Frank Zane’s physique is still considered near perfection today. Who wouldn’t want a beach physique like this? [Read more…]
Your #1 Step to Fast Fat Loss
Q: I need to lose 20 pounds. I’ve gained a bit of a gut during this interesting year, and I have a goal to lose it in two to three months. If I succeed, I should look pretty good for spring and summer. Is that possible? What’s the number-one thing I should do to get it going? I’m stoked to see abs, so I’ll starve if I have to.
A: Well, the first thing you should NOT do is starve by making a huge calorie cut. That’s the big mistake most people make due to excessive motivation and/or impatience. A giant calorie reduction all at once sends your body into starvation mode. That preserves fat and burns muscle tissue—which then slows down your metabolism to a crawl. Not what you want… [Read more…]
3 Fat-to-Muscle Secrets to Get You Leaner and Bigger
Q: I always get fat over the winter. Outdoor cardio is hard to do, and I hate the treadmill. Plus, I tend to miss workouts. Three days a week is about all I can handle. Should I just do that and try to starve myself more often to stay closer to lean shape?
A: The good news is, you don’t have to do cardio to burn fat; you just have to use a few key fat-to-muscle tactics, the first of which is doing some muscle damage. [Read more…]
Interval Cardio to Burn More Fat
Q: I’ve heard it brought up a few times by others recently, and I remember from your old daily training blog that you guys sometimes use interval cardio to burn more fat. What is that and how should I use it?
A: There are surprising facts about using interval cardio to burn more fat, but before we get to those, let’s explain interval cardio on a running track. To do interval training, you sprint the straightaways all out and walk the curves. Another good example is running stairs—you run up for intensity and coast down. In other words, you alternate high-intensity bursts with lower-intensity activity.
[Read more…]
Low-Carb Diets: Do They Work?
Q: I’ve been reading a lot about low-carb diets, and I was thinking about trying [that method]. I need to lose about 30 pounds to build up my confidence (and to start seeing some abs). Getting rid of carbs seems to be the best way. What do you think?
A: Low-carb diets certainly work, and gradually reducing your carb intake is the way to go, but you don’t want to take your daily carb total too low—and never go to zero. At our lowest carb count near the end of a ripping phase, we hover around 120 grams a day.
As we say in our X-treme Lean e-book: “In general, decreasing one of the macronutrients—fat, protein or carbohydrates—to abnormally low levels isn’t the way to go for fat loss. You may lose weight, but in the case of low carbs, some of it may be muscle.”
We like the carb-stacking approach to low-carb diets, which is putting most of your daily carb allotment at breakfast and after your workout when the muscles are depleted and will absorb most of the sugar as glycogen. There’s a sample carb-stacking diet on page 17 of X-treme Lean.
The rest of your meals should be protein dominant with very few carbs. That will force your body to burn fat for energy—and with protein circulating to feed your muscles, which you train heavy often, there is no need to burn muscle for energy—so you get bigger and leaner. Plus, protein has a higher energy cost—it takes more energy to absorb it than carbs. There’s more on all of that, as well as sample diets and workouts, in X-treme Lean so you can be ripped when you make the beach scene!
Note: You can get X-treme Lean along with The Ultimate Fat-to-Muscle Workout and X-traordinary Abs at a limited-time low price. It’s the Triple-Shredded Combo Offer to help you sail through summer summer with muscle and rippedness.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com
Veiny Arms All Day
You know that feeling you get right after a great workout? When you look and feel huge with that massive post-workout pump? Imagine feeling like that ALL day…
Frank Rich’s program can help you carry that just-worked-out look all day, and he’s offering it to our readers for almost nothing.
>>> Try Frank’s Massthetic Arms here
It’s one thing to develop big arms, but if when they look solid and have veins streaking all over, that’s when people really notice.
Frank has research showing that arm vascularity (the denseness and veininess) is more desirable to women than 6-pack abs, and if you’ve been following any fitness stuff on social media lately, you know that’s a fact.
We know from our own years of experience with being in various levels of conditioning that we get a LOT more looks when walking through the grocery store or running random errands when we have veins streaking down our arms.
>>> So if you’re ready to create massive arms that are thick and veiny, then click here.
Oh, and Frank’s new arm program (*plus all the bonuses*) is only $9 today, so take advantage while you can.
Realistic 1-Month Weight Loss
Q: Do you think I could lose 20 pounds in a month? I’ll be honest, I slacked off during the stay-at-home order where I live, and my weight suffered because of it. Oops! I want to be in a somewhat healthy looking condition during the summer. I want the fat off, as it’s killing me to see this gut! And summer’s already under way. Help?!
A: Yes, you could technically lose that much weight in a month, but most of it would be water and muscle—and you probably wouldn’t look better or feel healthy—in fact, you’d feel like crap and look worse than you feel right now. We’re all impatient when it comes to changing our bodies, and especially when it comes to weight loss, but the best strategy is gradual and steady, even when there’s a short deadline like the one you’ve set… [Read more…]
The Next BIG Thing for More Muscle Mass
Q: I just finished a six-week phase using the HIT workout with arm specialization [listed in the X-traordinary Arms e-book]. I made some good mass gains training each exercise with only one all-out set. I used my extra energy to blast my arms with more sets [with full Positions of Flexion] and got amazing gains using the different exercises at each arm workout. They’re looking big and full, and now I’m ready for a new program. Which one do you suggest after that 3D HIT Workout?
A: To clarify, on that 3D HIT Program listed in the X-Arms e-book you do full POF for each bodypart, but only one all-out set in each position. For example, for quads, you do squats (midrange), sissy squats (stretch), and leg extensions (contracted), each getting a warmup set or two and then only ONE mass-kicking set to exhaustion… [Read more…]
Top 5 Fat-Loss Blast-Off Tips
It’s not easy getting lean—at least for most people—which is why fast fat loss is always a hot topic. Most of you reading this probably want to uncover your abs sooner rather than later…
[Read more…]4 Intense Fat-Loss Tips
Q: I need to lose fat quickly, and I’ve been reading a lot about interval cardio training. I want to try it, so how would you suggest I work it into my program? I just started using the Heavy/Light 10×10 Workout based on one of your recent newsletters that made it sound great.
A: As we’ve said, high-intensity interval cardio is like doing another leg workout, so you must be cautious. For those who don’t know what HIIT is, a good example is sprinting the straight-aways and walking the curves on a running track.
You’re alternating anaerobic work, all-out sprints, with active rest, walking. Studies show that it’s an exceptional way to burn bodyfat for a number of reasons…
[Read more…]Triple-Threat Approach to Massive Muscle Growth
Q: I’m a big believer in your Positions-of-Flexion workouts. I have gotten more growth with that [3-exercise approach] than with anything I’ve tried. One exercise I often have a problem with is incline curls [the stretch move for biceps]. Is there a substitute?
A: Thanks for the POF props. A lot of trainees find the simplified 3-way full-range approach a logical way to more size and muscle fullness. It’s an efficient method for picking exercises to train a muscle completely with just a few exercises. You get muscle synergy, stretch overload, continuous tension/occlusion, and anabolic hormone release as well as full-range fiber activation…
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