horse or car? It depends on the terrain, right? Yes, in many instances barbells and dumbbells are best because they allow a more natural movement—more freedom. Machines tend to restrict the stroke to one plane, as in the vertical bar movement on Smith-machine incline presses or squats. [Read more…]