X-REP.COM

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I am totally loving X Reps. They have given my workouts new life, and I’ve already put on five pounds of muscle the first month. Not too shabby. My question is about triceps. I do skull crushers [or lying extensions], and I can’t seem to manage any X Reps at the end of my sets. Are my triceps just too weak down below the middle part of the rep to make X Reps happen?

 

A: Not at all. As we say in The Ultimate Mass Workout e-book, some exercises have a leverage shift that makes X Reps difficult or nearly impossible below the middle of the stroke. Lying extensions, barbell squats and barbell curls are in that group.

On lying extensions the arc of the rep and gravity create odd leverage at the X spot—between the bottom and middle of the stroke. We tried using partner assistance, like forced-rep partials, but that was awkward, so we found another solution. We do our lying extensions to failure, then, using the same weight, we launch into a set of close-grip bench presses. When we can’t get another rep on those, we do X Reps right below the midpoint of the press. You can use that superset whether you’re doing extensions with an EZ-curl bar or two dumbbells. You’ll feel your triceps firing like never before. We’ve both noticed new growth in our triceps’ long head thanks to that combo.

I read in IRON MAN magazine that you tried to do X Reps on the first and second sets of an exercise, but you said that two X sets was too much. Why not do X Reps on the first work set after a warmup, and then on the second set do only X Reps at the bottom—no full-range reps?

 

A: Our reasoning for not doing two X sets is that X Reps take so much out of the muscle that doing a second X set of the same exercise is almost pointless (you can tell the muscle has been taxed beyond its capacity by how much you have to reduce the weight for the next set after your X-Rep set).

That’s why we went back to using the strategy that worked so well for us during our transformation X-periment: a straight work set prior to the X-Rep set. That works so well because the straight set acts as an extended warmup. It insures that your nervous system is primed and the muscle is ready to fire with maximum force. Most bodybuilders rarely warm up enough, and they usually don’t go heavy enough to prepare the nervous system for their first work set. That’s why on many exercises it takes a few sets to “get into the groove.” We want to be in that groove for our X Reps set, and the heavy straight work set that precedes it gets the job done without overtaxing the target muscle.

Your suggestion of a straight set with X Reps at the end followed by a set with only X Reps would be worth experimenting with. Just be sure the target muscle is warmed up thoroughly before that first set that includes X Reps.

I need to lose about 20 pounds. I’ve been weight training for about two years, so I’m not a beginner. You say that more muscle helps burn fat, so should I use X Reps to add more muscle size and just work in some cardio so I get a double fat-burning effect?

 

A: That’s an excellent start, and adding X Reps isn’t just a good idea because they help build muscle fast—they also help you burn fat. The reason: growth hormone and testosterone, two very potent fat burners.

If you’ve tried X Reps, you know they produce an incredible searing effect at the end of any set. We’ve mentioned in our e-zine that GH is linked to muscle burn. Think about it: With X Reps you can do an intense heavy set on a compound exercise, like bench presses, and then end that set with power partials to significantly magnify the burn. You know the big exercises help trigger testosterone, and with X Reps you can force more GH as well thanks to the burn they produce. It’s a fat-burning double whammy—a much more efficient method than anything out there, with almost zero wasted effort. (That’s one reason we say that each X-Rep set is at least three times as effective as a straight set to failure.)

If you’ve been training for any length of time, you know it’s very difficult to achieve a burn on the big, compound movements. But with X Reps you can make it happen every time—producing a searing firestorm finale. Do you see why we’re so fanatical about X Reps—and why they were the key method during our one-month metamorphoses?

So definitely include X Reps in your fat-burning plan. As for cardio, you can start slowly, say two 20-minute sessions a week of medium-intensity work and build from there. Make gradual increases so your body adapts and you don’t burn too much muscle. The real key, however, will be your weight workouts which will jack up your metabolism long after you leave the gym. [For more on the best fat-burning techniques, including cardio-surge programs, gradual calorie-reduction diets and the new High-Definition X-Rep workout, get a copy of X-treme Lean.]

The X-treme Lean e-book details our fat-burning strategies, as well as Becky Holman’s (she’s on the cover) and also includes our cardio programs, meal-by-meal diets, key fat-burning nutrients and how we used each. We also outline and explain the new High-Definition X-Rep workout that’s designed to boost GH and testosterone so you melt fat as you pack on muscle (yes, it can be done!).

The fast-twitch fibers are best worked in a four-to-six-rep range, so why not just do X Reps in that rep range? The time under tension for the above, assuming a three-seconds-up/one-second-down cadence, equals about 16 seconds plus four X Reps. That’s a total time under tension of 26 seconds. Won’t lower reps and heavier weights produce more growth?

 

A: Heavier weights and lower reps will produce more growth—in a couple of fast-twitch fiber types. Scientists believe there are at least five (some even say nine) different fast-twitch fiber types, some being slightly more endurance oriented than others. So a set with four to six reps plus X Reps may do great things for one or two of those; but to get at the others you’d want to include slightly higher-rep sets (or include drop sets and supersets in combination with X Reps, as outlined in The Ultimate Mass Workout e-book). That will help you hit as many fast-twitch types as possible.

Technically speaking, fiber makeup dictates which rep range should dominate for an individual. For example, if you have more pure fast-twitch fibers, lower reps should dominate in your routine, but you shouldn’t neglect other rep ranges because you want to hit as many fiber types as possible to max out growth. In other words, the more fibers you get to grow, the bigger your muscles will be.

In our cases, Jonathan, being more mesomorphic (muscular/athletic), responds to lower reps, but he also includes drop sets and supersets to hit a variety of fiber types as well (those techniques bring in an endurance component). Steve, on the other hand, responds better to higher reps, as he’s an ectomorph (hardgainer/skinny) with more endurance-oriented fast-twitch fibers as well as lots of slow-twitch fibers. Heavy straight sets don’t do much for him, so he relies more on drop sets and supersets, while still keeping the reps in the six-to-12 range. That means if he does a drop set of 8(6) reps—eight reps, reduce the weight and immediately do six reps—he’s doing 14 reps. That’s two lower-rep sets back to back, giving him the best of both worlds. Add X Reps to one of those sets and he gets even more time under tension, overloading a number of fiber types. It’s a very efficient way to train for more muscle mass.

Remember, it’s not about just hitting fast-twitch fibers with low reps. There are a number of different fast-twitch fibers that vary in work capacity. We attack that problem by doing heavy work but also getting more endurance-oriented anaerobic work by using supersets and drop sets along with X Reps.

X Reps are totally intense. They give my workouts a whole new feel. Muscle burn to the max. I love it. Can I use them on more than one set per exercise?

 

A: The whole new feel you refer to is the muscle continuing to fire after the nervous system halts full-range movement. That’s what makes X Reps such a powerful muscle-building tool. It’s ultimate intensity and overload. Plus, that muscle burn is one of the best ways to get surges in growth hormone.

In a study published in the Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology (22:244-255; 1997), researchers showed that there’s a direct correlation between higher blood lactic acid levels and GH release from the pituitary gland. That means the more muscle burn you can induce, the more growth hormone you can stimulate—up to a point. And growth hormone does everything from help you build muscle and burn fat to bolster your immune system and strengthen bones, ligaments and tendons. Talk about bodybuilding bonus points!

Because X Reps are so intense, most trainees will get best results by doing one straight set to failure followed by another straight set to failure with X Reps. The first straight set to failure is more of an extension of the warmup. A warm muscle can contract up to 20 percent better than a cold one, so having the muscle primed for your X Rep set is very important. (Most bodybuilders don’t warm up sufficiently, which can significantly limit progress.) The first heavy set to failure extends the warmup sets you do prior to your first work set, and it also pumps up nervous system reaction time so your X set is X-ponentially more effective.

If you have an above-average recovery ability, you may benefit from doing both sets with X Reps; however, if you try it and start feeling lathargic and lose your enthusiasm for training, back off. That’s overtraining trying to step in and stomp on your progress. Don’t let that happen. We recently tried doing a straight set, and then two X-Rep sets, but we felt too drained and backed off to one. The bright side is shorter workouts and better results. X Reps work, but you can’t abuse them.

JL & SH Abs

Bodybuilding bonus: While X Reps force more muscle-fiber activation, they also can trigger growth hormone surges via muscle burn. GH does everything from help you build muscle and burn fat to bolster your immune system and strengthen bones, ligaments and tendons.

Are X Reps better than forced reps, and if so, why?

 

A: Yes, X Reps are better because you extend the set at only the precise point in the exercise’s stroke that is key for force production and/or fiber activation. With forced reps, on the other hand, you writhe around as you strain through full range reps with help from your training partner. So while X Reps help you circumvent nervous system failure for an extra hypertrophic surge, forced reps waste a lot of nervous energy as you push through weak areas of the stroke with imprecise unloading (pushing or pulling from your partner). That’s why trainees who use a lot of forced reps tend to get tremors after training—they overstress the nervous system.

A recent study appears to confirm that (International Journal of Sports Medicine, 24:410-418. [2003]). It featured 15 male athletes engaged in either a maximum-reps routine or a forced-reps routine. Both types of training led to considerable increases in serum testosterone, free testosterone, cortisol and growth hormone; however, cortisol, which is a stress hormone that can cannibalize muscle tissue, was higher in the forced-reps group. Forced reps also produced a greater decrease in maximum muscular force, according to the researchers.

The greater loss of muscle power indicates that forced reps overstress the nervous system and the excess cortisol produces catabolism in muscle. In fact, many studies indicate that the biggest cause of overtraining is nervous system stress, and therefore forced reps do a lot to increase that probability—much more than X Reps. In other words, cue to X Reps short stroke, as opposed to full-stroke forced reps, we believe X-Rep training is a superior way to extend a set for a maximum growth response with less recovery and nervous system stress (Journal of Applied Physiology, 85:2352-2359. [1998]).

Will X Reps work for a superhardgainer like me?

 

A: Absolutely! (Remember, Steve is a hardgainer, and they did excellent things for his size and muscularity in only one month—and that’s after 35 years of training!) Realize that the biggest reasons someone is a hardgainer include low neuromuscular efficiency (below average nerve-to-muscle connections) and endurance-oriented muscle structures (even many of the fast-twitch fibers have more endurance). X Reps can improve both of those deficiencies significantly.

Remember that X Reps extend any set, so in that regard they provide a slight endurance component, which is exactly what hardgainers’ endurance-oriented muscles need. A standard eight-rep set to failure, using a one-second-up/one-second-down rep speed, lasts 16 seconds (8 reps x 2 seconds). That’s not enough tension time to trigger growth in endurance-oriented muscles; however, you can extend that by five to eight seconds with X Reps, taking the total tension time of the set past the important 20-second mark. Twenty seconds is considered by many scientists to be an ideal time for maximum hypertrophic stimulation in any one set. Also—and this is important—the Xs occur at the optimal spot in the exercise’s stroke for fast-twitch fiber overload. Short pulses at that point force the muscle to continue firing, even after nervous system fatigue. So X Reps extend the tension time on your muscles—past the 20-second mark—and gradually build better nerve-force capabilities, or neuromuscular efficiency. You’ve just knocked down two hardgainer roadblocks to more mass with X Reps!

And if you combine drop sets with X Reps you can get an even better hardgainer-specific workout—extending the set up to 40 seconds, without overtaxing recovery ability, something hardgainers tend to have less of than average trainees. We include X-Rep drop sets in many of the programs in The Ultimate Mass Workout for that very reason. It’s just a good, solid muscle-building strategy whether you’re a hardgainer or not.

Steve Holman before and after

Scrawny to brawny: X Reps directly target hardgainer deficiencies and can help transform skinny bodies. Steve, with his light bone structure and slow-to-grow muscles, made some of the best gains of his life in the one month he used X Reps—even at the age of 44 and after 30 years of training!

I recently purchased the e-book The Ultimate Mass Workout. Two days of trying X-reps suggest that they may have some value. My question/comment is that the premise of the book is that inability to do another full repetition (failure) occurs when the nervous system fails. Can you provide some evidence for that? I’m not an exercise physiologist, but I am a scientist with a Ph.D. Scientists expect to see the data/evidence backing up a claim.

 

A: We came to the conclusion about nervous system failure after looking at the scientific evidence presented by Steven J. Fleck, Ph.D., and William J. Kraemer, Ph.D., in their book Designing Resistance Training Programs. They discuss a study by Dudley and Harris done in 1992 that demonstrated the activation of knee extensors by the central nervous system during maximal efforts. One of their conclusions was that the CNS “limits force by engaging inhibitory mechanisms that are protective in nature.”

Fleck and Kraemer say that inhibitory mechanisms appear to be especially active when large amounts of force are developed, such as maximal force development at slow speeds of movement. That’s precisely what happens toward the end of a set of eight to 12 reps to failure. They cite studies by Caiozzo, Perrine and Edgerton 1981; Dudley et al. 1990; and Wickiewicz et al. 1984 when they conclude that “neural protective mechanisms appear to have their greatest effect in slow-velocity, high-resistance movements.” Once again, that describes the reps at the end of a set to failure perfectly.

From our experience, it’s the inhibitory mechanisms of the CNS that stop each and every set to failure—it’s the reason you can no longer do a full-range rep. We’ve found that X Reps, due to their shorter stroke at the appropriate point along the range of motion, helps the trainee overcome that inhibitory mechanism to a great degree and tax the muscle much more thoroughly, which is the reason we made the progress we did in only one month with the technique.

We also believe that the reason most bodybuilders have to do so many sets to make even the smallest gains is because of the CNS roadblock. Every set they do, they get CNS failure before enough growth stimulation happens. So the more sets they can do, the more stimulation they get, albeit it’s a very inefficient way to get it because of all the energy it takes for only minor activation of the growth mechanism—the central nervous system stops them early on every set before much stimulation occurs. That’s a sure recipe for cortisol overproduction and overtraining.

X Reps help solve that problem, and they allow you to get much more growth stimulation from any one set. Once we introduced X Reps to our training, we decreased our workload by half and our gains accelerated significantly. In our opinion, and after 40 years of training experience (collectively), we think it’s a true breakthrough.

Train to Failure? Muscle-Building Simplicity

Q: I just got the Size Surge 2.0 e-book. I see the two programs Jonathan used to build 20 pounds of muscle in 2 1/2 months has him using only one or two work sets per exercise, both work sets to failure. What does “failure” mean? Did he used forced reps? Negatives? Or just stop when he could no longer get a full rep?

A: Jonathan trained alone for Phase 1, which was a three-days-a-week mass-exercise anabolic primer. That means he couldn’t do forced reps or negatives… [Read more…]