Beyond X Rep - Edition 2

IRON MAN Training & Research Center Presents

by Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson

MUSCLE BUILDING

B E Y O N D

R E P

Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building was written to help you getcloser to your physical potential with sensible bodybuildingstrategies. Weight training is a demanding activity, however, soit is highly recommended that you consult your physician andhave a physical examination prior to beginning a weight-training program. Proceed with the suggested diets, exercisesand routines at your own risk.

Photography by Michael Neveux

Cover models: Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson

Copyright © 2005 by IRON MAN Magazine andHomebody Productions

All rights reserved.

The material in this document may not be reproduced inwhole or in part in any manner or form without prior written

consent from the publisher.

Homebody ProductionsP.O. Box 2800, Ventura, CA 93002

www.X-Rep.comwww.BeyondX-Rep.comwww.X-tremeLean.com

www.X-traordinaryAbs.com

I n t ro d u c t i o n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Chapter 1—X-hilirating Muscle-Building

Observations.................................................................5

Chapter 2—X-treme Pumps and Pain to Gain.............11

Chapter 3—Hormone Surges and Fiber Slicing..........17

Chapter 4—Cut the Volume, Cover the Angles...........21

Chapter 5—Time-Bomb Training..................................25

Chapter 6—Stage Sets and Double-X Overload.........31

Chapter 7—X/Pause and X-centric Training................37

Chapter 8—Iso X and the X Fade..................................45

Chapter 9—Our X-citing Results and Findings...........49

Chapter 10—Split-Positions X-Rep Training................59

Chapter 11—X Q&A........................................................77

Bonus Chapter A—Analyzing Mr. Olympia’s

Workouts—From an X-Rep Perspective...................93

Bonus Chapter B—The Inner Workings of Steroids:

Mimicking Their Anabolic Power Without Drugs...103

CONTENTS

4 Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building

The Ultimate Mass Workout e-book showcased our gains withX Reps and explained that mass-building technique in detail. Itessential ly kick-started the X-Rep muscle-bu ildingphenomenon—and the gains of muscle-building enthusiasts allover the world. Our results with X Reps showed that, if usedcorrectly, it has the power to transform a physique in as few as35 days. Trainees have re p o rted incredible gains in size ands t rength in only a few workouts due to finally being able toovercome the nervous system roadblock during any set to failure( i t ’s usually the nervous system that craps out first, not themuscle). Power partials at the sweet spot along an exerc i s e ’sstroke at the end of a set to exhaustion obliterate that roadblock,allowing you to trigger new hypert rophic stimulation like neverbefore—so much so that many trainees said that X Reps are thelast word on building massive muscles. But are they?

Our latest re s e a rch and experiments (or should we say X-periments?) confirm the power of X Reps, but as any seasonedbodybuilder knows, nothing works forever. You have to find waysto jack up the intensity if you want X-traordinary growth.

So after more analysis and research we created new ways toX-ponentially increase the intensity of the X-Rep technique. Thebest of the best of those X-Rep hybrid techniques helped uspack on nearly 10 more pounds of new muscle to our alre a d ydeveloped physiques (which is even more amazing when youconsider that Steve is now 46 years old!). These techniques can

do the same for you—takeyour mass to the next levelat a rate that will astoundyou.

Consider yourself in thefast lane to X-treme muscle.Are you ready? Let’s put thepedal to the metal!

—Steve Holman andJonathan Lawson

IRON MAN Training &Research Center

Introduction

Steve H. and Jonathan L.: Biggerand better in ’05 thanks to new

X-Rep hybrid techniques.

Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building 5

CHAPTER 1

X - h i l i r a t i n gM u s c l e - B u i l d i n g

O b s e rv a t i o n s


It all started when we began analyzing the way the biggestbodybuilders train for mass. These men are huge, so they haveto know a thing or two about getting extreme deve l o p m e n t —just don’t ask them because they’ll say something like, “Do sixto 10 reps on a lot of exerc i s e s.” No wonder the failure rate inbodybuilding is outrageous. It’s much more than that!

T h a t’s why we decided to observe rather than ask. Wewatched them train, analyzed their techniques, read up ont raining re s e a rch and then applied what we saw to our ow nworkouts—well, sort of. Due to our drug-free status we had tobe more discerning and keep an eye tow a rd science (we eve na n a l y zed how steroids work in order to get many of thoseeffects natura l l y, as yo u’ll see in an upcoming chapter). Andt h a t’s when our gains began to skyrocket. Mo re on that later.First, let’s look at a few things we discovered when we openedour eyes—like all the cheating that goes on (and we’re nottalking about steroids).

Yo u’ve no doubt heard a mass monster at your gym or in amagazine article go on and on about strict form, but when yousee him train, most of his reps look more like a re j e c t e dOlympic lift. Ronnie Coleman, Mr. Olympia and one of thebiggest and strongest bodybuilders of all time, is the perf e c texample. In fact, on some of his exercises the weight is so heavy,

t h e re’s ve ry abbre v i a t e dm ovement. On shru g s, fore x a m p l e, he loads up ano u t rageous poundage,s t raps onto the bar andpulls for all he’s worth, but

Watch Ronnie Coleman train andyou’ll see that he does most ofhis exercise in an explosive,partial style, blasting the weightthrough the key semistretchedposition and only moving ithalfway or two-thirds of the wayup through the stroke.

his shoulders barely ri s e. It looks like arm - s t retching tort u ref rom the Middle Ages. (We’ll have a complete exerc i s e - by-exercise analysis of his training toward the end of this e-book.)

To be fair, not all of his sets and reps are partial ra n g eand/or explosive, but a lot of them are—especially on the big,compound exercises like presses—and for good re a s o n :Cheating is one way to trigger extra o rd i n a ry muscle grow t h .Say what?

Most scientists say that one of the big keys to muscle growthis force. The more force you can get a muscle to generate, themore growth you’ll stimulate. That’s one reason compound, ormultijoint, exercises produce more mass gains than isolationm ovements do—you use more weight when a number ofmuscles work together, and you can increase the poundagem o re easily over time. That’s pro g re s s i ve overload. ( We’regetting to the cheating part; hang on.)

But there’s more to it than just adding more weight to thebar on the big exercises, much more. As we explained in UMW,many re s e a rchers believe that the real growth trigger oncertain exercises is near the turnaround, where you move fromthe negative stroke to the positive. Why? Because that’s wherethe most force occurs. And where do m ost of the bigbodybuilders cheat or explode? Near the turnaround—bottomof a squat or pre s s, for example—which provides a wicked,g rowth-jolting overload. (Fo rce-plate studies show that as atrainee recoils and then explodes near the bottom of a press tore verse the direction of the bar, the force can more thandouble. It’s a wicked hypertrophic shockwave!)

Think about it. At the bottom of an incline press your pecshave to put the brakes on and then reverse the direction of theb a r. Lots of potential for maximum overload, or forc e, there.The problem: Many scientists say that the pecs can’t quite exertmaximum force at the ve ry bottom of the move m e n t — t h e re’stoo much stretch. That means the muscle must be elongated toexert maximum force but not to the extreme. The key max-forcepoint, then, is just below the middle of the stroke but not all


the way down at thebottom, stretch position(and not at the completelyc o n t racted p osition, asmany people believe). It’sat a semistretched point.T h e re f o re, if you canoverload the position that’sjust above the stretch butnot quite to the midpoint,you can si gnificantlyi n c rease the anabolicpower of any set.

T h a t’s exactly whatmany of the biggestbodybuilders do on almoste ve ry re p. Watch them doincline pre s s e s, and yo u’l lsee them re verse the barb e f o re touching theirupper p ecs, explodingu pw a rd from there. (So m ee ven bounce it off theirchests to get the bar to the

more advantageous max-force point.) By stopping a little shortand exploding, they hit the semistretched position with moreoverload. That makes the exercise much more effective —although it also makes it more dangerous.

What about Ronnie Coleman and the shrug example above?By using a weight that’s too heavy for full movements, he onlyw o rks the bottom part of the stro k e, never getting it near thec o n t racted position. Though he only works the stretched ands e m i s t retched points and slightly above, he does it withe x t reme overload. And that’s why his traps are gigantic! (Heactually uses a hitch at the bottom, but we’ll have more on thatDouble-X Overload technique later).


Force-plate studies show that when atrainee recoils and explodes near thebottom of a press to reverse thedirection of the bar, the force canmore than double. That’s atremendous stress overload on themuscle right at the key semistretchedpoint. However, that’s a dangerouspractice. A better way to overload thatmax-force point is with end-of-set X-Rep partials or one of the new X-hybrid techniques.

Arnold’s Olympia workouts contain a number of examples.One of his favo rite biceps exercises was barbell cheat curls.He’d take a heavy weight, lean forw a rd slightly and thenexplode the weight up to his shoulders. Where does the mostf o rce occur on a set like that? The semistretched position,w h e re the arms are not quite bent at 90 degrees—just belowthe halfway point of the stroke (see the photo above). There’sve ry little resistance anywhere else during the entire curl.Could that have been at least part of the reason for Arn o l d’sgiant biceps and incredible peaks? Possibly.

Eve ry exercise has its own sweet spot, and the biggestbodybuilders seem to instinctively know where that key pointis and then exploit it for gigantic leaps in mass. (We explainedand identified the key exercise for each bodypart and its sweetspot, or X position, in UMW.) They do a lot of their reps with aslightly shorter range of motion and explode out of thet u rn a round with heavy weight. (Watch Co l e m a n’s tra i n i n gv i d e o s, and yo u’ll see a lot of that.) It’s precisely what give sthem excessive hypertrophic overload at the sweet spot of keyexercises. It shifts the muscle machinery into overdrive!

As you know if you’ve been to our Web site or read our other


One of Arnold’s favoritebiceps exercises wascheat curls. Notice how itoverloads his biceps rightat the max-force point,just below where hiselbows are bent at 90degrees. That’s the X spot.

e - b o o k s, we don’t advocate jerking and heaving giantweights—especially if you don’t use things l ike grow t hh o rmone to fortify ligaments and tendons. That’s the wro n gs t ra t e g y, despite what the pros do (re m e m b e r, even withpharmaceutical help a lot of pros have been seriously injureddoing that, from pec and biceps tears to vertebrae blowouts toshattered shoulders). So here’s what you should learn from thisdiscussion...

Muscle-building lesson 1: The semistretched point of ane x e rc i s e’s stroke is key. You need to overload that sweet spot,especially on the big, compound exerc i s e s, if you want tomaximize your mass gains. The best way is with X-Rep partialsat the end of a strict set or Stage Se t s, which are a series ofe x a g g e rated X Reps right off the bat that encompass thes e m i s t retched position, and/or Double-X Overload, which isthe between-reps hitch method we saw Ronnie Coleman usingon shrugs at the semistretched point and that big Jay Cu t l e ruses on almost eve ry exercise in his mass-building pro g ra m .We’ll review X Reps and analyze all the other X-Rep hybri dtechniques, as well as have more discussion on those two probodybuilders’ training techniques, later in this e-book.



CHAPTER 2

X - t reme Pumps andPain to Gain

Do the biggest bodybuilders always explode on their re p s ?No, there are exercises that they ra rely cheat on—usuallyisolation movements that create continuous tension, like lege x t e n s i o n s. What’s so special about continuous-tensione x e rcises? They block blood flow to the target muscle, whichcan have a spectacular impact on muscle size and strength.

It’s called occlusion, and one study, which was reported onin the Journal of St rength Conditioning Re s e a rc h ( 1 5 : 3 6 2 - 3 6 6 ) ,applied it to subjects’ forearms by placing a blood pressure cuffon their upper arms for two minutes. The cuff was thenremoved, and the subjects did wrist curls. Results: Those whohad their blood flow impaired prior to exercise showed a 20percent strength increase over the subjects who didn’t use theblood pressure cuff. Yes, 20 percent!

What about muscle size? Rob Thoburn, an I RON MANc o n t r ibutor and muscle-science re s e a rc h e r, h as beenc o r responding with Japanese scientists who have beenexperimenting with Kaatsu, or occlusion, techniques. Thoburnre p o rted that Takashi Ab e, Ph . D., got a 7 percent increase inquadriceps cross-sectional area in four months with standardt raining, but when he used occlusion, he got an 8 perc e n ti n c rease in cross-sectional area—in only two weeks! That’sright, better results in about one-eighth the time—two we e k sas opposed to 16 weeks. That’s about an 800 percent increasein gains when blood flow was impeded. Wow! You can see whythe biggest bodybuilders include continuous-tension sets intheir routines—they force blood out of the muscle and createthose mass-and-strength-increasing occlusion effects.

Why does blocking blood flow produce such spectacularincreases in muscle size and strength? Part of it may be due tothe incredible rush of blood to the bodypart once blood flowresumes (ah-ha, so maybe getting a pump does matter!).Scientists have suggested that the bodypart bloodbath thatoccurs post occlusion can produce everything from upgradedrelease of heat shock proteins to alterations in muscle calciummetabolism (calcium contributes to contraction) to gre a t e r


re c ruitment of fast-twitchmuscle fibers. Interesting—and exc i t i n g — e s p e c i a l l ywhen you do the math:L e t’s see, a conserva t i ve 8p e rcent increase in quads i ze times 12 months—Holy cow! That’ll double-size your thighs in a year!

But hold on. You use legextensions in your quadro u t i n e. Why are n’t yo ugetting 8 percent sizei n c reases eve ry two we e k sor even eve ry two months? Answe r: pain tolerance and/orn e rvous system failure. Se e, part of the reason is that ri g h twhen the most occlusion is occurring—near the end of acontinuous-tension set—you stop. It’s a simple case oft e rminating sets too soon—when you can’t get any morecomplete reps—and that severely limits occlusion effects.

The big bodybuilders like Jay Cu t l e r, who do a lot ofcontinuous-tension move m e n t s, have exc e p t i o n a lneuromuscular efficiency, or nerve-to-muscle connections, aswell as pain tolera n c e. So they can keep the muscle firing asm o re occlusion occurs. (Legendary trainer Vince Gi ro n d aalways said that what separates the champs from the wanna-bes is mental focus and pain tolera n c e. He was ontosomething.)

It hurts like a mother when occlusion is occurring, as themuscle gasps and sputters from lack of blood and ox y g e n .Most of us mere mortals can’t stand the pain and terminate theset way before we get a hefty dose of growth stimulation fromocclusion. The champs just keep pushing through the painbarrier—but even they stop their sets too soon.

Ye p, super pain tolerance and focus can only get you somuch extra stimulation on any given set. Their muscles cra p


Blocking blood flow to a muscle withcontinuous-tension movements cancreate bigger gains in size andstrength—if you can stand the pain.

out early—at leastsooner than they’d like—p a rtially due to nervo u ssystem failure, which iswhy they do so manys e t s. Each additional setgets them a tad morestimulation—a shift inf i b e r- r e c r u i t m e n to rde r—but i s all thate x t ra volume re a l l yn e c e s s a r y? Not if yo u

train a little smarter, as we explain later in this e-book.Here’s something else to consider: If you can’t keep enough

tension on the target muscle during a set for full occlusion too c c u r, yo u’ll minimize the anabolic effects even furt h e r. Fo re x a m p l e, if you have weak nerve force in your pecs, you mayd i ve rt tension to your front delts near the top of dumbbellf l ye s. That allows blood to move into your pecs, dera i l i n gocclusion. If that’s the case, it may be wise to follow Arn o l d’slead and do only the bottom half or two-thirds of the stro k e.( By the way, Ronnie Coleman uses that partial technique onalmost all of his exercises, even squats, doing only the bottomtwo thirds of each rep—it’s a supercharged occlusion workout.)

The biggest bodybuilders often use exercises or parts ofe x e rcises that keep max tension on the target musclet h roughout the set to get occlusion. Lou Fe r rigno did it onincline presses. Remember the scene in “Pumping Iron” whenhe was training at that cave-like gym in New York with his dads c reaming at him (“Come on, Louie! Ah-nold’s nothin’!”)? He


Stopping short on dumbbellflyes gives the pecscontinuous tension and moreocclusion. That techniquewas an Arnold favorite andcontributed greatly to hisunreal pec size.

was only doing the bottom two-thirds of the presses, achievingocclusion and hitting that important max-forc e - g e n e ra t i o npoint—the sweet spot—on every every partial rep.

Another example from the current crop of champs is VictorMartinez, an IFBB pro with spectacular delts. How did he buildthem? Check out this quote from his Q&A column in the June’05 Muscular Development:

“Pa rt i a l - rep lateral ra i s e s. The difference between myversion and standard dumbbell lateral raises is that I move theweight only through the first quarter of the movement. Doingthem this way takes the traps completely out of it; it’s all sidedelts moving the weight. Pl u s, I get to use much heavierp o u n d a g e s, since I’m not raising the dumbbells up to peakcontraction.”

In other words, Martinez is using X Reps from the get-go. Hegoes superheavy and does partials at the semistre t c h e dposition on eve ry re p. And his delts are X-tremely massive !Ronnie Coleman does the same maneuver on the Na u t i l u sl a t e ra l - raise machine—semistretched-point part i a l s, and Ja yCutler does only the bottom part of his seated latera l s, whichreally look like seated dumbbell upright rows.

Something else to keep in mind: Rep acceleration, as well aslack of neuromuscular efficiency, can take tension off thetarget muscle. As mentioned above, an explosive rep can createan overload at the fully stretched or the import a n ts e m i s t retche d point (near the bottom of a press), butmomentum can re m ove a lot of the tension halfway thro u g h .So while a number of pros use explosive movements oncompound exercises like presses, they may also do lighter setsusing partials for more occlusion (warmup sets and back-offsets count).

On most isolation, or contracted-position, exercises, like lege x t e n s i o n s, howe ve r, they almost always use re l a t i vely slowreps to keep tension on the mu sc le, which maximize socclusion—although they may not realize that’s why they do it.They do know the importance of the pump, though, and after a


continuous-tension set,blood rushes to the targ e tb o d y p a rt like a flood surg eafter a dam collapse.

In c i d e n t a l l y, while mostbodybuilders use occlusionto finish off a bodypart — t oaugment the pump cre a t e dby multijoint action—anumber of champs havel e a rned that getting someocclusion in the target muscle b e f o re a big exercise cani n c rease strength, similar to what the scientists did with theblood pre s s u re cuff. For example, Ronnie Coleman usuallydoes a number of high-rep leg extension sets before he movesinto his squats. Those pre l i m i n a ry continuous-tension sets of20 to 30 reps each squeeze blood out of the muscle and thencause a flood right after. Is he using occlusion to jack up hissize and strength? We say absolutely! (We’ll have more on usingocclusion as part of a quick, precise warmup sequence toenhance muscle growth in the Q&A section of this e-book.)

Muscle-building lesson 2: While it’s important tooverload the semistretched position on eve ry exerc i s e, yo ushould also stri ve for continuous tension to block blood flow.T h a t’s one reason to use isolation exercises after your bigcompound move—for more concentrated continuous tension,which produces si gnificant occlusion, or blood-flowimpairment, which in turn stimulates another level of muscleg rowth. Note: Some isolation exercises re q u i re part i a l - ra n g ereps to occlude the muscle properly, such as dumbbell flyes onwhich you should do only the bottom two-thirds of the strokeof each rep to maintain continuous tension. (That was anArnold favorite; see the photo on page 14.)


The biggest bodybuilders like Jay Cutler, whodo a lot of continuous-tension movements,have exceptional neuromuscular efficiency,or nerve-to-muscle connections, as well aspain tolerance. He X-Reps too, as you’ll see.


CHAPTER 3

H o rmone Surg e sand Fiber Slicing

Which exercises create the most mass? Any big bodybuilderwill tell you it’s the compound, or multijoint, movements. Theb o d y ’s muscular stru c t u res are designed to work together top roduce maximum forc e. Compound movements re q u i remuscle synergy, or team work, so they’re more natural—moree rgonomic—and allow greater overload. They also blast uptestosterone output if you work them hard. (We described thebest ones for each bodypart in The Ultimate Mass Workout e-book.)

Those are the reasons the biggest bodybuilders constru c ttheir workouts around the core exercises—like squats, row s,presses and so on. As we discussed in the last chapter, they alsorely on continuous-tension isolation exercises for occlusion,pump and muscle burn. The burn is directly linked to growthh o rmone re l e a s e, as ve rified by a study published in theCanadian Journal of Applied Ph y s i o l o gy (22:244-255; 1997), aconnection that may have something to do with higher bloodlactic acid leve l s, which are partially responsible for muscleburn. Or it may be the occlusion effect —or both.

Why is GH important? Because it synerg i zes with otheranabolic horm o n e s, like testostero n e, to make them muchmore potent. (It also helps burn bodyfat at a greater rate.) So, ifyou can max out GH and testosterone at the same time, yo ucreate a supergrowth environment, which is what the big mend o. (Ok a y, many of them do it with syringes too, as well as intheir training, but that’s beside the point.) Whether they realizeit or not, they get a testosterone release with compoundm ovements and a GH surge with burn-igniting continuous-tension exerc i s e s, whether it’s part i a l - range compoundexercises or isolation moves that keep the pressure on.

Does that mean a pro g ram of compound-only exercises isinferior to one that includes isolation moves? Possibly, from ah o rmonal standpoint—and from an occlusion standpoint aswell if you lock out on all sets, which re l i e ves targ e t - m u s c l etension—but there are ways to get more muscle burn oncompound exerc i s e s. If you add X Reps to the end, yo u


automatically get some occlusion and a severe muscle burn.You may or may not re c o g n i ze the name Tom Platz. He’s

known for having the most spectacular leg development ever,e ven by today’s freaky standard s. His quads looked like giants t riated water balloons hanging off his hips. Inhuman! Wi t hone leg flex he could make onlookers’ eyes widen to the size ofpancakes and their jaws hit the floor. How did he get the mind-numbing development that made people go into Looney Tunesshock? One reason: He was notorious for taking his sets pastfailure with power partials, usually near the stretch position ofcertain quad exercises.

For example, on hack squats he’d crank out reps till failure,and then he would move down near the bottom, turn a ro u n dposition and pulse, feeling his quads stretch and burn for whatseemed like an eternity (end-of-set partials; that’s familiar.)

Platz also used that technique on leg extensions, at both thetop and bottom positions. Leg curls too. And all the pain paidoff big—the man’s legs grew to phenomenal proportions! Sure,genetics had something to do with it, but so did his attentionto detail and tremendous effort with stretch- andsemistretched-position overload—and his emphasis on stretchmay have triggered muscle cells to replicate.

Ye s, it’s possible that a lot of his extreme eye-popping sizemay have had something to do withmuscle fiber division, or hyperplasia.How’s that? Well, one study done byAntonio and Go n yea in 1994 showe dthat fiber splitting can occur fro ms t retch overload—and more fiberswould equ al more mass potential.He re’s what John Hansen, Mr. Na t u ra lOlympia, had to say about that study


Tom Platz’s freaky quad development mayhave at least partially been caused byhyperplasia, or fiber splitting. Stretch-positionoverload has been linked to that phenomenonin animals.

and fiber splitting in his book Natural Bodybuilding:“Most of the re s e a rch on hyperplasia has used animals—

such as bird s, rats and cats—as subjects. Jose Antonio, Ph . D. ,p e rf o rmed a study on a bird in which he used weights top ro g re s s i vely overload one wing and stretch the anteri o rlatissimus dorsi muscle. The overload scheme started with aweight that was 10 percent of the bird’s weight and increased itby 5 percent up to 35 percent. Two days of rest preceded anincrease in weight. After 28 stretch days, the study recorded theg reatest gains in muscle mass ever in an animal or humanmodel of tension-induced overload—a 334 percent increase inmuscle mass with a 90 percent increase in fiber number.”

Wow! We mentioned earlier how Arnold overloaded his pecsin the stretch position with partial flyes. He would only pull thedumbbells up about halfway out of the stretch position andthen lower back down for another rep—like exaggerated XRe p s. That gave him occlusion via continuous tension, butperhaps even more important, it created a severe rapid-fire pecstretch. Could he have been triggering hyperplasia in his pecswith extreme stretch overload? Hmm. His pecs we re cert a i n l yamong the most massive ever.

Platz and Arnold are examples of legendary bodybuilderswho intelligently emphasized stretch overload at almost everyw o rkout. Could that be why they excelled at buildingi n c redible muscle mass at a time when steroid use wasminimal? It may be at least part of the reason. They may havecreated some fiber splitting—and the more fibers you have, thebigger your muscles can get!

Muscle-building lesson 3: While semistretched overloadis important, you also need stretched-position exercises toramp up anabolic hormones and perhaps trigger hyperplasia,or fiber splitting. It’s another layer of growth production thatcan get you bigger much faster! (We’ll identify stretch-positione x e rcises for each bodypart later in this e-book and theDouble-X Overload tactic that can superc h a rge their mass-building power.)



CHAPTER 4

Cut the Vo l u m e ,Cover the Angles

Most of the champs tend to train with lots of sets. Why isthat necessar y—or perc e i ved as necessar y? Most do itinstinctively, but it’s because of what muscle physiologists callthe size principle of muscle fiber recruitment. We explained itthoroughly in The Ultimate Mass Workout e-book, but here’s aquick review: When you do a set to failure, the first few reps firethe low - t h reshold motor units. Then, as they fatigue, themedium-threshold motor units kick in. Once those start to giveout, the important high-threshold motor units finally fire.

In other word s, you don’t get to the fastest-growing fast-twitch fibers till the last few reps of any set to failure. Thatexplains why experienced bodybuilders always say the last fewreps are the most important—without the painful finale yo ubarely scratch the surface of fast-twitch recruitment.

T h e re’s a glitch, though. Once you get near the end of thedomino effect—low- to medium- to high-thre s h o l d — yo u rnervous system craps out before you blast enough of the fast-twitch fibers to trigger significant growth. That’s why scientistssay that any set to failure hits only 30 percent of the fast-twitchf i b e r s. Less if your neuromuscular efficiency sucks. Yo u rn e rvous system, short - c i rcuited by fatigue, stops you shortevery time. Researchers believe it’s a protective mechanism.

So what do most bodybuilders do to get around it? They doset after set to failure or close to it. With each additional setthey get a slightly different re c ruitment pattern and get a fewmore fast-twitch fibers involved, if they’re lucky. But talk aboutinefficient: They have to do all those pre l i m i n a ry reps toactivate the motor-unit domino effect just to get at a few morefast-twitch fibers. Then they do it again and again and again,getting only slig htly more growth stimulation via fiberrecruitment with each set of the same exercise.

A better way is to do only one or two work sets with X Repstacked onto the end at nervous system exhaustion. That wayyou leapfrog nervous system fatigue and keep the key fast-twitch fibers firing right at the important max-force point. Aswe’ve said, with that strategy you make each set three to five


times more effective as standard positive - f a i l u re sets. So twosets on any exercise gets the job done. But what about traininga muscle from different angles, which the pros do a lot of?

Using different exercises can attack different fibers, and themore fibers you can get growing at once, the bigger you’ll get.What we’re saying is that you do need multiangular tra i n i n gonce yo u’re more advanced in order to stimulate more of themuscle (but probably not as much as you think; more on thatin a moment). Ok a y, you probably want some scientificc o r ro b o ration. He re’s a quote from Designing Re s i s t a n c eTraining Pro g ra m s by St e ven J. Fleck, Ph . D., and William J.K ra e m e r, Ph . D., two of the most respected re s e a rchers in thestrength-training field:

“If the body position is changed, the order of re c ru i t m e n tcan also change (Gri m by and Ha n n e rz 1977). The order ofrecruitment can also change for multifunctional muscles fromone movement or exercise to another. Recruitment order in thequadriceps for the performance of a knee extension is differentf rom that for a squat. The va riation in re c ruitment ord e rp rovides some evidence to support the belief held by manystrength coaches that to completely develop a particular muscleit must be exe rcised with seve ral different movements orexercises.”

Does that mean you have to do eve ry exercise known toman for eve ry bodypart in order to max out growth? No, yo usee each muscle has three distinct positions, or arcs, of flexionfrom which you should train it to maximize fiber recruitment—m i d ra n g e, contracted and stretched. Those familiar withSteve’s work over the past decade and a half recognize that asPositions of Flexion.

A midrange movement is usually a big multijoint exerc i s ethat triggers the most fiber activation. Examples include squatsfor quads and decline presses for lower chest.

Co n t racted-position movements are usually isolatione x e rcises that provide continuous-tension occlusion effects.Examples include leg extensions for quads and cable


crossovers for chest.St retch-position movements fully elongate the target muscle

against re s i s t a n c e, which can trigger anabolic hormones andpossibly muscle-fiber spitting. Examples include sissy, or limbo,squats for quads and dumbbell flyes for chest.

Muscle-building lesson 4: You must train a muscle fromthree distinct angles—midrange, contracted and stretched—ino rder to maximize fiber activation. Eve ry exercise for eachb o d y p a rt falls into one of those categories—and if you add XReps and X-hybrid techniques, which we’ll explain later,c o r re c t l y, you only need one to two sets in each position tomaximize size stimulation very, very quickly!


Positions-of-Flexion Biceps Program

Barbell curls with a slightcheat train the midrangeposition, concentration curlswork the biceps in theircontracted position, withocclusion, and incline curls(below) work the biceps’stretch position, which cantrigger fiber splitting andanabolic hormone release.

Midrange

Stretch

Contracted


CHAPTER 5

Time-Bomb Tr a i n i n g

Unless you’ve read The Ultimate Mass Workout and/or triedthe X-Rep technique corre c t l y, you may not re a l i ze just howpowerful it is. At the end of a set to failure, when the importantg row t h - o riented high-threshold motor units start to kick in,your nervous system fails. That’s when most people stop aset—when they can’t get another full-range rep—and grow t hstimulation is minimal. But with X Re p s, instead of stopping,you lower the weight to the max-forc e - g e n e ration point andcontinue to fire out part i a l s. That’s how you leapfrog nervo u ssystem failure and continue to recruit fast-twitch fibers. Here’sh ow you do a standard X-Rep sequence on Smith machinesquats:

After a warmup your knees are lubed, yo u’ve got blood inyour quads, and your legs are ra ri n’ to go. First you do onesmooth set to positive failure, which is more of an extension ofthe warmup and primes your nervous system with a heavywork weight. No forced reps; no X Reps; stop at positive failure.

Now comes the money set. After about a three-minute rest,get comfortable under the bar and unhook the safety catches.Your feet are slightly in front of your hips just wider thanshoulder width and toes pointed out slightly. Inhale as yo ul ower to a count of two to a point to where your hamstri n g stouch your calves—upper legs past parallel to the ground—andthen quickly re verse the action as you exhale. Don’t bouncewith the weight; it’s more of a controlled explosion. The weightshould reach lockout in about 1 1/2 to two seconds. As soon asyou hit lockout, or close to it if you’re doing partials, begin thenext rep.

Continue with that cadence till you stick. At that point yourpartner should step in so the bar stalls for only a millisecond.He should apply enough pressure to the bar to keep it movingall the way to lockout. Note that we said the bar should keepm oving. That so-called forced rep should not—not!—be as l ow-motion tort u re tactic. Your partner should prov i d eenough help to keep your rep cadence intact for a smoothfinish on your final rep. Otherwise your X Reps could suffer a


s e ve re shortfall—and yo ud o n’t want to short c h a n g emax-force-point overload!

At lockout take a deepbreath and lower to a pointjust below parallel. Nows q u e eze the bar hard intoyour tra p s, innervate yo u rquads to the max and pulset h rough about an ei ght-inch range with X Re p s.Think of these as controlledm i n i - e x p l o s i o n s. Yo ushould feel your qu adss c reaming by about X-Re pnumber five. If not, yo umay be too high on thes t roke; tr y going a littledeeper so you get a bit morestretch in your quads. Whenyour quads are fried and you can no longer pulse, hold theweight statically for a few seconds down low, squeeze yo u rquads as hard as you can, then—Bam!—rack it. You may haveto rack it low if your partner can’t help you get back to the top,but that’s one reason you do these on a Smith machine. (Theother is that X Reps are impossible at the end of a set of free-bar squats due to a leverage shift.)

Yo u’ve just done more to stimulate growth in that one setthan most people get in three or four of the haphazard variety.Think about all the energy you save, energy your body can nowchannel into re c ove ry and growth, thanks to getting the jobdone with half or a quarter of the volume! It all comes down tooverloading the max-force generation point. Just the wayRonnie Coleman instinctively tries to overload that point on somany of his exerc i s e s. On an X-Rep set, howe ve r, instead ofj e rking or heaving eve ry re p, wait till the end of the set and


X Reps can be brutal on the bigexercises and may require partnerassistance.

attack that key mass-building sweet spot safely and efficiently.Getting more fast-twitch-fiber invo l vement and energ yc o n s e rvation is only part of X Re p s’ extra o rd i n a ry powe r,h owe ve r. There’s occlusion too. Because X Reps are part i a lm ovements and create continuous tension, you get someocclusion at the end of every set you use them on, even if it’s af u l l - range multijoint exerc i s e. Pa rtials create continuoustension. And if you use X-Rep partials at the end of a set of acontinuous-tension isolation movement, like leg extensions,you occlude the muscle even longer than if you stop at failure.

As we mentioned earlier, most people are forced to stoptheir sets too early to reap all the size - a n d - s t re n g t h - b u i l d i n gbenefits of occlusion, but if you grit your teeth and continuewith X Reps, you’ll force longer occlusion times and your gainscan skyrocket. So if you don’t have the superior neuromuscularefficiency of a pro bodybuilder, X Reps can help you overcomethat limitation.

Power partials at the max-forc e - g e n e ration point attackmore fast-twitch fibers with fewer sets and block blood flow forocclusion-growth effects—and where there’s occlusion, there’susually burn. That’s the growth hormone connection. If you’vebeen bodybuilding for any length of time, you know that it’sdifficult to get a burn on compound exercises. Not anymore. Ifyou add X Reps to the end of a set, you can trigger muscle burnat will—on just about any exerc i s e. That means you can gett e s t o s t e rone release and a GH surg e, a double-barre l e danabolic blast.

And if there is such a thing as hyperplasia, or fibersplitting—the jury ’s still out—X Reps may be a key player (orsplayer, in this case).

X Reps produce spectacular muscle-building and shreddingresults, as the gains Jonathan Lawson and I made in only onemonth in ’04 clearly show (see next page). I RON MANPu blisher John Balik said, “X Reps are the single mostimportant muscle-building concept to come along in years.”

But now there’s more — X - Rep hybrid techniques that can


take you to the next level. We’ve experimented with a numberof new X-Rep-style training methods, and we got bigger andbetter after we honed them and harnessed their powe r. (Wediscuss them in the next few chapters.) Check out our newresults below—no drugs, no trick photography.

Muscle-building lesson 5: Change on a regular basis cancreate faster adapation, i.e. growth. That’s the reason you needa va riety of X-Rep techniques in your mass-building arsenal.Switch them up often, providing your muscles with differe n tstress overloads to cope with, and you’ll grow like never before.


Experimenting with X Reps gave us amazing gains in only one month in’04. In ’05 we mixed it up, experimenting with new X-Rep hybridtechniques like X/Pause and X First Stage. Results: We both were almost10 pounds heavier than in ’04—in the same extremely shredded condition!

1-month X-Rep resultsin ’04.

1-month X-Rep resultsin ’04.

Biggerandbetterin ’05!

Biggerandbetterin ’05!


Muscle-Building Lessons ReviewLesson 1: The semistretched point of an exercise is

key. You need to overload that sweet spot, especially onthe big, compound exerc i s e s, if you want to maximize yo u rmass gains. Many of the biggest bodybuilders in the world,like Ronnie Coleman and Jay Cutler, use it on almost every setof eve ry exerc i s e. We’ll have more analysis of their tra i n i n gtechniques later in this e-book.

Less on 2 : While it’s important to overload thes e m i s t retched position on eve ry exerc i s e, you should alsostrive for continuous tension to block blood flow on atleast some movements. That’s one reason to use isolatione x e rcises after your big compound move—for moreconcentrated continuous tension, which produces significantocc lu sion, or blood-flow impairment, which in turnstimulates another level of muscle growth. Examples includeleg extensions and leg curls.

Lesson 3: While semistretched overload and continuoustension are important, you also need stre t c h e d - p o s i t i o nexercises to ramp up anabolic hormones and perhapst rigger hyperplasia, or fiber splitting. It’s another laye rof growth production that can get you bigger much faster!( Remember the bird study that created over a 300 perc e n tincrease in muscle mass in only 30 days? Our new Double-XOverload tactic on stretch-position exercises mimics that andcan supercharge mass gains. Very exciting!)

Lesson 4: You must train a muscle from thre ed istinct angl es—mid ra nge, contr act ed ands t re t c h e d—in order to maximize fiber activation. Eve ryexercise for each bodypart falls into one of those categories—and if you add X Reps and X-hybrid techniques, you onlyneed one to two sets in each position to maximize sizestimulation very quickly!

Lesson 5: Change on a regular basis can cre a t efaster adapation, i.e. growth. That’s the reason you need ava riety of X-Rep techniques in your mass-building arsenal.Switch them up often, providing your muscles with differents t ress overloads to cope with, and yo u’ll grow like neve rbefore.


CHAPTER 6

Stage Sets andDouble-X Overload


We decided to start our X-Rep hybrid discussion with StageSets because it’s similar to how Ronnie Coleman trains, and wementioned his training in many of the previous chapters. Heessentially does partial reps, from the semistretched point up toonly about two thirds of the way through the stro k e. It’sessentially explosive nonlock partials on most exercises.

We got rather excited when we noticed his training style onhis “Re d e m p t i o n” DVD because it ve rifies a lot of what we’vebeen preaching about with X Reps—and it also answers acommon question: What if you do X Reps first—or at leaste x a g g e rated X Reps—without pre l i m i n a ry full reps? Answe r: Itcan build big-time mass.

In past ye a r s, before X Re p s, we noticed that eve ry time wei n t roduced Stage Sets to our w ork o u t s, we got su ddenmuscularity and vascularity increases—and now we know why:The technique is essentially a unique type of X ove r l o a d — a nintense out-of-the-blocks blast right at the max-force point.

He re’s how an X-Rep Stage Set works for Sm i t h - m a c h i n eincline presses. You position yourself on the incline bench, gripslightly wider than your shoulders. Unhook the safety catchesand then lower the bar to about an inch above your upperchest. From there you drive it back up, but only to just slightlyhigher than the midpoint of the stro k e. When you reach thatpoint, lower back to the semistretched position, and so on,doing low-range partials till you can’t stand the burn.

You’re essentially doing piston-like exaggerated X Reps rightoff the bat through the max-force point, which is what Colemandoes, but we take it a step further.

When you can’t do another exaggerated X Rep—you shouldget about 10 of those lowdown partials—get the bar to lockout,with help from your part n e r. Now you do the top stage of thes t ro k e. First, squeeze your pecs hard, contracting them in thelockout position, then lower through about the top one-third ofthe movement. Blast back to the top and squeeze your pecsagain. Flex at lockout on every one of those top-end reps.

A re Stage Sets better than standard X Reps—those powe r

p a rtials you do at the end of a positive - f a i l u re set? No tn e c e s s a ri l y. As we’ve said, full reps can prime the muscle foroptimal fast-twitch fiber re c ruitment at the end of the set. Inother words, it appears the first full reps or near-full reps on as t a n d a rd set make your end-of-set X Reps a more powe rf u lfast-twitch switch, which is due to the size principle ofre c ruitment that we’ve cove red in an earlier chapter and inU M W. Ba s i c a l l y, it’s a motor-unit cascade that makes X Re p smore power packed!

Ne ve rt h e l e s s, Stage Sets have their place and when webegan mixing them into our program we once again saw bettermass gains. He re’s the sequence we usually used when wewanted to incorporate this new, potent X-Rep mass attack:

1) Warmup Sets. Do two pro g re s s i vely heavier sets—use50 percent and then 80 percent of your work-set weight to getyour nervous system primed to fire the most muscle fiberspossible on your first work set. (T h e re’s more on pre c i s i o nwarmup sequences in Chapter 11.)

2) Po s i t i ve - f a i l u reS e t . Do a standardp o s i t i ve - f a i l u re set (yo ucan add X Reps to theend, but only if yo u’rea d vanced and havegood recovery ability).

3) Stage Set. Do asecond work set, butthis time use the St a g etechnique de scri b e da b ove — e x a g g e rated XReps to exhaustion firstf o l l owed by top-endreps with concentra t e dl o c k o u t s. (Yo u’ll feel itw o rking, we guara n t e eit!)


Stage Sets can provide moresemistretched-position overload aswell as anabolic occlusion.

[ Note: The Staged technique, as described, w ill beimpossible on some move m e n t s, such as upright row s. Wei n s e rt this technique in the upcoming routines only on theexercises that work best with it.]

We said above that you may want to add X Reps to the firstw o rk set—if yo u’re advanced. Doesn’t that contradict whatwe’ve said in the past—that you should do your first work set topositive failure only? Not really. We said that because the firstset is designed to prime your nervous system for your secondw o rk set that includes X Re p s. We’ve discove red that if yo u’refairly advanced and know how to warm up pro p e r l y — h e a v yenough to get your nervous system jacked, but not so heavythat you fatigue the target muscle—you should be able to getthe full-blown mass stimulation from X Reps on your very firstw o rk set. Then your Stage Set will act as a bonus blockbustermass builder to really kick your mass-building machinery intogear!

X-aggerated X + X Reps. That’s a lot of Xes, but it’s a goodd e s c ription of another version of this hybrid technique. Wi t hX - a g g e rated X + X Re p s, you still do the first stage, mov i n gt h rough the semistretched position with exaggerated X Re p s,but when you hit nervous system exhaustion, instead ofm oving to lockout, you move to the X Spot, or semistre t c h e dpoint, and perf o rm X Re p s. That’s more brutal than re g u l a rStage Se t s, so be pre p a red for some X-cruciating pain. It’sw o rth it though . Yo u’ll see muscular results almostimmediately.

Now back to our friend, Ronnie Coleman. We’ve mentionedhis mass training and how it’s heavily dependent on max-f o rce-point overload. He does a lot of part i a l - rep sets withe x p l o s i ve turn a rounds at the semistretched point, the X spot,never getting close to lockout on any exercise—and his mass isincredible! It verifies a lot of what we’ve discovered.

Well, after watching his “Re d e m p t i o n” DV D, we picked upon something even more exciting, a simple exercise tweak thatcould pack incredible new mass on your physique—and


another X-Rep hybri dtechnique.

Double-X Ove rl o a d .First, you have to realize thatCo l e m a n’s traps areabsolute ly freaky! On theDVD he’s working out in as t ring tank top, and we’ven e ver seen such gigantict ra p s. They sit on h isshoulders l ike tw o-tonboulders! What does he dofor them? Only three sets ofbehind-the-back barbells h rugs—would you believe11 reps with 745 pounds?!Now, that’s not a real uniquee x e rc i s e, and he does ve ryfew sets compared to hisother bodypart hits, but hist raps are arguably his best,most freaky muscle group. Isit genetics?

Maybe, to a degree, but healso has a unique way ofp e rf o rming his shru g s,


Coleman’s Double-X Overloadtactic on shrugs—a hitch at thebottom of each rep—havehelped him develop outrageoustraps! It’s basically an X Rep atthe semistretched pointbetween every full rep. Alsonotice that he doesn’t move thebar very far even on his “full”reps (see photos above)—yet histraps are huge. Check out thestill from his “Redemption” DVDwhen he was wearing a stringtank top (left). Amazing!(Coleman’s DVD is available atwww.Home-Gym.com).

Bottom.

Top.

something he doesn’t do for any other exercise (and afterseeing the size of his tra p s, we have to ask, Why not?). He re’swhat he does: When he stands erect with the massive we i g h tsuspended at arm’s length behind his legs, he pulls up only afew inches, shrugging with a ve ry limited ra n g e, but when hegets to the bottom semistretched position—this is thei m p o rtant part—he double hitches. He uses that contro l l e dm a x - f o rce-point double blast on eve ry rep of eve ry set ofshrugs.

Could it be that his double overload at the semistre t c h e dposition is creating extreme anabolic reactions in his upperback? Remember, there have been scientific studies correlatings t retch overload with hyperplasia, or fiber splitting. Could hisdouble-hitch method be triggering muscle-fiber replication aswell as max-force-point overload for a double-whammy mass-morphing effect? It sure looks that way!

Think about it. His traps are incre d i b l e, yet he only doesthree sets for them. How about this: On Jay Cutler’s “Ripped toSh re d s” DV D, he uses the Double-X Overload technique onalmost eve ry exercise! We’re convinced it’s how Cutler hasovercome many of his genetic limitations to become one of thebest bodybuilders in the world.

We’re very excited about these observation, and after tryingD o u b l e - Xes in the gym we can honestly say that you willalmost feel growth happening (is it hyperplasia?). For example,the next time you do leg curls, lower to the bottoms e m i s t retched point on the first re p, pull up only about 10inches, lower to full stretch again, and then pull the weight upfor a full re p. Continue that sequence on eve ry re p, Double-Xing at the bottom turnaround. At nervous system failure, youcan add standard X Reps—if you can stand the burn.

Double X Overload obviously works for Ronnie Co l e m a nand has allowed him to build amazing trap mass with very fewsets (Ronnie, you’ve got to try it on other exercises!). Give it ago and watch yourself grow!



CHAPTER 7

X/Pause and X-centric Tr a i n i n g

Ou r first foray into X-Rep hybrid techniques was XOverload. What we did was take a set to nervous system failure,rack the weight, add 10 to 20 percent more poundage, thenc rank out a heavier X-Rep-only set. We thought that wouldoverload the X Spot and create some exceptional new gains. Itsure looked good on paper.

Un f o rt u n a t e l y, we didn’t get a lot out of it—and we we repuzzled. Why didn’t it ramp up our mass gains? Then it hit us:By stopping at nervous system failure, we we re derailing thes i ze principle of muscle fiber re c ruitment and not extendingthe set with occlusion. We did get some strength out of it, butthat may be because of the tendon and ligament work we weregetting on the heavy X-Rep-only set. It was essentially likedoing a second partial low-rep set (sets in the one-to-four-reprange are notorious for building more strength than size forthat very reason).

Then, as luck would have it, we ran across some of Mi k e


Mike Mentzer used a technique hecalled rest/pause, taking six-secondbreaks between max singles. Thatnever did much for our muscle size,so we retooled it into X/Pausetraining, a more severe form ofstandard X-Rep work.

Mentzer’s writings on Heavy Duty training and rest/pause. Histechnique was as follows: a heavy single, rest six seconds,another heavy single, rest six seconds, another heavy singlewith help if necessary, rest six seconds and a final heavy singlewith a reduced poundage and/or with help from a partner.

Once again, that sounds like a strength-building re g i m e n ,and that’s exactly what we found when we tried it as outlinedby Mentzer. But we also realized that he made good gains withit (perhaps because of his superior neuromuscular efficiency),his reasoning being that the pauses between all-out effort shelped clear the target muscle of lactic acid and other wastep roducts that can short - c i rcuit the nervous system and causepremature failure. That got us thinking...

What if you did a regular set to nervous system exhaustion,tacked on X Reps to force the muscle to continue to activa t efast-twitch fibers, and then rested for six seconds. After thatshort pause you take the same weight and blast out an X-onlyset. Bingo! We saw mass increases almost immediately.

We think the reason X/Pause works and X Overload doesn’twork so well is because the X Reps tacked onto the first part ofthe set better deplete the muscle and add more occlusion. Also,because the rest is so short—six seconds as opposed to alonger rest to change the weight on X Overload—the sizep rinciple is still intact and fast-twitch fibers continue to fireefficiently without overbearing tendon and ligament support.

To review, here’s how to do an X/Pause set on close, parallel-grip pulldowns: Strap on to the pulldown bar and wedge yourthighs under the support pads. Pull the handle down to yo u rchest and then release almost to lockout before pulling it backd own to your chest. At nervous system exhaustion, whichshould occur at around rep nine, move to the semistre t c h e dpoint, just shy of lockout, and do X-Rep part i a l s, pulling thebar down about eight inches in a controlled, explosive manner.

When you can’t do anymore X Reps, stand up, let the weightstack down, but don’t release the handle. Count off sixseconds—one-thousand one, one-thousand two, etc. — t h e n


reposition yourself under the thigh-support bars and crank outan X-Rep-only set, getting as many of those semistre t c h e d -position partials as you can stand.

The pain is not fun, but you have to remember that you’reusing intensity to supercede vo l u m e. In other word s, yo u’ret raining harder so you don’t have to train longer. We’re allabout efficient mass building, and the X/Pause technique doesthe trick quickly—just don’t abuse it. It’s severe!

X - c e n t ric Tr a i n i n g . And speaking of intensity, almoste ve ry trainee knows that you can lower much more we i g h tthan you can ra i s e. In fact, a few decades ago negative - o n l ytraining, doing only the lowering part of the exercise, was verypopular for building strength. Why? Because you can use 20 to50 percent more weight than a normal positive / n e g a t i ve setand eccentrically overload the muscle. It produces unbearablesoreness, but that’s only part of the drawback. For a number ofexercises you need a couple of strong, willing helpers to lift theweight into position on every rep so you can lower it. (Imaginea guy on each side of the bar as you squat, picking up theweight for you after you slowly sink to the bottom position. Wedon’t think they’d stick around too long.)

We’ve discussed negative, or eccentric, training at the X-Reps i t e, but to understand the X-centric hybrid technique, weshould re v i e w. We mentioned watching the most massivebodybuilders l ike Ronnie Coleman explode with heavyweights. That puzzled us for a long time. They weren’t gettingfull contractions, so why in the heck were they growing? Okay,there’s the anabolic steroid connection, but it had to be morethan that because the way they we re training appeared to dolittle for total-muscle stimulation.

After thinking it through, we re a l i zed that by exploding toget a heavy weight up, they automatically created moreoverload on the negative—the lowe ring, or eccentric, part ofevery rep. They could lift more, so they had to lower more. Thathad to be the key. Sure, their control was minimal, but maybehaving to fight, even a little, to slow down that heavy weight so


it didn’t rip muscles andjoints was the key. Afterall, scientists have oftensaid that the negativep a rt of a rep is the mostimportant.

If our thinking wasc o r rect, heavy negative -only training should

p roduce outstanding results in size and strength. No p e. Thestudies comparing heavy negative-only sets to standardp o s i t i ve / n e g a t i ve work don’t show much difference in re s u l t s.The spectacular size and strength increases from heavynegative-only training just don’t happen. The studies find thatn e g a t i ve-only training with heavier weights produces aboutthe same results as regular sets. That blew our theory out of thewater.

Then re s e a rchers compared regular positive / n e g a t i ve setsto positive-only (concentric) sets—only raising the we i g h t .What happened? St a n d a rd positive / n e g a t i ve work won eve rytime. The mystery continued: From the first studies it looks liken e g a t i ve work is nothing special. But when negative work ismissing, gains are near zero. Why?

It’s not that negative work is more important than positivework; it’s just necessary to trigger more growth—at least morethan positive-only work—because the most important point inmany exe rcises is near the turnaro u n d, when you shift fro mn e g a t i ve to positive. With positive-only work there is noturnaround, that critical directional shift.


A new study shows that fast lowering ofresistance creates more muscle growththan slow, controlled movement—but itmay not be the speed that triggersresults. It’s probably the extra overloadat the semistretched point on the strokecaused by stopping the fast downwardmovement at the bottom.

When you do positive-only work, you just lift the weight. Inother words, maximum force production doesn’t occur at thatkey turnaround point in the stroke. You do get a little overloadthere with positive-only work—when you have to drive from adead stop out of the bottom of a press, for example—but not asmuch as when you have to reverse the movement of a weight inthat position. That semistretched shock is the missing elementin positive-only training, which is why it does little for musclegrowth.

But hold on! He a v y, negative-only work doesn’t include aturnaround either—you just lower a heavy weight. So shouldn’tit produce the same meager results as postive-only work?

No, because overload at the turnaround point is not missingf rom heavy negative-only work. Think about it: Yo u’re muchs t ronger during the negative phase of a rep than the positive.So negative-only sets re q u i re you to use much more we i g h tthan in a standard set—usually more than your one-rep max,in fact. That means you do overload the turnaround point witha much heavier weight—there is semistretched shock. No, youdon’t reverse the movement, but you do have to slow it down(at least you’d better! That weight is friggin’ heavy!).

A recent study ve rifies the importance of turn a ro u n d ,although the re s e a rchers seem to miss that result. Jo s eAntonio, Ph.D. discussed it in his Anabolic Drive column in theOctober ’05 issue of IRON MAN:

“Twe l ve 24-ye a r-old subjects perf o rmed maximal re s i s t i velengthening isokinetic exercise with both arms for eight weeks,t h ree days per week, during which they trained one arm at afast velocity and the other at a slow ve l o c i t y. Type 1 musclefiber size increased in both cases. Type 2a and 2x muscle fiberi n c reased in both arm s, but the increases we re greater in thefast-trained arm.

“The re s e a rchers concluded that training using fast (3.66radians per second) lengthening contractions leads to gre a t e rh y p e rt rophy (growth) and strength gains than slow (0.35radians per second) lengthening contra c t i o n s. The gre a t e r


h y p e rt rophy seen in the fast-trained arm may be related to agreater amount of protein remodeling.”

Why do we say the conclusion is askew? Well, from theresults it appears that training faster stimulated more muscle.But is the speed of movement really triggering extra growth oris it max-force overload right at the semistretched position?

Realize that when you move fast, it takes more effort to stopthe resistance and/or reverse it. In fact, research indicates thatwhen a trainee standing on force plates moves fast and usesmomentum, the actual weight he has to re verse at theturnaround of a rep can be double or triple the poundage he’slifting. The reason? Gravity plus momentum. As the weight isquickly lowered and then heaved at the turnaround to reverseits direction, the force is multiplied two- to threefold.

How does that cause more muscle growth? Exc e s s i veoverload at the ke y hypert rophic point. The key fiber-a c t i vation point on the stroke is near the turn a ro u n d — t h es e m i s t retched point, where maximum force generation canoccur.

When you move fast through the negative phase of thestroke, as in the study, it takes more effort to reverse or stop thepoundage at that max-force point, so you achieve more target-muscle overload right at the muscle’s sweet spot. (Im a g i n edropping a heavy weight through the eccentric phase of a legcurl and then stopping it right before your legs are straight—asopposed to lowering it slowly under control.)

Obviously, training fast is much more dangerous than usinga slowe r, controlled cadence. We prefer to train safer and stillget all the benefits of max-force-point overload that occur withfast training. In other words, we don’t recommend fast ballisticm ovements; instead we use X Reps and the X-hybrid tactics.While the conclusions may be askew, the above study alongwith our other forays into negative training did help us deviseX-centric training, which allowed us to get bigger and strongerin ’05. Here’s how it works on chins:

When you hit nervous system exhaustion on chins, move to


near lockout and do as many X Reps as possible. When yo ucrap out, use a chair or stool to put your feet on and get backinto the top position of the chin. Lock into it, take your feet offthe stool and do a four-second negative. When you reach the XSpot, near the bottom, pulse with X Reps. You may only be ableto do one or two of those slow negatives plus Xes, but what anincredible mass-kicking method!

We’ve never tried it, but you could do a few X Reps on everyrep of a pure - n e g a t i ve set too. For example, you tie about 20percent more weight around your waist for those chins, climbto the top, lower slowly and then do about three X Reps nearthe bottom. Do four or five of those pure negatives plus Xes,butbe care f u l — yo u’ve guaranteed to get mighty sore—and yo u rlats may be ripping out of your shirt before you can say wickedV taper.



CHAPTER 8

Iso X and X Fade

In The Ultimate Mass Workout we made the case for doing XReps at the top of contracted-position exerc i s e s, even thoughwe’ve said over and over that the semistretched position is thebest spot for ultimate muscle fiber recruitment (see, we said itagain). Here’s our reasoning:

“We know that an important point on the stroke for[ s t retch- and contracted-position] exercises is full elongationon stretch-position exercises and full contraction oncontracted-position exercises. Therefore, you should do your XReps close to those points.

“For example, on incline curls, a stretch-position exerc i s efor biceps, when you can no longer do full reps, you pulse justa b ove the stretch position. On concentration curls, thecontracted-position movement for biceps, once you hit failure,use your free arm to get the dumbbell up into the contra c t e dposition and pulse at that key point. While we made thea rgument that elongation is important for max forc ep roduction on X Re p s, you already get that on midrange ands t retch exerc i s e s. So X Reps in the contracted position willp rovide another unique muscle-building stimulus. …Re m e m b e r, many re s e a rchers believe that the best grow t hstimulus occurs when the muscle is semi-elongated, so X Repsin the fully contracted position may not be ideal—just unique.”

That last statement is important and the reason that afterusing X Reps at the top of contracted-position exerc i s e s, likec o n c e n t ration curls, leg extensions and leg curls, we felt likesomething was missing and that our gains could be better. Wekept asking ourselve s, “If the semistretched position is soc ricically important for muscle growth, why are n’t weemphasizing it on contracted-position exercises as well?”

Despite the explanation from UMW, we knew we had to dosomething to change our Iso-X strategy—using X Reps in thec o n t racted position only—to something that blasted thes e m i s t retched position in addition. X Reps at the max-c o n t raction point made some sense, but doing them at thes e m i s t retched point seemed even more beneficial, especially


after all the tra i n i n ganalysis andexperimentation we’d beendoing. (Heck, Ro n n i eColeman almost neve rm oves to the contra c t e dposition on any exercise, asyou’ll see when we analyzehis training routine toward

the end of this e-book.) That’s how the X Fade was born.It started out as a three-position X-Rep sequence. At

n e rvous system exhaustion the trainee got help to the top,contracted position and pulsed for three to four X Reps. Thenhe lowe red to the middle of the stoke and pulsed there foranother three or four X Re p s. Fi n a l l y, he lowe red to thes e m i s t retched position and did X Reps there till the pain wastoo much. That ended the set (usually with horri f i cscreaming!).

In the beginning we liked that triple-X method, but then werealized that we weren’t getting a heckuva lot of Xes in the lastposition—and that was the most important spot for fibera c t i vation, the semistretched point! By the time we got there,the target muscle was spent, the burn was too intense, and wejust couldn’t do our X Reps near the bottom the justice theydeserved. So the X Fade become a two-position fade instead ofthree.

Our new, improved version: At nervous system exhaustionwe get help to the top, contracted position for X Reps, fire outas many as possible, then lower to the stronger semistre c h e dpoint and do X Reps there. Ah, much better with noticeablybetter muscle-size results. Here are all the X-hybrid tactics...


The X Fade has you do XReps in the top contractedposition, then move to thesweet spot, the semi-stretched point near thebottom, for more X Reps.


X-Rep Hybrid Techniques Cheat Sheet

STAGE SETS. Do the two-thirds of the exercise’s stroke thatincludes the semistretched point first, like the bottom twot h i rds of squats; at nervous system exhaustion, move tolockout and do the top one third of the stroke to exhaustion.( Note: This technique works best on exercises with bone-support lockouts; for example, squats, bench presses, overheadpresses. You can also do the first stage—that encompasses the Xspot—and then at nervous system exhaustion move to the Xspot and continue with standard X Re p s. Stage Sets don’t workwell for exercises that have continuous tension.)

DOUBLE-X OV E R LOA D. Use a hitch, or X Re p, at thes e m i s t retched point between eve ry full re p. For example, onshrugs you move the bar down to the lowest point, pull up a fewinches, move the weight back down to the lowest point and thendo a full rep. You can use this technique on almost any exercise,e ven squats; howe ve r, you may have to lighten the weight. It’sideal for stretch-position exercises and may trigger fiber spitting!

X / PAU S E . Do you r normal set to ner vous systemexhaustion, blast out X Reps at the semistretched position andthen rack the weight. Count to six, then take the same weightand grind out more X Reps at the semistretched point till youcan’t move the weight.

X-CENTRIC TRAINING. Do a normal set to nervous systemexhaustion, blast out X Reps, then get the weight back up—tothe top of chins, for example—with help. Lower the we i g h tslowly for about five seconds and at the semistretched point dot h ree or four X-Rep pulses. Get the weight back up again andrepeat the slow negative plus X Reps. Do that till you can’t lowerthrough the negative phase with control.

X FA D E. This is more for continuous-tension isolatione x e rcises (contracted), like leg extensions and leg curls. Do anormal set to nervous system exhaustion, then get help to thetop contracted spot. Do X Reps there, then lower to thes e m i s t retched point and do X Reps at that key point till themuscle is spent.


CHAPTER 9

Our X-citingResults and Findings


Since our ’04 X-periment, when we first began using X Reps,we’ve made some startling discoveries that increased our gainss i g n i f i c a n t l y. Yo u’ve already read about the X-hybri dtechniques that helped take our intensity and muscle mass tothe next level in ’05. We also used a different split that had usworking legs only once a week.

What?! Haven’t we said that working a bodypart once a weekd o e s n’t work for most people and has never given us re s u l t s ?That’s correct, but there’s a minor detail that makes the strategyv i a b l e, at least for quads. They seem to need more re c ove rytime, especially if you’re doing cardio—and during our rippingphase in the summer months, we do lots of card i o, and it allinvolves legs.

We snapped to the need for more leg recovery time when wesaw a new study re v i e wed by re s e a rcher Je r ry Brainum thatappeared in the August ’05 IRON MAN. Here’s an excerpt:

“In a study presented at the 2004 meeting of the Na t i o n a lSt rength and Conditioning Association, re s e a rchers from theUn i versity of Alabama examined just how long it takes tore c over from a we i g h t - t raining workout. Fifteen men and 15women were tested for strength recovery at 48, 72 and 96 hoursafter a weight workout consisting of three sets of eightrepetitions done with weights equal to 65 percent of one-re pmaximum in the bench press and leg press.

X-Rep hybridtechniqueshelped us takeour muscle massto the next levelin ’05, but wehad to be carefulwith them. Theyare powerful andcan trigger over-training if theyare abused.

“Analysis showed that 66.7 percent of the male subjectsneeded 96 hours for full recovery on the leg press. In contrast,93.3 percent of the men showed full re c ove ry on the benchp ress after 72 hours. As for the female study subjects, 66.7percent recovered on the bench press after 72 hours, while only46.7 percent showed full re c ove ry on the leg press at the 96-hour mark.”

We do a few more sets than three for our quads at any oneleg workout, and we add intense X Reps. Plus, like we said, wewere doing lots of leg-related cardio during our ripping phase.All that considered, we figured once-a-week leg training shouldbe about right—and we we re correct. Our strength start e dm oving up on almost eve ry exerc i s e, and our legs got moreshredded and vascular.

Du ring our ’05 ripping-phase split our once-a-week legworkout occured on Wednesday. We split the upper body overtwo days, Monday and Tuesday, and then repeated the split onThursday and Fri d a y. We tried to minimize the ove r l a p, butu n f o rtunately we still got some. He re’s how our ’05 ri p p i n g -phase split looked:

Monday: delts, traps, midback, rear delts, biceps,forearms

Tuesday: chest, lats, triceps, abs

Wednesday: quads, hamstrings, calves, lower back

Thursday: delts, traps, midback, rear delts, biceps,forearms

Friday: chest, lats, triceps, abs

The major overlap occured with back. We trained traps andmidback one day, and then the following day we worked lats.Biceps also got some overlap: We worked them that first dayd i rectly and with midback and then they got some indire c twork the next day, when we worked lats.

Despite the small amount of overlap, we liked this split. And


the once-a-week leg training on Wednesdays kept our programin the five-day work week schedule we must use because wec a n’t train on weekends (St e ve has kids on club soccer teamsand Jonathan teaches at car-racing schools).

What we failed to consider was that compared to ’04, wewe re training our upper-body muscles more fre q u e n t l y. Lastyear a bodypart would get hit once a week eve ry third we e k ,like a built-in re c ove ry rotation (see The Ultimate Ma s sWo rk o u t for that pro g ram). In ’05, training legs only once aweek, we trained our upper body muscles twice a week e ve ryweek. Add to that the more intense nature of the X-Rep hybridtechniques we were using, and you see why we believe we mayh a ve been ove rt raining to a degree this year (but we stillmanaged to pack on almost 10 pounds of muscle! We’reconvinced we could’ve packed on more.):

•In ’04 we were doing the first work set to failure, and thenadding X Reps to the second work set.

•In ’05 we used the more severe X-hybrid techniques, andon some of our compound exercises we did the firstwork set with X Reps at the end, paused for six secondsand did more X Reps (the X/Pause technique), and thenwe did the second work set in Stage style or Double-XOverload. That’s much, much more intense than ’04!

L e t’s quickly review those X-hybrid techniques so you cansee how much more severe our ’05 program was. Here’s how weused X/Pause on Smith machine incline pre s s e s. After doingtwo progressively heavy warmup sets, we loaded the bar with apoundage that we could get about nine reps with. When wereached central nervous system exhaustion, we lowe red thebar to the max-force point, just above the chest, and pulsed,f i ring the bar up to about the middle of the stroke on each XRep. We usually got about four to six, then we racked it. After asix-second pause, we would unrack the bar again, take it downto the X spot and blast out about three more X Reps.Talk about


overload!That six-second rest gives some of the fatigue time to

subside, but it’s not long enough to take the stress off the fast-twitch fibers. In other word s, they will still be engaged whenyou continue the set with more X Reps.

Now for the Stage Set. After about a two-to-thre e - m i n u t erest we reduced the poundage slightly. He re’s the stagep rotocol: We would rep out on the bottom two-thirds of thestroke first, which encompasses the X spot. At nervous systemexhaustion we pushed the bar to lockout, usually with partnera s s i s t a n c e, and then we would do the top one-third of thes t roke to lockout. That’s a weak area, so a little part n e rassistance was usually necessary on each of those re p s. Yo umay think the top range is mostly triceps on incline pre s s e s,but by doing the bottom two-thirds of the stroke first, weessentially pre-exhausted our pecs, so we really felt the top-range partials in our chests—believe us! It’s a wicked burn.

A Stage Set is a unique way to extend the tension time—youget to attack the semistretched position, or X spot, first in theset, albeit with a more exaggerated X-Rep movement. St a g esets work nicely on most compound exercises that have alockout position—presses and squats for example. Thep roblem is, on exercises that don’t have a lockout position,w h e re there is continuous tension throughout the re p — l i k erows and pulldowns—in order to use the stage technique, youhave to do the contracted-position phase first and finish withthe third of the stroke that includes the X spot. That justdoesn’t work as well, so we used other X-hybrid techniques ont h o s e. For example, the Double-X Overload technique—full-range reps with a hitch at the stretch position. (As we said, bigJay Cutler uses this technique on almost every exercise, and itmay be a key trigger of hyperplasia, or fiber splitting, necessaryfor extreme size.)

To use the Double-X-O technique on cable upright rows, fore x a m p l e, we pull the bar to the chest, lower to the arm s -extended position, pull up about eight inches, lower to full


extension again, then do another full-range rep. That hitch atthe bottom provides more overload at the key semistre t c h e dpoint on every rep. You can even end with standard X Reps—ifyou can stand the burn.

We also incorporated the X Fade on almost all of our single-joint contracted-position exerc i s e s, like leg extensions,c o n c e n t ration curls and pushdow n s. As we mentioned inChapter 8, the X Fade is tailor-made for those exercises, and weoften used it on a second set after a standard set done with XReps in the semistretched position.

Once again, a review is in ord e r. He re’s how we used an XFade on leg press calf raises: We did a straight set to nervo u ssystem failure, and then added X Reps near the stre t c hposition. After a brief rest—two to three minutes—we didanother set to central nervous system exhaustion, but this timeinstead of lowe ring to the X spot, we got the weight into thet o p, contracted position, usually with partner help, and did XReps there, then we lowered to the semistretched position andfinished with X Reps at the sweet spot.

An X Fade enables you to stress different areas of anexercise’s stroke with the powerful X-Rep technique. The onlyproblem is that you hit the semistretched point at the very endof the set, after you do X Reps at the higher position on thestroke. That means fatigue may prevent you from getting a lotof overload at the important semistretched point—but that’sp recisely why you do X-Fade sets s e c o n d, after a standard X-Rep set, which emphasize semistretched-point overload. Heck,you could even use the Double-X Overload technique on everyrep, then do an X Fade. That may sound insane, but intensity isthe name of the game if you’re after X-treme mass!

All of the X-hybrid techniques helped make our ’05 rippingphase our most successful ever—despite a bit of ove rt ra i n i n g( we think we could’ve done better with a different split, asyou’ll see in the next chapter). How effective? Well, you saw ourphotos in Chapter 5 and at the beginning of this chapter. Wedid our annual photo shoot in mid-Ju n e, almost three we e k s


earlier than in ’04. It’s a testament to our X-Rep strategy andthe X-Rep hybrid techniques, which helped us get bigger andleaner faster in ’05. We we re both about 10 pounds heavierthan in ’04 but in the same ripped condition. That’s especiallyimpressive for Steve, who was right at 200 pounds the day afterthe shoot. He’s never weighed that much in such shre d d e dcondition in his life—and he was just shy of his 46th birthday!Ne ve rt h e l e s s, we think—make that we know — we can dob e t t e r, as yo u’ll see in the next chapter (and we want you tocome along for the ride to pack on more size).

If you want to try the pro g ram we used during our ’05ripping phase, it’s on the next few pages. Keep in mind,however, that despite our gains, we felt as if we may have beenovertraining, especially if you compare it to our ’04 X-perimentprogram that we listed in The Ultimate Mass Workout. You maywant to try reducing the sets and/or plugging it into the split inthe next chapter, which still trains legs once a week butp rovides the upper-body muscles with more re c ove ry time.What are we going to do next? That’s what the next chapter isall about!

[ Note: The pro g rams on the next few pages may looksomewhat complicated; however, each workout contains onlyabout 25 work sets total. Considering the intensity of the newX - h y rid techniques, as we explained above and in pre v i o u sc h a p t e r s, we’ve simplified the pro g ram based on our findingsand results and distilled it all into the new streamlined versionin the next chapter. That’s the one we suggest you use, as it’sthe program we’ll use in our next mega-mass phase—and we’llupdate it at X-Rep.com n the X-Blog.]



’05 Ripping Phase Routine

Monday and Thursday: Delts, Midback, Biceps, Forearms

Rack upright rows or seated laterals (first set is a drop with X Reps; second is with X/Pause) 2 x 10(6), 10

Forward-lean laterals (X Reps; second set is a drop) 2 x 8-10, 8(6)Smith-machine behind-the-neck presses

(X Reps; second set Staged) 2 x 8-10Superset

One-arm cable laterals (X Reps) 1 x 8-10Incline one-arm laterals (X Reps) 1 x 8-10

SupersetCable upright rows (X Reps) 1 x 8-10Shrugs or Nautilus shrugs (X Reps or Double-X O) 1 x 8-10

Machine rows (second set with X Reps) 2 x 8-10Behind-the-neck pulldowns (X Fade) 1 x 8-10Superset

Bent-arm bent-over laterals 1 x 8-10Bent-over dumbbell rows (X Reps) 1 x 8-10

Bent-over laterals or standing uncrossovers (drop set; X Reps) 1 x 10(6)Preacher curls (X Reps) 1 x 8-10Cable curls with Biceps Blaster (X Reps) 1 x 8-10Concentration curls (drop set; X Reps or X Fade) 1 x 8(6)Rope hammer curls (drop set; X Reps or X Fade) 1 x 10(6)Superset

Reverse wrist curls (X Reps) 1 x 15Forearm Bar reverse wrist curls

or dumbbell reverse wrist curls 1 x 8Aftershock superset

Wrist curls (X Reps) 1 x 15Forearm Bar wrist curls or dumbbell wrist curls 1 x 8

Rockers (drop set every other workout) 1 x 15-20(8)



Tuesday and Friday: Chest, Lats, Triceps, Abs (Friday Add Calf Work)

Smith-machine incline presses (X/Pause; second set Staged) 2 x 10, 8High-low cable flyes (drop set to high cable flyes with X Fade) 1 x 10(6)Superset

Decline-bench presses or wide-grip dips (Staged) 1 x 8-10Flat-bench dumbbell presses (X Reps) 1 x 8-10

Middle cable flyes (drop set to low cable flyes with X Reps) 1 x 10(6)Narrow, parallel-grip pulldowns (second set with X Reps) 2 x 8-10Superset

Chins (X-centric) 1 x 8-10Dumbbell pullovers 1 x 8-10

SupersetPulldowns (X Reps) 1 x 8-10Rope rows or machine pullovers (X Reps) 1 x 8-10

Decline extensions (second with X Reps in press position) 2 x 10, 8Tri-set

Rope or elbows-flared pushdowns (X Reps) 1 x 8-10Stiff-arm kickbacks 1 x 8-10Bench dips (X Reps) 1 x 8-10

Tri-setCable pushouts (X Reps) 1 x 8-10Stiff-arm kickbacks 1 x 8-10Bench dips or parallel-bar dips (X-centric) 1 x max

Incline kneeups (X Reps) 1 x 15Superset

Incline kneeups 1 x 8Bench V-ups 1 x max

Ab Bench crunches 1 x 8-10Tri-set

Ab Bench crunches (drop set; X Reps) 1 x 8(6)Freestyle twisting crunches 1 x 15Bench V-ups 1 x max

Friday onlySeated calf raises (X Reps) 2 x 8-12Standing calf raises 1 x 20-25



Wednesday: Quads, Hams, Gastrocs

Smith-machine squats (second or third set with X Reps) 3 x 10-12Leg extensions (drop set; X Reps) 1 x 10(8)Leg extensions (X Fade) 1 x 8-10One-leg leg extensions (X Fade) 1 x 8-10Hack squats (feet high and wide)

or leg presses (feet high and wide) 2 x 10, 8Leg curls (drop set; X Reps) 1 x 10(8)Leg curls (wide with X Fade) 1 x 8-10One-leg leg curls (X Reps) 1 x 8-10Hyperextensions (X Reps) 1 x maxDumbbell stiff-legged deadlifts (Double-X O) 1 x 10-12Leg press calf raises (X Reps; second with X Fade) 2 x 15-20Superset

Hack-machine calf raises (X Reps) 2 x 8-12Standing calf raises (X Reps) 2 x 8-10

Machine donkey calf raises or leg press calf raises (Double X O) 1 x 12-15

Seated calf raises 2 x 20-25Low-back machine (X Reps) 1 x 10-15


CHAPTER 10

S p l i t - P o s i t i o n sX-Rep Tr a i n i n g

As we mentioned and you saw in the last chapter, ourannual photo shoot occurred in mid-June, almost three weeksearlier than in ’04. As we explained, we included new X-hybridt e c h n i q u e s — X - c e n t ric training, X/Pa u s e, Double-X Ove r l o a dand X Fade—which we believe are the reasons our results camemuch faster during our second X-periment. We we re bothbigger than at our ’04 photo shoot but in the same, or perhapsb e t t e r, condition—shredded! That’s impre s s i ve, especially forSteve, who’s a middle-aged hardgainer. He finally saw the scalehover in the 200-pound range in his hardest, leanest conditione ve r. Jonathan dialed it in too, with more muscularity at aheavier bodyweight.

We we re ve ry happy that we improved, but the questionremains: Could we have been even better? Muscle justshouldn’t be that difficult to build. Sure, we’re fairly advanced,so gains won’t be 20 pounds a ye a r, as they we re in thebeginning of our lifting careers—or could they be? Afteranalyzing eve rything we do, and reviewing all we’ve learn e d ,we have to ask ourselves, Why the heck not?!

One of our strategies created an ah-ha moment was how wea p p roach our mass-building phase, usually in the winter. Wecontinue to hit it fairly hard five days a week (which may be ap roblem too; more on that in a moment), but we also try tomaintain visual contact with our abs. We’ve always thoughtthat staying fairly lean makes it easier to get shredded assummer nears; howe ver—and this is a big howe ver—it alsomakes muscle much, much more difficult to build.

Huge muscles are a luxury for the human body, not an e c e s s i t y. Be f o re your metabolism will permit a lot of lean-mass gain, your body has to be damn sure famine is neve rgoing to happen. In other words, you need a fairly large caloriesurplus—of the right nutrients—to kick your body intoanabolic ove rd ri ve and pre vent it from burning muscle forenergy. Just as important, those calories have to be spread outover the course of the day every day. Hunger is an absolute no-n o. Keep your body in positive nitrogen balance and positive


quality calorie abundance, and if your workouts are intenseenough to stimulate growth and you get enough re c ove ry —Bam!—new muscle should appear very quickly.

Bodybuilders who got huge before the stero i d - i n s a n i t ye ra — A rnold, Da ve Dra p e r, Larry Scott—used to appro a c hwinter as a muscle-feeding/building fre n z y. A good laye rcovering the abs was considered a necessary evil during a max-muscle-building phase. These days that’s not so much the casebecause a lot of bodybuilders cycle anabolic stero i d sthroughout the winter. The right pharmaceuticals make excessc a l o ries a minor playe r. Su re, the body needs something tow o rk with, but thanks to drugs it’s always in anticatabolicm o d e, being overly efficient with all the muscle-buildingblocks it receives. (No, it’s not fair, but it’s reality.) You can seewhere we’re going with this: We’ll be shoveling in more muscle-building calories during our mass-building phase, whichmeans we’re throwing ab visibility out the window. Mo re onour mucho-mass-diet strategies in a moment. Let’s segue intot raining, as our new split is rather ingenious, something weadopted before the end of summer—and it’s a gain maximizer!

We’ve never been able to come up with a perfect recovery-oriented split, mainly because we can’t train on the weekends.We’ve said that, ideally, we should be on a thre e - o n / o n e - o f fsplit, with a leg-training workout falling between two differentu p p e r-body work o u t s. If you do the math, yo u’ll see that yo uc a n’t use that split without training on the we e k e n d s. One ofour solutions was to still train on a three-way split, but tra i nf i ve days in a row, Monday through Fri d a y, picking up themissed sixth workout the following Monday and continuingwith the sequence.

That five-day plan worked well for us in ’04, but the newre s e a rch we mentioned in the previous chapter about legsneeding more re c ove ry time had us rethinking things. In anutshell the re s e a rch tells us that we should get better gainshitting a leg workout only once a week, especially when we’reusing X Reps and X-hybrid techniques that jack up the


intensity and muscle damage significantly.We used that strategy for the last few weeks of our ri p p i n g

phase over the summer, and it worked extremely well, eve nwhen we were doing cardio on a daily basis. If we put on quads i ze then, we should get even better gains over the winter,c o n s i d e ring our cardio cutback. Ok a y, let’s rewind and gothrough our new mega-mass-building strategy point by point.

1) Mega-Mass split. So what’s the ingenious split we’re soe xcited about? He re it is, no weekend training, no bodypartoverlap (we’ll outline the pro g ram in a moment and explainthe A and B designations—it’s not as complicated as it looks,trust us):

Week 1Monday: Workout 1A (delts, midback, biceps, forearms)Tuesday: Workout 2 (legs, lower back)Wednesday: Workout 3A (chest, lats, triceps, abs)Thursday: OffFriday: Workout 1B (delts, midback, biceps, forearms + calves)Weekend: Off (with cardio)

Week 2Monday: Workout 3B (chest, lats, triceps, abs)Tuesday: Workout 2 (legs, lower back)Wednesday: Workout 1A (delts, midback, biceps, forearms)Thursday: OffFriday: Workout 3A (chest, lats, triceps, abs + calves)Weekend: Off (with cardio)

Week 3Monday: Workout 1B (delts, midback, biceps, forearms)Tuesday: Workout 2 (legs, lower back)Wednesday: Workout 3B (chest, etc.)Thursday: OffFriday: Workout 1A (delts, midback, biceps, forearms + calves)Weekend: Off (with cardio)

Week 4Monday: Workout 3A (chest, lats, triceps, abs)Tuesday: Workout 2 (legs, lower back)Wednesday: Workout 1B (delts, midback, biceps, forearms)Thursday: OffFriday: Workout 3B (chest, lats, triceps, abs + calves)Weekend: Off (with cardio)

Repeat Week 1


Notice that we hit legs once a week, on Tu e s d a y, whichb reaks up the two different upper-body sessions. ThenThursday is a complete rest day, and Friday is a repeat ofMonday’s bodyparts. We never work upper body two days in arow, which should make for some awesome progress.

How does all of that pan out on the recovery scale? Check itout:

•Monday bodyparts: 96 hours, or four days, to Friday

•Tuesday bodyparts (legs): 168 hours, or seven days—although weekend cardio affects leg re c ove ry. ( We’realso adding a mini-calf blast to our Friday work o u t sbecause calves recover much faster than the upper-legmuscles.)

• Wednesday bodypart s : 120 hours, or five days, to thefollowing Monday

As we said, Friday is a repeat of Monday’s workout but—andthis is important—with different positions, which brings us toour next strategy and explains the A and B designations onupper-body workouts (we could see that was puzzling you).

2) Split-positions training. Up p e r-body workouts arec a t e g o ri zed as either A or B. In the pro g ram in this chapter,you’ll see that the A workouts contain a big midrange exerciseand a contracted-position movement for each bodypart. Fo re x a m p l e, the 1A delt routine has dumbbell upright row s, thebig midra n g e, multijoint exerc i s e, followed by forw a rd - l e a nl a t e ra l s, a contracted-position delt move. At the next deltw o rkout, 1B, we use the same midrange exerc i s e, dumbellu p right rows again, but this time we follow with a stre t c h -position delt movement, incline one-arm laterals.

T h a t’s how it is for eve ry upper-body muscle gro u p. Them i d range exercise stays constant, but the second exerc i s ea l t e rnates between a contracted-position movement and as t retch-position movement. Re m e m b e r, change is necessaryfor growth. Here’s an example from the 3A and 3B workouts forupper chest: The A workout has Smith-machine incline


p re s s e s, the constant midrange exerc i s e, followed by inclinecable flye s, a contracted-position upper-chest move; the Bw o rkout is Smith-machine incline presses again, but that’sfollowed by incline dumbbell flyes, a stretch-position exercise.

With split-positions training you cover all the positions, ora rc s, of flexion, but over two workouts (a Po s i t i o n s - o f - Fl e x i o np rimer is on page 76 if yo u’re not familiar with that mass-training protocol). That provides a lot of variety, unique stressand more recovery, since you don’t work all three positions atevery workout. It’s a system that provides optimal recovery—ifyou divide your workouts correctly.

We use the split-positions approach for eve ry upper- b o d yexercise. That way the target muscles get some unique stress atevery session, à la Ronnie Coleman (he also alternates betweentwo routines for every bodypart). In the routines that appear atthe end of this chapter, the A workouts arem i d ra n g e / c o n t racted, and the B w orkouts aremidrange/stretch. Ingenious. (Modest, aren’t we?)

3) Mega-Mass nutrition. Recovery is also about nutritionand getting the right compounds in sufficient quantities to fuelintense workouts and provide a surplus for growth. Ye s, we’restill depending on our X Stack postworkout combo—RecoverXplus Cre a Sol (www. X - Stack.com). That’s got eve rything weneed to take full advantage of the after- t raining anabolicw i n d ow; howe ve r, there’s also re s e a rch that says you shouldfeed your muscles d u r i n g your training. That makes sensebecause the bodyparts you train last get the most from yo u rpostworkout drink. Think about it. The bodypart you train firsthas to wait almost an hour or longer for refueling. In reality thefirst bodypart’s anabolic window is almost closed by the end ofyour workout (and you thought it was best to work yo u rweakest bodypart first). The solution is to drink as you tra i n( n o, not beer!—although the Mexican beer Dos Equis meanstwo Xes. Hmm.).

Our recipe? We’re going to mix about a scoop of Re c ove r X ,about a half scoop of CreaSol (titrated creatine) and a scoop of


GAKIC together in a water bottle and sip it throughout ourworkouts, trying to down most of it early on. The RecoverX andCre a Sol will feed and refuel the muscles as we blast them,especially those that get hit early in the session (they won’t getcheated any longer). GAKIC, a Mu s c l e Tech product, is anammonia buffer that has given us some amazing stre n g t hi n c re a s e s, which we re p o rted on in the I M Re s e a rch Team inthe November ’05 IRON MAN. The problem with GAKIC is thatwhen we took it before the workout, it wore off about two-thirds of the way through. With continuous fueling as we train,we should be able to sustain the higher power output we’vebeen experiencing early in our workouts with no drop off.

We’re also going to have one or two scoops of Pro - Fu s i o np rotein powder before bed. It’s a mix of micellar casein andwhey pro t e i n s, so it should provide our resting muscles withm o re re c ove ry and grow t h - p romoting building blocks as wes l e e p. We’ve never done that because of the fear of exc e s sc a l o ries making us fat. Now we re a l i ze that it’s necessary toprevent catabolic actions during the sleeping/fasting phase ofthe day in order to max out muscle growth. (Many scientistsb e l i e ve that more than 75 percent of muscle growth occursbecause of catabolic pre vention as opposed to anabolica c t i o n s — h ow much muscle is your body burning when itd o e s n’t have ac cess to amino acids, l ike during sleep?In t e resting.) We just have to learn to accept some exc e s sbaggage (bodyfat) as a necessary evil if we want to pack on themost muscle possible over the winter.

4) Me g a - Mass va ri a t i o n . We mentioned that the split-positions approach will keep the stress on our muscles fre s h ,but what about the powe rful X-Rep hybrid techniques thathelped us add more muscle very quickly during our ’05 rippingphase? You bet we’re going to use them. In fact, they shouldwork even better during the winter when we’re not restrictingcalories. We plan to rotate those various X-Rep techniques—X-c e n t ric training, X/Pa u s e, X Fa d e, Stage Sets and Double-XO verload—on most of our exerc i s e s, especially the big


m i d range movements that stay constant. For example, we’l luse Smith machine incline presses at eve ry upper- c h e s tw o rkout, but one workout we may do standard X Reps at theend of the second set, the next workout we may use X/Pause ora Stage Set. If you follow our Me g a - Mass pro g ram, you don’thave to pick a technique out of a hat. We’ve provided the bestX-Rep technique for each exercise, and you can stick to thosefor eve ry workout on the second set. But if you want to getcreative feel free. The more variation the better.

Also notice that we usually only do one set with X Reps or anX - h y b rid technique. That’s because X-Rep methods are ve rypotent and intense—they can cause ove rt raining if abused.And on compound, or midrange exerc i s e s, the big multijointm ove m e n t s, the first heavy set to nervous system exhaustions e rves to prime the central nervous system to perf o rmoptimally on the second set, which includes X Reps or an X-h y b rid technique. Re m e m b e r, don’t get carried away with XReps. (More on doubling up on X Reps in Chapter 11, X Q&A.)

As you can see, our Mega-Mass strategy is built on a surplusof quality calori e s, optimum re c ove ry, va ri e t y, overload andi n t e n s i t y. Yo u’ll definiely want to follow our lead and make abig move into the X-treme growth zone with us. We suggest youp rint out the pro g ram, a separate page for each day (andmaybe print out the X-Rep Hybrid Techniques Cheat Sheet onpage 48 too). Put the workouts in ord e r, on a small clipboardwith a pencil, and follow the sequence with us on Mo n d a y,Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday (if it looks as if you may haveto miss a Friday workout, train on Thursday instead; the smallbit of overlap is better than missing a workout). We’ve eve np rovided space at the right to jot in your poundages for eachexercise (when it gets too messy because you just keep gettingstronger and stronger, print out a clean page and fill in all yourweights). We’ll no doubt be modifying and changing things aswe go, so check out our X-Blog at www.X-Rep.com often.

Can we (and you) add another 20 pounds of muscle in thecoming months? It’s very possible! Prepare to grow!



X-Rep-Hybrid Mega-Mass Program

Workout 1A: Delts, Midback, Biceps, Forearms Poundage

(M) Dumbbell upright rows

or wide-grip rack pulls (X Reps) 2 x 8-10

(C) Forward-lean laterals (X/Pause) 2 x 8-10

(M) Dumbbell presses (Double-X O) 2 x 8-10

(M) Cable upright

rows (Double-X O + X Reps) 1 x 10-12

(C) Barbell shrugs (X Reps; X Fade on 2nd) 2 x 10-12

(M) Nautilus rows (X/Pause) 2 x 8-10

(C) Bent-arm bent-over laterals (X Reps) 2 x 10-12

(M) Behind-the-neck pulldowns

(Staged, bottom first) 1 x 10-12

(C) Bent-over laterals (Double-X O) 1 x 8-10

(M) Cable curls (X/Pause) 2 x 8-10

(C) Concentration curls

(X Reps; X Fade on 2nd) 2 x 8-10

(M) Rope hammer curls (X Reps) 1 x 8-10

(C) Barbell reverse wrist curls (X Reps) 2 x 15

(C) Barbell wrist curls (X Reps) 2 x 15

(C) Rockers 1 x 15

Add to Friday’s workout

Seated calf raises (X Reps) 2 x 9-12

Standing calf raises 1 x 20-25

•Where X-Reps or an X-hybrid technique is designated, use it only on oneset, the second set if two sets are designated.

(M) = Midrange, (C) = Contracted, (S) = Stretch



Workout 2: Quads, Hams, Gastrocs, Low Back Poundage

(M) Smith-machine squats (X Reps;

Double-X O on 2nd) 2 x 8-10

(C) Leg extensions (X Reps; X Fade on 2nd) 2 x 8-10

(S) Sissy squats (X Reps or Double-X O) 1 x 10-12

(M) Leg presses or hack squats

(feet high and wide) 2 x 8-10

(C) Leg curls (X Reps; X Fade on 2nd) 2 x 8-10

(S) Bottom-range stiff-legged deadlifts

(Double-X O) 2 x 8-10

(S) Hyperextensions (X Reps) 1 x max

(S) Leg press calf raises (X Reps) 3 x 15-20

(C) Hack-machine calf raises (X Reps;

X Fade on 2nd) 2 x 12-15

(C) Standing calf raises (Double-X O) 2 x 8-10

(S) Machine donkey calf raises (Double-X O) 1 x 12

(S&C) Seated calf raises 2 x 15-20

(S&C) Low-back machine (X Reps) 1 x 8-12





Workout 3A: Chest, Lats, Triceps, Abs Poundage

(M) Smith-machine incline presses

(Staged, bottom first) 2 x 8-10

(C) High cable flyes (X Reps; X Fade on 2nd) 2 x 8-12

(M) Dumbbell bench presses (Double-X O) 2 x 8-10

(C) Low cable flyes (X Reps) 1 x 8-12

(C) Middle cable flyes (X Fade) 1 x 8-12

(M) Parallel-grip pulldowns (X Reps) 2 x 8-10

(M) Chins (X-centric or Double-X O) 1-2 x 8-12

(S&C) Machine pullovers (X Reps;

X Fade on second) 2 x 8-10

(M) Decline extensions (Double-X O) 2 x 8-10

(C) Pushdowns (X Reps) 2 x 8-10

Superset

(M) Incline kneeups 2 x 10

(M) Bench V-ups 2 x 8

(C) Twisting crunches 2 x 10-12








Workout 1B: Delts, Midback, Biceps, Forearms Poundage

(M) Dumbbell upright rows

or wide-grip rack pulls (X/Pause) 2 x 8-10

(S) Cable laterals (X Reps) or

incline one-arm laterals (Double X O) 2 x 8-10

(M) Dumbbell presses (X Reps) 2 x 8-10

(M) Rack pulls (X Reps) 1 x 10-12

(S) Dumbbell shrugs (Double-X O) 2 x 10-12

(M) Nautilus rows (X Reps; X Fade on 2nd) 2 x 8-10

(S) One-arm dumbbell rows (Double-X O) 2 x 10-12

(M) Behind-the-neck pulldowns (X Reps) 1 x 10-12

(S&C) Uncrossovers (X Reps) 1 x 8-10

(M) Preacher curls (X Reps; 2nd set Staged) 2 x 8-10

(S) Incline curls (Double-X O) 2 x 8-10

(M) Incline hammer curls (Double-X O) 1 x 8-10

(C) Dumbbell reverse wrist curls (X Reps) 2 x 15

(C) Dumbbell wrist curls (X Reps) 2 x 15

(C) Rockers 1 x 15








Workout 3B: Chest, Lats, Triceps, Abs Poundage

(M) Smith-machine incline presses

(X/Pause) 2 x 8-10

(S) Incline flyes (Double-X O) 2 x 8-12

(M) Wide-grip dips (X-centric) 2 x 8-10

(S) Decline flyes (Double-X O) 1 x 8-12

(S) Flat-bench flyes (Double-X O) 1 x 8-12

(M) Parallel-grip pulldowns (X Reps;

X Fade on 2nd) 2 x 8-10

(M) Chins (X Reps) 1-2 x 8-12

(S) Dumbbell pullovers (Double-X O) 2 x 8-10

(M) Decline extensions (Staged) 2-3 x 8-10

(S) Cable pushouts or overhead

extensions (X Reps; X Fade on 2nd) 2 x 8-10

Superset

(M) Incline kneeups 2 x 10

(M) Bench V-ups 2 x 8

(S&C) Ab Bench crunches

or full-range crunches 2 x 10-12







We’ve had a number of trainees request home -gymp ro g rams that include X Re p s, so we’re including a version ofour Me g a - Mass routine that uses only basic exercises that areavailable in most bare-bones home gyms. For more on settingup a basic home gym, see IRON MAN’s Home Gym Handbook,a vailable at www. Ho m e - Gym.com. We have an X-Rep e-bookin the works specifically for home-gym trainees coming soon.

X-Rep-Hybrid Mega-Mass Home-Gym ProgramWorkout 1A: Delts, Midback, Biceps, Forearms PoundageDumbbell upright rows or

wide-grip rack pulls (X Reps) 2 x 8-10Seated forward-lean laterals (X/Pause) 2 x 8-10Dumbbell presses (Double-X O) 2 x 8-10Barbell shrugs (Double-X O) 2 x 10-12Bent-over barbell rows (X/Pause) 2 x 8-10Bent-arm bent-over laterals (Double-X O) 2 x 10-12Bent-over laterals (X Reps) 2 x 8-10Dumbbell curls 2 x 8-10Concentration curls (X Reps; X Fade on 2nd) 2 x 8-10Hammer curls 1 x 8-10Barbell reverse wrist curls (X Reps) 2 x 15Barbell wrist curls (X Reps) 2 x 15Rockers 1 x 15

Add to Friday’s workoutSeated calf raises (X Reps) 2 x 9-12Standing calf raises 1 x 20-25



X-Rep-Hybrid Mega-Mass Home-Gym ProgramWorkout 2: Quads, Hams, Gastrocs, Low Back PoundageSquats (nonlock; last set Staged) 3 x 8-10Leg extensions or hack squats with a

quad squeeze at top of each rep (X Reps) 2 x 8-10Sissy squats (Double-X O) 1 x 10-12Hack squats (nonlock) 1 x 8-10Leg curls (X Reps; X Fade on 2nd) 2 x 8-10Bottom-range stiff-legged deadlifts

(Double-X O) 2 x 8-10Hyperextensions (X Reps) 1 x maxDonkey calf raises, standing calf raises

or one-leg calf raises (X Reps; Double-X O) 3-4 x 15-20

Seated calf raises 2 x 15-20


X-Rep-Hybrid Mega-Mass Home-Gym ProgramWorkout 3A: Chest, Lats, Triceps, Abs PoundageIncline presses (X Reps; Staged) 2 x 8-10Incline flyes (squeeze at top of each rep) 2 x 8-12Dumbbell bench presses (Double-X O) 2 x 8-10Decline flyes (squeeze at top of each rep) 1 x 8-12Flat-bench flyes (squeeze at top of each rep) 1 x 8-12Parallel-grip chins (X Reps) 2 x 8-10Chins (X-centric or Double-X O) 1 x 8-12Undergrip rows (X/Pause) 2 x 8-10Decline extensions (Double-X O) 2 x 8-10Kickbacks 2 x 8-10Superset

Incline kneeups 2 x 10Bench V-ups 2 x 8

Twisting crunches 2 x 10-12




X-Rep-Hybrid Mega-Mass Home-Gym ProgramWorkout 1B: Delts, Midback, Biceps, ForearmsDumbbell upright rows or

wide-grip rack pulls (X/Pause) 2 x 8-10Incline one-arm laterals (Double-X O) 2 x 8-10Dumbbell presses (X Reps) 2 x 8-10Rack pulls or dumbbell shrugs (X Reps) 2 x 10-12Bent-over barbell rows (X Reps) 2 x 8-10One-arm dumbbell rows (Double-X O) 2 x 10-12Bent-over laterals (Double-X O) 2 x 8-10Preacher curls (X Reps; Staged) 2 x 8-10Incline curls (Double-X O) 2 x 8-10Incline hammer curls (Double-X O) 1 x 8-10Dumbbell reverse wrist curls (X Reps) 2 x 15Dumbbell wrist curls (X Reps) 2 x 15Rockers 1 x 15




X-Rep-Hybrid Mega-Mass Home-Gym ProgramWorkout 3B: Chest, Lats, Triceps, AbsIncline presses (X/Pause) 2 x 8-10Incline flyes (Double-X O) 2 x 8-12Wide-grip dips (X Reps) 2 x 8-10Decline flyes (Double-X O) 1 x 8-12Flat-bench flyes (Double-X O) 1 x 8-12Parallel-grip chins (X-centric) 2 x 8-10Chins (X Reps or Double-X O) 1 x 8-12Dumbbell pullovers (Double-X O) 2 x 8-10Decline extensions (Staged) 2 x 8-10Overhead extensions (Double-X O) 2 x 8-10Superset

Incline kneeups 2 x 10Bench V-ups 2 x 8

Ab Bench crunches orfull-range crunches (X Reps) 2 x 10-12



Note: On any exercise in either program we may choose todo a drop set in place of a straight set to enhance the workloadand pump. A drop set is doing a set to exhaustion, decreasingthe weight and immediately doing a second set to exhaustion.We may do X Reps on the first set, the second set or both. Dropsets help increase capillary beds in the muscle and areexcellent for building intermediary muscle fibers.


With a Positions of Flexion protocol you train each targetbodypart in three positions—midrange, contracted and stretch—tocomplete the full-range muscle-building chain. Each of thosepositions has a specific purpose, as follows:

Midrange: Stimulates the bulk of the muscle fibers with synergy,or muscle teamwork. When a number of muscles work together—such as the chest, triceps and deltoids during bench presses—thetarget (chest) is more effectively stimulated with heavy overload.The human muscle structures are designed to work in tandem formaximum power output, so these movements are simply morenatural than forced isolation. Examples include squats, benchpresses and chins. Best X-hybrid technique for midrange exercises:X/Pause, Double-X Overload, Stage (on those with bone-supportedlockout, like squats and bench presses).

C o n t r a c t e d : Here you place the target muscle in the mostadvantageous position for it to contract. These exercises usuallyhave continuous tension, so they are perfect for extreme occlusion.Examples include leg extensions, cable crossovers and leg curls.Best X-hybrid techniques for contracted-position exercises: X Fade,Double-X Overload.

S t r e t c h : Here you put the target muscle in its ul timateelongated, or stretched, state against resistance. Examples includeflyes for the chest, stiff-legged deadlifts for the hamstrings andsissy squats for the quads. The stretch forces the activation of themyotatic reflex, which is believed to cause the recruitment ofreserve muscle fibers in the target muscle. When the target isstretched with a quick twitch to reverse the movement, the nervoussystem receives an emergency-response signal, and the muscle isput in a hypercontracted state. This can recruit reserve musclefibers, which means more of the target muscle is stimulated togrow, a perfect way to end a bodypart workout. Important bonus:Stretch overload has also been found in research studies to triggerhyperplasia, or fiber splitting, in animals. Best X-hybrid techniquesfor stretch-position exercises: Double-X Overload (an X Repbetween every full rep, which emphasizes the stretch).

Note: For more information on POF as well as other POFroutines, see Train, Eat, Grow: The Positions-of-Flexion Muscle-Training Manual, available at www.Home-Gym.com.

Positions-of-Flexion Primer


CHAPTER 11

X Q&A


Q: Can a skinny hardgainer type use X Reps and getresults?

A : Ab s o l u t e l y, and St e ve is a perfect example. He’s anectomorph, smaller bone structure who has a hard time puttingon weight, and he made the best gains of his entire tra i n i n gcareer when he started using X Reps—at age 44!

X Reps work for virtually everyone who uses them correctly.And hardgainers are no exception. In UMW we said that manyre s e a rchers believe that less than half of the fast-twitch fibersare involved in any all-out set. That’s right, a single set to failureis not ve ry efficient for stimulating growth. And it’s even lessefficient for hardgainers, who get maybe 20 to 30 percent fibera c t i vation because of their poor nerve-to-muscle connections.In other word s, their central nervous system craps out eve nearlier than the CNS of other bodybuilders on any given set,leaving most of their fast-twitch fibers snoozing.

Re m e m b e r, the faster- g rowing fast-twitch fibers activa t etoward the end of a strict set, as dictated by the size principle ofmuscle fiber re c ruitment, but hardgainers get at ve ry few ofthose fibers because their below-average nervous system shutsdown early.

Can they just load up on more sets to compensate? If you’re ah a rd g a i n e r, you know that’s impossible because hard g a i n e r salso have a less-efficient recovery system—they can’t tolerate alot of work. What about just a few more sets with moree x p l o s i ve move m e n t s, which could help activate more fibers?Bad idea. As we said, most hardgainers have poorn e u romuscular efficiency. That means explosive-style tra i n i n gi s n’t ve ry effective and is often dangero u s. They must do theirsets with strict style—and that does ve ry little to overload theimportant semistretched position (near the turnaround) of thebig mass-building exercises.

So it appears that the harder a hardgainer trains, the less hegains because he ove r s t resses his re c ove ry ability and/or getsinjured when he tries to explode with heavy weights to overloadthe sweet spot of certain exerc i s e s. It’s the fru s t ra t i n g

hardgainer paradox.X Reps work for hard g a i n e r

because they help him ove r ride thei n h e rent neuromuscular deficiencysomewhat and ove rload thes e m i s t retched position in one set.That makes the X-Rep set two to fivetimes more effective at triggering fast-twitch-fiber growth—and many of theX - h y b rid techni ques do an eve nbetter job of that. That’s why they’reso very important for hardgainers.

X-Reps power partials at the sweetspot of each exercise gets at muchm o re of the muscle in any one stri c tset—and you don’t have to do set afterre c ove ry- d raining set. The end-of-set partial technique is anabsolute godsend for hardgainers.

He re’s why it works: When your nervous system craps out,leaving so many growth fibers unused or understimulated (70p e rcent in some cases), you move to the key point in theexercise’s stroke, like near the bottom of an incline press, andkeep firing the muscle—pulsing in a very short five-to-10-inchrange. You essentially leapfrog nervous system fatigue and getat a much larger percentage of muscle fibers with those powerpulses at the target muscle’s maximum-force-generation point,w h e re fiber activation is optimized. In other word s, you get aquantum leap in mass-building efficiency without having toadd sets, just what hardgainers need for jacking up grow t hstimulation to exceptional levels without volume ove rkill. Infact, X Reps can help slow - t o - g row bodybuilders trigger moresize increases in a few months than they have experienced inyears. Exciting stuff!

Q: You guys usually suggest at least two warmup setsprior to most compound [or multijoint] exercises. Do Ijust take a lighter weight and do the same number of


Steve is proof that XReps work big-time forhardgainers—and oldguys too. He’s 46!

reps or what?A : T h a t’s a ve ry important question because small details

can add up to bigger re s u l t s. Even something as seeminglyinsignificant as a proper warmup can be the differe n c ebetween anabolic acceleration and stagnation.

For example, we’ve discussed occlusion, or blocking bloodflow to a muscle, and how scientists found that it can jack ups t rength significantly. In our X - t ra o rd i n a ry Ab s e-book and inChapter 2 of this e-book we discussed how researchers placeda blood pressure cuff on subjects’ upper arms for two minutes.The cuff was then re m oved, and the subjects did wrist curls.Results: Those whose blood flow had been impaired showed a20 percent strength increase over that of the subjects whod i d n’t use the cuff. Ye s, 20 percent! (T h e re have also beenamazing size increases from occlusion, as we described inChapter 2.)

That indicates significantly better fiber re c ruitment. Alongthe same lines, studies on warming up muscles found thatdoing a number of lighter sets prior to heavy work can help thet a rget muscle contract much better than without thosep re l i m i n a ry sets—about 20 percent better, in fact. Hmm,there’s that 20 percent figure again.

So could occlusion merely be acting as a warm u p ?Absolutely! After all, a warmup is simply a means of pri m i n gthe pump—pushing blood into the muscle so it will perform tothe best of its ability on the heavy sets. If you block blood flowinstead of (or in addition to) doing some lighter pumping sets,you end up with a warm, ready-to-fire muscle. Either way youget a rush of blood to the bodypart immediately after.

Now, the qu estion becomes how you can use thatinformation to set the stage for the most grow power from yourw o rk sets. (Keep in mind that you want to max outh y p e rt rophic stimulation with the fewest work sets necessaryso you don’t drain your re c ove ry system with too muchvolume.)

We’ve said in the past that for big multijoint exercises like


squats and bench presses you should do two warmup sets. Dothe first one with about 60 percent of your first work-set weightand the second with about 80 percent. But there’s more to itthan perc e n t a g e s. We’ve seen bodybuilders in the gym jerkthrough their warmups, wasting lots of time jabbering and notpaying attention. Trust us, they’re severely limiting their gainsand creating the need to either do more warmup sets, morework sets or extensive rehab work once they get injured.

We’re convinced that if you take care of a few details on yourw a rmup sets, two is all you need on multijoint exercises tostimulate more muscle growth (how about 20 percent more?).Here’s how to make it happen:

Warmup set 1: Take 60 percent of your work-set weightand do 10 re p s — f i ve full-range reps and five part i a l s.Go from full stretch to complete lockout on the firstfive. Then do the second five only through the bottomt w o - t h i rds of the stro k e, without locking out. That willlube your joints and get the blood pumping (part i a l sproduce occlusion).

Warmup set 2: Up the poundage to 80 percent of yourw o rk-set weight. Do four full-range reps followed byfour nonlock partials for occlusion. (Individual strengthmay vary; if four plus four feels too taxing, try three plust h re e. Re m e m b e r, it should be a fairly nonstressful setthat doesn’t tax your strength but amplifies it.)

At the end of each warmup set you should feel bloodf l owing to the target due to occlusion from the nonlockp a rt i a l s. That blood increase will make your work setssignificantly more effective. For example, on bench pre s s e syou’ll push the bar from your chest to just above the midpointof the stroke on your partials.

If you don’t feel blood moving to the target, especially afterthe second warmup, you may have done your warmup reps toofast. Keep each rep fairly slow and controlled to activate yo u rnervous system, get your mind in touch with the target muscle


and prime the pump.That quick, efficient warmup strategy can get you bigger

gains from your heavy work, and it will take fewer work sets toget the fast-twitch blast you’re after.

Q: W hi ch is b etter, volu me tr aining or sh ort ,abbreviated high-intensity-style workouts?

A : High-intensity workouts or higher- volume methods?Both will work. Legendary bodybuilder Bill Pearl used to trainwith 20 or more sets per bodypart, but he never trained toexhaustion on any set. It just didn’t suit him. He got at moremuscle fibers by doing set after set. Others prefer to do fewersets and push harder—for example, past centra l - n e rvo u s -system exhaustion with X Reps—to hit the majority of fibers.When you do that, you have to scale back the vo l u m e. AsNautilus creator Arthur Jones used to say, You can train long oryou can train hard, but you can’t do both. There is a lot of truthto that.

Is one style better than the other? It depends on you—yourbody, preferences and personality. Bill Pearl probably wouldn'th a ve gained much on an HIT- o riented routine—because hewould’ve hated it and quit if that was the only way. Luckily forall of us, there’s more than one way to grow. We prefer to get itdone as quickly as possible and get out of the gym. We’reefficiency minded, so X Reps and the X-hybrid techniques helpus make that happen—and we certainly can’t complainconsidering the gains we’ve made—more in the past year thanin the previous four!

Q: What the heck is an uncrossover exercise?A : It’s a great re a r-delt and midback movement with

continuous tension, something you don’t get with bent-ove rdumbbell laterals—the resistance goes to almost zero on thoseat the key semistretched point. He re’s how to do the muchm o re effective uncro s s ove r: Stand in the cro s s over machineand grab one of the upper handles with the opposite hand,holding it at the opposite shoulder. Now step over to the otherside and grab that handle with the opposite hand, bringing it


to the opposite shoulder so your armsa re crossed over your chest. Move tothe middle of the cro s s ove ra p p a ra t u s, step back about a foot,and extend your arms out and aboveyour head, hands together and cablesc rossing. With a slight bend in yo u re l b ow s, pull the handles back. Us eyour midback muscles, squeez i n gyour scapulae together as you pull,and your rear delts to get the handlesback. In the finish position yo ushould look like yo u’re doing a backdouble-biceps pose with bad form —and your midback muscles and re a rdelts will be contracting hard.

Q: W hat are your thoughts on the Bowflex? I’mthinking about buying one. Can it deliver a wo rk o u tgood enough for someone using it to gain muscle andlook better?

A: A Bowflex is just okay as a stand-alone home gym. Someexercises are good; others aren’t so good. My main gripe is thatthe max-force point for most muscles is near the semistretchedpoint—for example, near the start of an incline press whenyour hands are close to your shoulders. The way the Bowflex isdesigned, with rods that increase pre s s u re as you extend,there’s less resistance at that key point and more at the top ofthe movement, where the rods are maximally flexed. It’s thesame with pulldowns and row s. From that standpoint it’smandatory to incorporate X Reps at the max-force point whenyou hit nervous system exhaustion on most sets to stress themuscle optimally. Ot h e rw i s e, yo u’ll be getting even less max-f o rce-point overload than if you used standard barbells anddumbbells (because the most force occurs at the top of thestroke on most Bowflex exercises).

If I had to use a bare-bones home gym, I’d get an adjustable


Jonathan midwaythrough an uncross-over. You can do themsitting or standing.

bench and the heaviest selectorized dumbbells available—likea Powe r Block. That gives you the most ve r s a t i l i t y — e ve nthough the setup doesn’t look nearly as cool as a Bow f l e x .[ Powe r Block selectori zed dumbbells are available atwww.Home-Gym.com.]

Q: You guys say that the incline one-arm lateral raiseis a good delt exercise. Why, and how do you perform itcorrectly?

A: We conside r incline one-arm lateral raises anindispensible movement because it allows you to get somestretch in the medial-delt head. Regular dumbbell laterals lackresistance down at the bottom; the real overload doesn’t occuruntil your arms are about a third of the way up through the arc,arms away from your torso. Also, the resistance is pulling youra rms down at the bottom not across as it should for medial-head resistance.

Due to the nature of dumbbell laterals and its arc ofmovement, when your arms are hanging straight down, gravitypulls the weight tow a rd the ground, putting more stress onyour traps not your delts. On e - a rm cable laterals are a bettersolution for semistretched-point overload (bottom of thes t roke) than standing laterals because the cable pulls yo u rhand and arm across your torso rather than straight down likea dumbbell; howe ve r, torso twisting and leg thrusting canmake the exercise less delt specific and more of a trap builder.And like regular dumbbell laterals, if you use enough weight toblast the strongest low position, you won’t be able to moveyour arm very far without some heaving—but it’s still a decentdelt exercise.

Which bring us to the incline one-arm lateral raise. You sitsideways on a 45-to-55-degree incline bench, leaning yo u rnonworking side against it. Now your torso is at an angle. Witha dumbbell in the hand of your outside arm, move thedumbbell down in front of your body till it’s just lower thanyour waist. Don’t allow your arm to move all the way down tillit’s perpendicular with the floor; that will take tension off your


delt. Re verse the movement right when the dumbbell is eve nwith your hip area that’s against the bench. Then raise it tillyour arm is just about parallel to the floor. A slight bend at yourelbow is acceptable.

You get resistance when your upper arm is close to yo u rbody due to the angle of your torso. And you raise it toparallel—but because your torso is angled, that top position isreally only about two-thirds up the arc of a standing latera lra i s e. Yo u’re essentially working the bottom two-thirds of thel a t e ral raise stroke and—this is the important point—yo u’regetting lots of overload at the turnaround when the dumbbellis in front of your hips at the bottom of the stroke.

By the way, a version of the incline one-arm lateral was af a vo rite of Arn o l d’s, which may explain why he got so bro a dand had that eye-popping width, even when he was fullyclothed. That’s a ve ry impre s s i ve feat considering that hisclavicles were fairly narrow.

Q: What exercise can I substitute for toes-pointed legcurls, the midrange movement for calves listed in yourTrain, Eat, Grow Positions-of-Flexion book?

A : T h e re really isn’t one—and even toes-pointed leg curlsa re n’t a true midrange exercise for calve s. We’ve re c e n t l ydiscovered that leg-oriented cardio is the best midrange workfor calves, especially walking hills and sprinting. We’ve noticed


The incline one-arm lateral raise, a great stretch-positionexercise for the medial delt with critical X Spot overload.

that w hen we start i ncreasing our cardio as summera p p ro a c h e s, our calves get considerably better. We’ve alsodiscovered that less-padded running shoes, like Nike Free, arebest for calf stimulation, whether yo u’re running or attackingcalf raises in the gym. Shoes that are adve rtised as “likerunning barefoot” give you a more natural movement, and youget less rebound at the important max-force point near thebottom of the stro k e. That means your X Reps will be muchmore effective as well—if you can stand the pain of Xing on calfwork.

Q: I’ve bought many of your books and e-books, but Ih a ve questions about training to failure, which yo usuggest in your X-Rep training. Isn’t it a bad thing? I’veread that it’s not re q u i red to gain muscle and it cancause central nervous system fatigue. If that’s tru e,wo n’t t rai ni ng to failure indu ce burnout andovertraining?

A: As we mentioned in a previous answer, training to failurei s n’t necessary; howe ve r, it does make building muscle lesstime-consuming. It has to do with the size principle of musclefiber recruitment. When you do a set, the low-threshold motorunits fire first, followed by the mediums, followed by the high-threshold motor units (the pure fast-twitch fibers). If you don’tgo to failure, you don’t make much inroad into high-thresholdterritory.

You can activate a few more fast-twitch fibers by doingadditional subfailure sets and getting a different re c ru i t m e n tp a t t e rn — d i f f e rent fibers may be brought into play onadditional sets; howe ve r, we’re more interested in finding themost efficient way to train (we have jobs and families, forcrying out loud—who has time for three-hour workouts?), andwe believe that way is to limit training to only a few sets tof a i l u re, perhaps one or two of those being X-Rep sets. Itappears to be the best way to activate as many fast-twitchfibers as possible without spending excessive time in the gym.

Does it cause nervous system burnout? Not if you keep the


volume low and the training frequency sensible. You shouldalso use phase training—after six weeks or so of all-outworkouts, do the same routine with the same poundages for aweek, but stop all sets two reps short of failure. Or take four tof i ve days off. Either tactic will help re g e n e rate your nervo u ssystem, and yo u’ll come back feeling bigger and stro n g e r.In c i d e n t a l l y, using a volume approach can also cause CNSb u rnout, so no matter how you train, do incorporate phasetraining into your mass-building strategy.

We also recommend that beginners break in to intensitytraining to avoid overstressing the CNS—they need to build upto this type of exertion, as described in the beginner section ofThe Ultimate Mass Workout e-book.

Q: What’s the deal with soreness? I work out one day,I’m sore the next—and it’s even worse on day two. As abeginner, and a hardgainer, should I avoid working outagain if I’m sore? Or is it okay to train after two days ofrest if I’m only slightly sore?

A : So reness is muscle damage; howe ve r, it’s probably okayto hit a muscle when it’s slightly sore (there are even studiesthat say it’s beneficial to train a muscle two days in a row, butwe’re not big fans of that idea). Nevertheless, you shouldn’t begetting extremely sore after eve ry workout. What could behappening is that yo u’re not hitting your muscles fre q u e n t l yenough. That means they’re re g ressing before you train themagain—they superc o m p e n s a t e, stagnate and then re ve rt tostatus quo before you hit them again. It’s as if yo u’re start i n gf rom scratch eve ry time, which explains the sore n e s s. It’s theperfect example of the phrase “spinning your wheels.”

Try training muscle groups more fre q u e n t l y, like twice aweek or once eve ry five days, as we outline in the Sp l i t -Positions Pro g ram in Chapter 10. By the way, there are nostudies connecting soreness to muscle growth, so don’t thinkyou need to get sore to grow.

Q: In The Ultimate Mass Workoute-book you say todo one positive - f a i l u re wo rk set, re s t, and then do a


second positive - f a i l u re wo rk set with X Reps—but I’vebeen using Xes on the first work set with great results. Ido two pro g re s s i vely heavier warmup sets, my firstwo rk set with X Reps at the end, and then one or twos t a n d a rd sets. What I’ve noticed is that additional setsafter the initial X-Rep set are more effective due to akind of preexhaust effect that comes from wo rking inthe X zone on my very first set. Can I continue doing myfirst wo rk set with X Reps, and then add an X-hybri dtechnique to my second work set?

A : We’ve noticed that the more experienced we get with XReps, the better they work on the first work set. It probably hasa lot to do with neuromuscular adaption—your nervo u ssystem gets atuned to getting in the gro ove earlier, like ri g h tafter a semiheavy warmup set (80 percent of your first work-setweight; see the previous Q&A on proper warmup).

So if yo u’re a fairly advanced lifter, doing X Reps on yo u rfirst work set should be fine. Should you add a X-hybri dtechnique on your second set? That can work, too, but yo uh a ve to be careful. X Reps are powe rful, and most of the X-h y b rid techniques are even more potent. For example, if yo udo your first work set with X Reps and your second withX / Pa u s e, yo u’re hammering the target muscle with a lot ofheavy partials right at the max-force point. That could triggerove rt raining. Using X-centric training, slow negatives at theend of a set with X Reps on each, is also very taxing due to allthe power partial work combined with slow negative tension.

Other X-hybrid techniques aren’t as grueling, and you maybe able to use them on your second work set with great results.For example, we’ve experimented with doing our first work setwith X Reps at the end, and then doing the second set St a g estyle. We often use the same weight as the first set.

For that first stage we move the bar from the bottom, hittingthe semistretched position, to just above the midpoint. Weusually get about eight, and then we have to help each otherm ove the weight to lockout, where we do the top third of the


s t ro k e, trying to squeeze the pecsat the lockout position on eachone. Now if you add X Reps to theend of that sequence, you may bepushing the limits.

The same goes for Double-XOverload. After your first work setwith X Re p s, you can reduce theweight by 10 to 20 percent and doevery rep with a hitch at the max-f o rce point. That double-bang atthe max-force point betwe e ne ve ry rep is excellent for stre s s i n gthe muscle right where it needs itmost for more growth; however, ifyou go further and add X Reps tothe end of that Double-X-Overload set, you may be pushingit.

Re c ove ry and intensityt o l e rance is an individualc h a ra c t e ri s t i c. When we’rem o t i vated, we often go ove r b o a rd and flirt with ove rt ra i n i n g ,but when we’re pushing ourselves to the brink, we try not toexceed three weeks of that type of insanity. Most of the time wep refer a straight set followed by an X-Rep set or X-hybrid set(the more seve re the better, like X/Pause), or an X-Rep setf o l l owed by a straight set or a set with one of the milder X-hybrid techniques, like Stage or Double-X Overload.

Q: You say that Stage Sets are n’t good to use onexercises that have continuous tension, like pulldowns.But what if I do the bottom two - t h i rds of the stroke tofailure, then follow with the top one-third, where the XSpot is?

A : Well, yo u’re essentially doing a normal set with X Re p s,only yo u’re stopping your standard reps short, before the


We’ve found that moreadvanced trainees maybenefit from doing X Repson the first work set, aftera semiheavy warmup.Should they add an X-hybrid technique to theirsecond work set? Thatmay depend on thespecific technique andindividual recovery ability.

semistretched point, or X Spot. That’s not so good because youwant to include that semistretched point on every rep—it’s themost important point for growth stimulation—then blast itfurther with X Reps when more full reps are impossible.

So to improve on the example you just gave, instead ofdoing the bottom two-thirds, make it the bottom three-fourthsso you move to the X Spot on every rep before you reverse themovement of the bar. Then at exhaustion, do X Reps at that XSpot, up near the top. That’s standard X-Rep pro c e d u re onpulldowns and rows. You can also use the Double-X Overloadtechnique on those and other continuous-tension exerc i s e s,using an X Rep between each full re p, then end with X-Re ppartials at the semistretched point.

Q: Does ove rloading the max-force point of ane xe rcise create a different type of growth from whatyou get by blocking blood flow?

A : We know what yo u’re getting at. Overloading the max-force generation point of an exercise may provide unique fast-twitch-fiber activation, while occlusion may do things likepump up fluid volume and increase capillary beds—twos e p a rate layers of growth. Pl u s, with its influx of blood,occlusion may cause endurance fibers to take more of theinitial load during a set of an exercise, so you get more growthin those fibers as well as fast-twitch hypert ro p h y. That’sanother mass layer.

It appears that the champs get big by maximizing a numberof growth factors, or layers, which is what we explained in thefirst few chapters of this e-book. We’ve also tried to explain whyadding X Reps, or power partials, to the ends of sets of certainexercises is a much more efficient means of attaining pro-stylemass than simply doing set after set on multiple exercises.

Here’s a bit of a review: By adding X Reps to incline presses,you take the pecs past failure at the key max-force generationpoint, getting much more fast-twitch-fiber activation than ifyou stop at positive failure. It’s the best way to move pastnervous system exhaustion and fatigue to get more fast-twitch


fiber action. Yo ualso create somep o s t f a i l u r eocclusion with XReps becausep a rtial pulseskeep tension onthe target muscle.You can almostfeel the bloodbeing squeeze dout with eachpulsing action.

You also g etsome stre t c hoverload with XRe p s, which mayh a ve aconnection tohyperplasia, or muscle-fiber splitting. Re m e m b e r, you do XReps at a semistretched point, so they seve rely stress themuscle when it’s in an elongated state, which may help initiatehyperplasia—and the more fibers there are to grow, the biggeryour muscles can eventually become. (Double-X Overload, anX Rep between eve ry full re p, on stretch-position exercises isproving to be a very powerful size building technique, probablydue to that stre t c h - overload/muscle-mass connection! Aswe’ve mentioned, Jay Culter, one of the biggest bodybuilders inthe world, uses that technique a lot in his size - b u i l d i n groutine.)

Much of our analysis also gave credence to the Positions-of-Flexion muscle-building method—working a muscle withmidrange-, stretch- and contracted-position exercises. You cantrigger the most fiber activation with compound, or midrange,e x e rcises like pre s s e s, especially when you add X Reps to theend of a set. Then you can get the best occlusion effects with


We’ve found a number of pieces to themass-building puzzle with our testing andexperimentation in the gym: Positions ofFlexion, X Reps, X-hybrid techniques and soon, but there’s still lots to learn. Keep upwith our latest findings at www.X-Rep.com.

continuous-tension contracted-position exerc i s e s, likec ro s s ove r s. Add X Reps to those, and you increase occlusiontime and its size- and strength-building effects. Finally, you canuse stretch-position exercises for even more occlusion,d o rmant-fiber activation (thanks to the myotatic reflex, ane m e rgency response tri g g e red by fu ll stretch ag ainstresistance) and perhaps more fiber-splitting action. Exc i t i n gstuff!

We’re not saying we’ve found the answer, although POF plusX Reps and X-hybrid techniques may be the training Holy Grailfor a number of bodybuilders, but we will say we’ve piecedtogether a huge section of the mass-building puzzle. We’regetting closer to finding the final pieces as we keepe x p e rimenting and learning. We’ll keep you posted on newdiscoveries in the pages of IRON MAN magazine, the IM e-zineand via our X-Blog at www.X-Rep.com.



BONUS CHAPTER A

Analyzing Mr.O l y m p i a ’s Wo r k o u t

F rom an X-RepP e r s p e c t i v e


T h roughout this e-book we’ve mentioned how Ro n n i eColeman, Mr. Olympia, trains with an emphasis ons e m i s t retched overload. Those observations we re the result ofwatching his latest DVD, “The Cost of Redemption,” which is anungodly display of muscle mass and raw strength captured byvideographer Mitsuru Okabe. In fact, his mass-training style is ap rime example of max-force-point overload on almost eve ryexercise.

Re m e m b e r, the max-force point is the place along anexercise’s stroke at which the target muscle has the most power-output potential. It’s essentially the most important point ofany movement because it’s where the most fiber activation cano c c u r — m o re force equals maximum muscle invo l ve m e n t .W h e re is that point? Well, it’s usually at the semistre t c h e dposition, near the turnaround of a rep—almost at the bottom ofan incline press, for example.

When a muscle is semistretched—not fully stretched, butalmost—the muscle fibers are perfectly aligned for ultimatep ower generation. In simple term s, if you want to tri g g e re x t reme mass, you need to overload that point somehow.

C o l e m a ndoes thati n s t i n c t i ve l ywith heavyp a rt i a l - ra n g ere p s. Fo re x a m p l e, hedoes only thebottom halfof a benc hp ress stro k e.In fact, healmost neve rdoes full-range re p s.Th at means

Coleman andhis incredible

traps!

he slams that mass-morphing sweet spot with severe overloadon eve ry single re p. To dri ve home that point, we thought itwould be interesting to discuss his workout day by day...

Workout 1

Calves. He begins with seated calf raises, and the first thingt h a t’s noteworthy i s that he never gets close to fullcontraction—not even on his first, lighter sets. He works fromjust above the middle of the stroke to down just short of fulls t retch—the semistretched point. He does the same thing onone-leg leg press calf raises; howe ve r, it’s interesting to notethat on all calf exerc i s e s, even the seated va ri e t y, he doublebounces when he gets to the highest point, which for him isjust above the middle of the stroke. There is still some stretchin the calf muscle at that point, but not as much as closer tothe bottom of the stroke, as dictated by X-Rep protocol.

So from a scientific standpoint he might get better re s u l t sdouble-clutching at the semistretched point, down near thebottom where the most fiber activation can occur (the Double-X Overload technique). That’s exactly how he trains his shrugs,double-dipping at the bottom stretch and then only mov i n gthe bar up a few inches before he lowers and double bangsagain—and his traps are absolutely enormous! Could his calvesget even better with extra semistretched-point overload? Wethink so. (Incidentally, as we’ve mentioned a number of placesin this e-book, Jay Cu t l e r, Co l e m a n’s biggest nemesis in hisquest for more Olympia titles, uses the Double-X-Ove r l o a dtechnique on almost eve ry set, holding and hitching at thesemistretched point between groups of reps or single reps. Aswe said, he may be tri g g e ring hyperplasia, or fiber splitting,instinctively at every workout thanks to that unique tweak thathas the power to create a freak physique!)

De l t s. He kicks off shoulder work with seated dumbbellp re s s e s, using a seat with back support. He dri ves thedumbbells from ear level, the semistretched point, to abouteight inches above his head, far short of lockout. (It’s duri n g


this exercise that you get to hear his first surprising andsomewhat humorous battle cry, “Yeah, buddy!” He loves thatstuff, no matter how painful the set.)

He does four sets of part i a l - range dumbbell pre s s e s,increasing the weight on each till he’s using the 160s on his lastset for seven reps. (Yes, 160-pound dumbbells!) His first threesets are all in the 10-to-12-rep range. It was rather shocking tosee that Coleman prefers higher reps on almost all of his sets,but it’s probably to hammer the target muscle with moretension time.

Speaking of higher re p s, here’s a big surprise: A fterdumbbell presses he goes to the Nautilus double-shouldermachine and does lateral ra i s e s, only the bottom half of them ovement (semistretched point again), for about 20 re p s.Then he follows immediately with presses on the machine,turning his palms out (ouch) and moving the bar from ear levelto just above his head, no lockout, for about 20 reps. He doesthree of the high-rep combo sets—and his delts get pumped tothe extreme.

For front delts he does a few pro g re s s i vely heavier sets ofalternate dumbbell front raises, stopping each rep at about eyelevel. His reps start at 15 on the first set and creep down fromthere.

Uncrossovers are next. What the heck is an uncrossover? Weexplained them in the X Q&A section, but here’s a quick review:You stand in the middle of a cable crossover, the cable handlef rom the opposite side in each hand, your arms crossed atm i d f o re a rm in front of your face with a slight bend at eachelbow. You uncross your arms and drive your hands out to yoursides at shoulder level, keeping the slight bend at the elbow s.After a few reps you should get a wicked burn in your rear-deltheads and midback. Coleman does four sets, increasing theweight on each and decreasing his reps, going from 15 down toeight.

Next it’s bent-over cable laterals in the same cro s s ove rmachine but using the low handles—and zero full-range reps.


He does only half reps from the stretchpoint to about halfway up. In otherw o rd s, his arms never get close top a rallel to the floor for completecontraction. He does four sets of thesestretch-emphasis delt/back burners.

A re you seeing a pattern? Thes t retched and semistretched pointsappear to be critically important forbuilding mass. Co l e m a n’s tra i n i n gindicates that in a big way—even morestrongly on the next exercise.

Tr a p s. To finish, he blasts out heavy behind-the-backbarbell shru g s. He does them while holding the Olympic barbehind his legs rather than in front, and he uses a tremendouspoundage that rattles the power rack at the end of his sets;h owe ve r, his shoulders barely move. He only does bottom-range partials—and his traps look like eight-ton boulderssitting on his shoulders.

He starts with 445 pounds and does 15 reps. Then he bumpsit up to 645 for 12 and, finally, 735 for 11. And as mentionedabove, he double-clutches at the bottom, stretched position one ve ry re p, providing serious Double-X Overload at the max-force point.

Our primary thought at the end of his workout, other thanshock and awe, was this: Considering the impressiveness of histraps, which may be his freakiest bodypart, we wonder why hedoesn’t try the double-clutch semistretched-overload tactic onm o re of his exerc i s e s. Could it make him even larger? Scarythought, but it’s ve ry possible considering it’s connection tomuscle fiber replication.

Workout 2

Quads. Coleman starts with four progressively heavier setsof leg extensions to warm up his knees. He does 30 quick repson each set. As before, it’s, “Yeah, buddy!” as he primes his


Holy#%@!

knees, his quads (with occlusion) and his mind for squats.Prepare to be impressed! He does five progressively heavier

sets on squats: 225x12, 405x10, 595x8, 745x4 and 800x2. Whoa!But even more impressive is that he doesn’t use a power rack.He shoulders the bar from heavy-duty power stands and thensquats without any safety catchers—other than his tra i n i n gp a rtner and the Me t roflex Gym ow n e r, neither of whom looktoo thrilled about having to pull 800 pounds off of Ronnie if hemisses.

Oh, and did we mention that all of his reps are down belowparallel and only partial range? Yep, it’s semistretched-positionoverload, never pushing close to top-end lockout; howe ve r,Coleman does take quite a bit of time between heavy sets, ashe wraps his knees and squeezes into a power suit. Still, 800 fortwo deep reps nonlock style is amazing.

Another eye-popping display occurs on leg presses. He doesfour pro g re s s i vely heavier sets with his feet close and innonlock style. On his last set he appears to have every 45 in thegym piled on, and a calculator is brought out to determine thathe was using 2,250 pounds—for eight reps! Ye p, more than aton.

Ha m s t ri n g s. Those leg pre s s e s, with feet high on thep l a t f o rm, provide a good transition to hamstring work. Hebegins with one-leg leg curls, once again doing only thebottom two-thirds of the movement (semistretched point) andno pauses. His reps are rapid fire, and he alternates legs forthree sets of about 15 reps apiece.

Stiff-legged deadlifts are last on his day-two agenda, and thetheme slapped us in the face again: He only moves the barf rom ankles to knees—stretched-position part i a l s. And hisweight is relatively light. It looked to be only about 275 poundsfor all three sets. He appears to be using the exercise as more ofa stretch-emphasizing movement, and as we keep sayingthroughout this e-book, stretch-position work has been linkedto hyperplasia, or fiber splitting, in the lab. Perhaps that’s onereason Ronnie is so dam n h uge—maybe stretch and


s e m i s t retch focus has produced considerable replication ofmuscle fibers. ( The same can be said of Jay Cu t l e r, whoe m p h a s i zes stretch even more than Coleman.) In t e re s t i n gconcept, which is why it’s part of our mega-mass program!

Stretching. Even more evidence of Coleman’s attention tomuscle elongation: He ends this workout with hamstring andadductor stretches.

Workout 3

Abs. Coleman’s ab routine is an almost endless giant set. Hedoes bench cru n c h e s, bottom two-thirds of the move m e n to n l y; bench kneeups, bottom range only; standing cablec runches and twisting cru n c h e s. It appears as though there’sno specific order; he just does whichever exercise he feels likedoing—but he still emphasizes the semistretched point onalmost all of them, never holding a contraction and almostalways just doing partial-range, rapid-fire reps.

C h e s t. He begins with bench pre s s e s, five pro g re s s i ve l yheavier sets—and his range is almost shorter here than onmost other exerc i s e s. It looks as though he’s moving thro u g honly the bottom half of the stro k e, exploding on eve ry rep atthe low, semistretched point.

How much does Mr. O bench? At this workout his last threesets were 315x12, 405x10 and 495x5. Not too shabby.

For incline presses it’s a repeat performance as far as rangeg o e s — p a rtial, max-force-point emphasis. He does only thebottom half to two-thirds of the stro k e, often re versing the


Coleman’s bench pressrange is from the chestto just above themidpoint of the strokeon every rep. Thatallows him to hit thesemistretched pointmore quickly and keepcontinuous tension onhis pecs for anabolicocclusion aftereffects.

movement of the bar and exploding on it before it touches hischest. He does three sets: 225x15, 315x12 and 405x8 plus oneforced rep. Forced reps are a rare occurrence.

Next up: decline presses. Bottom half of the stroke only, andhe does three sets: 225x15, 315x15 and 405x10. He lowers thebar to his low-pec line on every rep.

Tri c e p s. He begins with quick-hit one-arm ove rh e a dextensions in a seated position. He lowers the dumbbell to justoff his shoulder, hand at about ear level, then dri ves it up tillhis hand is just above his head, not even close to lockout. Hejust keeps pulsing in that middle ra n g e, kicking out of thesemistretched position, for three sets of 12 to 15 reps.

Machine dips are next. Here he sits and grips wheelbarrow-typ e handles. The fulcrum is at the middle of the twoh a n d l e b a r s, and the weight is at the opposite end. He dri ve sthe handles from the semistretched point, hands up next to hispecs down to well short of lockout. He does those pistonlikereps for three sets of 12 to 15 reps.

Narrow-grip pushdowns finish off his triceps. Not to belaborthe point, but (you guessed it) his range of motion is fro mabout the middle of his chest (triceps’ semistretched point) tojust short of lockout. He fires out 10 to 15 reps with zero pausesfor three sets.

Workout 4

C a l ve s. He starts the day with some high-rep calf work inhis home gym, once again doing short, pulsing reps thro u g hthe bottom range only and double-clutching each rep at aboutthe midpoint (Ro n n i e, try double-clutching closer to thebottom, where the X spot is; I swear yo u’ll like it!). Afterpumping up his calves, he’s off to the gym.

Ba c k . Wi d e - g rip lat pulldowns are first. That may be theexercise he uses the fullest range on. He pulls from just shy oflockout, semistretched point, down to his middle chest. Theexplosive heave just before lockout at the top of every rep reallyoverloads that max-forc e point for some seriou s mass


stimulation in his upper lats. You can see it happening. Unreal!He does four sets of 12 re p s, the last with the stack plus a 45pinned to it.

Behind-the-neck pulldowns are next, although they’re reallybehind-the-head pulldow n s. He never pulls the bar past earl e vel, and he releases to just short of lockout. He does thre esets of 12 reps here.

Cable rows follow — ra p i d - f i re reps from the forw a rd - l e a n ,semistretched position and pulling the parallel handle to nearhis upper abs as he straightens his torso. He does three sets of12 again, and on his last set he rows the stack plus two 45s thatare pinned to it.

To finish off back, he goes for some serious stretch (andmaybe some critical fiber splitting, or hyperplasia). Cro s s -bench dumbbell pullove r s, with one ’bell, give his lats somewicked elongation, especially when he gets to his last set,pulling a 160-pound dumbbell from back over his head to justover his eyes. He does three sets of 12 again, partial-range witha considerable stretch emphasis (how could you notemphasize stretch with that amount of weight?).

Bi c e p s. He begins attacking his mountainous biceps withmachine curls. It looks like an old Nautilus machine with anEZ-curl handle, but he doesn’t do full-range reps. He curls fromthe semistretched point, arms just bent out of the straight-armposition, to just above the middle of the stro k e — n oc o n t raction emphasis at all. His reps are partial, pistonlikemax-force-point-overload reps for all three sets.

Next up are alternate dumbbell curls. Nothing special here,just rocking the weight up in a see-saw motion. Each of thet h ree sets seems extremely long because of the altern a t i n ga rms—one arm rests while the other curls—plus the fact thathe does 10 full reps on every set.

Last is a unique cable curl. Instead of facing the we i g h tstack, he turns his back to it so the cable runs down betweenhis legs. He bends over slightly at the waist and curls from thes e m i s t retched point, never straightening his arm s, to just


a b ove the midpoint of the stroke—like slightly exaggerated XReps. He performs three sets of 15, 15 and 11 reps.

Then he hits a few poses—an incredible impromptu displayof raw muscle size and separation, despite his being monthsaway from the Mr. Olympia.

Mass-Building Lessons

So what can we learn from all of this? First and foremost, ita p p e a r s, as we continue to say over and ove r, thats e m i s t retched- and stretched-position overload are much,much more important than squeezy contractions—at least inthe massive Coleman camp. We’ve been explaining why in thise-book and the rest. Co l e m a n’s training ve rifies a lot of whatwe’ve discovered the past few years at the IRON MAN Training& Research Center.

Next, continuous tension appears to be a very big player inbuilding muscle. When Coleman does partial re p s, such asnonlock squats or pre s s e s, the target muscle never gets ab re a t h e r. The technique creates occlusion, or blocked bloodf l ow, and that produces a skin-stretching pump as well asspectacular anabolic responses in muscle tissue.

One thing you don’t learn on the DVD is that Co l e m a nusually trains with two different workouts for each bodypart ,an A-and-B approach (sound familiar?). He rotates them to hitthe muscle with different stress at eve ry session. In otherw o rd s, we only described half of his work o u t s. The others hitthe same bodyparts but usually with different exercises, similarto our new X-Hybrid Mega-Mass Program in Chapter 10.

The last thing we picked up on is that Coleman is one heckof a personable guy and loves training. You can see it in hiseyes and hear it in his voice. “Yeah, buddy!” is now a commonbattle cry at all of our X-Rep workouts.

Note: Ronnie Co l e m a n’s thre e - h o u r-and-15-minute “T h eCost of Redemption” DVD is available for $29.95 plus shippingfrom Home Gym Warehouse. Call (800) 447-0008, or visit www.Home-Gym.com.



BONUS CHAPTER B

The Inner Workings of Stero i d s :

Mimicking TheirAnabolic PowerWithout Dru g s

Let’s face it: Steroids enable an athlete to leapfrog hormonalroadblocks and reach a new level of physical prowess—fast—al e vel that was impossible without dru g s. Hold on! Im p o s s i b l ewithout drugs? That may be a bit pre m a t u re. In fact, if weanalyze the way steroids work and do everything in our powerto mimic those effects natura l l y, many of us can get re s u l t ssimilar to what happens when we’re on mild anabolics (we say“mild” because there’s no way to get your body to produce fivetimes its normal testosterone output, which is the amount a lotof bodybuilders inject). You read that right: steroidlike re s u l t swithout the steroids. Adopt the 10 ’roid-mimicking techniqueswe’ve got here, and yo u’ll experience new muscle growth, as t rength explosion and a rush of self-confidence. We have —and now we’re often accused of using, but we don’t. Weconsider those accusations the ultimate compliment for ad ru g - f ree athlete! [Note: The intros in italics are from Je r ryBra i n u m’s “Anabolic St e roid Pri m e r” that appeared in I RO NMAN magazine, used with permission.]

Anabolic-hormone Surge

•Simply put, anabolic steroids are either testosterone itselfor synthetic versions of testosterone.

• Recent studies confirm another route through whichanabolic steroids increase muscle size: augmented release ofother anabolic hormones in the bo dy, such as grow t hhormone and insulinlike growth factor 1 (IGF-1). Th ep r i m a ry anabolic hormones in the body appear to have asynergistic effect in building muscle.

It should be obvious that to start the stero i d - m i m i c k i n gp ro c e s s, you want to kick your testosterone into high gear, ast h a t’s what steroids are—synthetic versi ons of thatanabolic/androgenic hormone. You also want to increase yourgrowth hormone so you get a synergistic anabolic effect, as GHboosts testostero n e’s potency and vice versa. Tri g g e ring aninsulin uptick at specific times during the day can also amplifythose effects even more.


The anabolic synergy of those three hormones is the reasonso many bodybuilders’ drug stacks include all of them—andthe reason there are so many 250-plus-pound behemothsstalking the stages of pro bodybuilding show s. Boost yo u r sn a t u ra l l y, and at the right times, and yo u’ll grow as neve rbefore.

The mistake most drug-free bodybuilders make is thinkingthat any type of weight workout they do gives them optimals u rges in the anabolic horm o n e s. Su re, almost any type ofintense weight training increases testosterone and GH to somed e g re e, but we’re after maximum output. To get stero i d l i k ee f f e c t s, you g otta have si gnificant amounts of bothtestosterone and GH coursing through your system.

And that’s not just an educated guess. In one study menwho took both GH and testosterone showed lean-massincreases three times greater than those who took testosteronea l o n e.1 Getting that anabolic triple whammy takes specificstrategies, not random workouts.

Te s t o s t e ro n e. Intense anaerobic exercise is the key toi n c reasing testosterone production. And re s e a rch indicatesthat you get the biggest test surge when your pro g ram isdominated by multijoint exercises, such as squats. In fact, thel a rger the bodypart yo u’re training, the more testostero n erelease you get. Also, you have to do enough volume, but youd o n’t want to ove rdo it. Common wisdom is that work o u t slasting more than about an hour and 15 minutes cause at e s t o s t e rone crash, probably due to elevated cortisol, a stre s sh o rmone that smothers anabolic hormones and eats muscle.You want to stop the workout before cortisol goes into muscle-munching Pac-Man mode.

So here are your first two steroid-mimicking strategies:1 ) Make sure your workout is dominated by the big

compound exerc i s e s, two to three sets of eight to 10 re p s. Dosquats for quads, chins for lats, rows for midback, upright rowsand presses for delts and bench presses for chest. (Those arethe midrange exercises (M) in the Me g a - Mass ro u t i n e s, the


ones with which you kick off each bodypart blast.)2 ) Try to keep most of your workouts at about an hour. If

you use one or all of the cortisol-control strategies coming up,you may be able to push some to an hour and a half.

Gr owth horm one. Re s e a rchers belie ve that GHs u p e rc h a rges the anabolic pro p e rties of testostero n e, and thestudy that got the triple-gain results ve rifies that. So how doyou get your pituitary gland to secrete more GH and crank upt e s t’s effects? Studies indicate that there’s a direct corre l a t i o nb e t ween higher blood lactic acid levels and GH re l e a s e.2 T h a tmeans the more muscle burn you induce, the more GH yo ucan stimulate.

To go for the burn, use supersets, drop sets and/or X Re p son some sets. Also continuous-tension exerc i s e s, that keepblood choked off from the muscle that help concentrate theb u rn — t h e re’s resistance through the entire range ofm ovement. Ronnie Coleman and Jay Cutler both get that onmost of their exercises by using only a partial range of motion,especially on exercises that have lockout—they never get closeto locking out so the muscle can rest. Obviously, exercises thatenable you to lock out and rest at one end of the move m e n t ,such as squats, can produce burn if you don’t go to lockout, sothe partial technique is a good one for GH release. Single-jointisolation exercises (contracted-position movements in POFprotocol) also produce muscle burn.

So your third steroid-mimicking strategy is this:3 ) Use an isolation exercise along with part i a l - ra n g e

compound movements for each target muscle. Drop sets, XReps and the va rious X-hybrid techniques can help intensifythat muscle burn, which, in turn, can increase GH.

• The answer lies in re s e a rch showing that large doses ofs t e roids, such as those commonly taken by athletes, incre a s ethe number of androgen receptors.

Any kind of intense weight training can increase andro g e nreceptors; however, there’s evidence that elongating a muscle,as when you use a stretch-position exercise like stiff-legged


deadlifts for hamstrings and ove rhead extensions for tri c e p s,does a bang-up job of increasing IGF-1 receptors in themuscle. IGF-1 is a highly anabolic metabolite that can occur asa direct result of GH. In other word s, steroids incre a s ea n d rogen receptors in muscle, and stretch-position exerc i s e scan accomplish some of that same action. That’s why stretch-position movements are mandatory for maximizing thes t e roid-mimicking effects of weight training. And stre t c hoverload has also been linked to hyperplasia, or muscle fiberdivision, so exercises that stretch the target muscle can triggermuscle growth in a number of different ways. And the Double-X Overload technique can make stretch-position exerc i s e seven more powerful in both of those areas.

That gives us one more steroid-mimicking strategy:4 ) Use stretch-position exercises to increase andro g e n

receptors on muscles and to perhaps spur hyperplasia. And theDouble-X Overload X-hybrid technique to some sets tos u p e rc h a rge their mass-building effects. St re t c h - p o s i t i o ne x e rcises include sissy squats for quads, stiff-legged deadliftsfor hamstrings, pullovers for lats, shrugs for midback, one-armincline laterals for delts, ove rhead extensions for tri c e p s,incline curls for biceps and flyes or wide-grip dips for chest.( St retch-position exercises (S) are included in the Me g a - Ma s sprograms in this e-book.)

• St e roids work by binding to specific cell receptors calleda n d rogen receptors. That initiates a cascade in the cell thatresults in upgraded muscle protein synthesis.

That means you have to do your best to jam-pack yo u rmuscles with amino acids—which leads us to the infamousstorage hormone known as…

Insulin. It can cause your body to store fat in fat cells andamino acids and creatine in muscle cells. That upgrade inp rotein synthesis is one of the main reasons steroids buildmuscle quickly—and precisely what you want in order tocreate steroidlike effects naturally.

To get the anabolic reactions without fat storage, you need


to trigger an insulin surge after you train but minimize thoses u rges at all other times of the day. Use a shake made withs t raight whey protein and/or hyd ro l y zed whey and simplec a r b s. Go for about 60 grams of carbs and 40 grams of whey.Immediately after an intense training session your muscles arelike bone-dry sponges ready to soak up nutrients, so give themwhat they crave in that anabolic window. (We use the X-Stack,available at www.X-Stack.com, which also includes five gramsof titrated creatine.)

Fasting has also been shown to create an import a n tanabolic window, so you may want to experiment with gettingfast protein and fast carbs in the morning as soon as you wakeup. Try 20 grams of whey protein along with 30 grams of simplecarbs, like grape juice. (Or use a half serving of the X-Stack; it’sdesigned for optimizing the postworkout anabolic window, butit works well in the morning too).

To minimize insulin surges throughout the day, eat six smallprotein-based meals spaced a few hours apart. Overfeeding atany one meal, no matter what the macronutrient percentages,causes an insulin surge at the wrong time. Don’t gorge yourself.A l s o, avoid eating carbs alone. Simple-sugar snacks causeinsulin to skyrocket.

The basic rule is that each of your six meals should have atleast 20 grams of protein, a medium number of carbs—low -glycemic carbs are best—and a small amount of fat, preferablygood fat from nuts or fish, for example.

Ok a y, add three more steroid-mimicking strategies to thelist:

5) Get some fast protein and fast carbs as soon as you wakeup to take advantage of the secondary anabolic windowcreated by the overnight fast (unless you raided the fridge at 2a.m., which means you didn’t fast).

6 ) Drink a postworkout shake that has 40 grams of fastp rotein (whey) and 60 grams of fast carbs (high-glyc e m i csugar) to spike insulin immediately after eve ry workout anddrive amino acids into your muscles (the X-Stack).


7) Eat six small meals a day, each with at least 20 grams ofp rotein—30 to 40 is better. That will keep amino acidscirculating—you never want recovering muscles to be starvedof those building blocks—and avoid insulin surges that cancause fat deposition. Re m e m b e r, steroids increase pro t e i ns y n t h e s i s, and the only way to maximize protein use withoutthem is to make sure there are enough aminos available toyour system at all times to swing the anabolic/catabolicbalance in favor of growth.

Catabolic-hormone Blockade

• An d rogens bind with low affinity to glucocorticoid cellreceptors, the cell receptors that interact with cort i s o l .Anything that interf e res with cortisol activity, such asanabolic steroids, would tilt the balance tow a rd anabolism,not catabolism.

Enemy number one in your quest to mimic steroid actionswithout taking drugs is cortisol, which smothers anabolica c t i o n s, diffusing your GH and testosterone output. One wayto combat cortisol is to sip a high-glycemic-sugar mixtureduring your workout. (We mentioned that as one of our mega-mass strategies; we’re using a half serving of our X-Stack alongwith the new supplement GAKIC, that’s an ammonia buffer,which helps you get more re p s.) He re’s what Eu ro p e a nre s e a rcher Michael Gündill said about that stra t e g y: “Bl o o dglucose levels tend to fall during training. As a result, insulins e c retion is re p ressed while the secretions of cortisol andglucagon are enhanced. You want to re verse the situation,which is easily accomplished by increasing your carb intakeb e f o re your workout and/or using a carb drink through thesession.”

A study re p o r ted in mid-2002 ve ri fied that dri n k i n gc a r b o h yd rate beve rages during high-intensity interm i t t e n texercise decreases cortisol levels.3 Even Kool-Aid will work, butwe suggest some fast protein added to the mix to feed them u s c l e s. Re s e a rch scientist Jose Antonio, Ph . D., has wri t t e n


about athletes drinking flat Coke (regular, with sugar, not diet)d u ring workouts to bolster energy—and no doubt bluntcortisol release. If you try it, make sure the carbonation is out,or you could get nauseated.

There’s one more steroid-mimicking strategy:8 ) Sip a hig h-carb-and-protein mixture during yo u r

workout (diluted X-Stack).

Sleeping It On

• C o rtisol receptors in muscle far outnumber andro g e nreceptors. So a true anticatabolic effect would re q u i re largerdoses of anabolics.

Once again, your best bet for building muscle steroid-free isto minimize cortisol, maximize anabolic hormone output andenhance re c ove ry whenever and where ver possible. That wayyou optimize your androgen receptors (re m e m b e r, you canbuild new ones with stretch-position exercises) and minimizethe cortisol receptors. Do that as often as possible—even whenyou sleep—and your gains should skyrocket.

Yo u’ve already seen a number of ways to maximizeanabolism and de-emphasize catabolism during the day, buthow do you stay in control while you’re sawing logs? Dreamingof Carmen Electra giving you a hot-oil rub will no doubt raiseyour testosterone, among other things, but if Dennis Rodmans h ows up, your cortisol will soar. Instead of focusing onCa rmen, simply try to get eight to 10 hours of sleep eachnight—and make sure it’s uninterrupted, sound sleep. Eve nminor sleep disturbances can alter the hormonal re s p o n s eyo u’re after—which i s maximizing growth h orm o n e,testosterone and IGF-1.4

If you have trouble sleeping soundly, you may want to try amelatonin supplement. Melatonin is a natural horm o n es e c reted by the pineal gland in the brain, and it can intensifyREM sleep, the good, deep sleep yo u’re after, and boost GHlevels.5 Two to five milligrams before bed may help, but use itinfrequently, as your body could develop a dependence on it if


you use it every night.If yo u’re not interested in melatonin, you may get similar

effects with a cup of caffeine-free green tea. Bonus: Green teahas also been shown to help burn fat and improve anti-oxidanta c t i v i t y. If you have a small bladder, howe ve r, tea before bedmay do the opposite and cause a sleep interruption. In otherwords, you’ll be cursing your loss of REM sleep as you take aimat the dark silhouette you hope is the toilet.

You also want to minimize cortisol release as you sleep.You’re already aware that it can burn muscle during a workout,but keep in mind that it can turn shut-eye catabolic as well. Forpeople who work out, cortisol tends to rear its ugly muscle-wasting head in the first few hours, so take about 400m i l l i g rams of phosphatidylseri n e, or PS, before bed. PS is an a t u ral lipid that’s been shown to help control cort i s o lrelease—a for- real all-natural muscle booster due to itsanticatabolic pro p e rt i e s. As we’ve seen, one reason anabolics t e roids are so effective is that they interf e re with cort i s o ll e ve l s. PS does that in a slightly different way with similaranticatabolic results.

By minimizing cortisol during sleep, yo u’ll set up ananabolic environment. Ah, but as you know, growth can’thappen if hypert rophic building blocks are n’t ava i l a b l e,namely, amino acids. To make sure your body has the muscle-repair materials it needs through most of the night, take amicellar casein-and-whey protein drink before bed. That mix iswhat’s known as complete milk protein and provides a trickle-feed effect thanks to casein’s slow-digestion properties. (That’sa must for our mega-mass strategy as well.)

Your final two steroid-mimicking strategies:9) Get eight to 10 hours of sound sleep a night. Melatonin or

green tea before bed may help.1 0 ) Make sleep more anticatabolic by controlling cort i s o l

with a PS supplement before bed. Make sleep more anabolic bytrickle-feeding your muscles amino acids during sleep—drinka micellar casein-and-whey protein shake before bed (we use


Pro-Fusion protein powder in water). Note that you don’t wanttoo much protein right before you hit the hay because you stillwant a fasted state when you wake up to create an anabolicw i n d ow (see item 6). Try about 20 grams of micellar casein-and-whey protein before bed. Also, you don’t want to get somuch liquid that you wake up to pee. You want re s t f u l ,uninterrupted sleep.

Go over this checklist often. By following all 10 rules, alongwith our Me g a - Mass pro g rams in this e-book, you should getsome of the best muscle-building results of your life, nop h a rmaceuticals necessary. How about 20 pounds of newmuscle in the coming months to radically change yo u rphysique? Let’s get to it!

References1 Blackman, M.R., et al. (2002). Growth hormone and sex

s t e roid administration in healthy older women and men.JAMA. 288:2282-2292.

2 Mulligan, S.E., et al. (1996). Influence of resistance exercisevolume on serum growth hormone and cortisol concentrationsin women. Journal of St rength and Conditioning Re s e a rc h.10:(4): 256–262.

3 Bi s h o p, N.C., et al. (2002). Influence of carbohyd ra t esupplementation on plasma cytokine and neutro p h i ld e g ranulation responses to high-intensity interm i t t e n te x e rc i s e. International Journal of Sp o rt Nutrition and Exe rc i s eMetabolism. 12(2):145-156.

4 Forsling, M., e t al. (1999). The effect of melatonina d m i n i s t ration on pituitary hormone secretion in man. C l i nEndocrinol. 51(5):637-642.

5 Mougin, F., et al. (2001). Ho rmonal responses to exerc i s eafter partial sleep depri vation and after a hypnotic dru g -induced sleep. J Sports Sci. 19(2):89-97.



X-traordinary Abs. If you don’thave visible abs now, don’t worry—you soon will. And if you kick yourmotivation into overdrive and get yourbodyfat down, you’ll have a visible sixpack without even flexing. Forgetthose set-after-grueling-set abprograms—10 minutes is all youneed. You just have to know how toapply the best full-range movementsin precise combinations with X Repsand the occlusion technique. The new

X-traordinary Abs e-book teaches you all of that andmore! Includes a big Midsection Perfection Q&A sectionand watch as the top-9 ab myths get blown tosmithereens!

X-Treme Lean Fat-Burning and Nutrition Guide.Nothing grabs attention like a shredded physique. If you’reready to shed your excess bodyfat and build some muscleat the same time, then this is youranswer. It’s time to stop talking aboutit and start working on it. You wantthose etched abs? We’ll give you thediet info to let ’em rip! Includes theamazing X-treme Lean High-Definition full-body Workout thatfeatures X Reps and the occlusionphenomenon to build muscle as youburn fat. Ready to kick-start the fat-burning machine? You’re going to getX-treme Lean!

E-books Available at www.X-Rep.com


The Ultimate Mass Workout,featuring X-Rep Training. Here itis: The original X-Rep manual. Youmay think you’ve tried it all to buildmuscle, but until you ignite theanabolic fuse with The Ultimate MassWorkout and X Reps, you haven’texperienced explosive growth. Thisprogram maximizes all the elementsyour body requires for an extremehypertrophic response—the single

best exercise for each muscle, precision workouts,neuromuscular target training, capillary-expansion tactics,anabolic hormone activation and maximum muscle fiber-recruitment techniques. It’s all here, waiting for you to lightthe fuse and create your own ultimate muscle-size-and-strength X-plosion.

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