The Beyond X-Rep

114 Pages·2016·2.82 MB·English

by  Holman Steve.

IRON MAN Training & Research Center Presents
B E Y O N D
R E P
MUSCLE BUILDING
by Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building was written to help you get
closer to your physical potential with sensible bodybuilding
strategies. Weight training is a demanding activity, however, so
it is highly recommended that you consult your physician and
have a physical examination prior to beginning a weight-
training program. Proceed with the suggested diets, exercises
and routines at your own risk.
Photography by Michael Neveux
Cover models: Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
Copyright © 2005 by IRON MAN Magazine and
Homebody Productions
All rights reserved.
The material in this document may not be reproduced in
whole or in part in any manner or form without prior written
consent from the publisher.
Homebody Productions
P.O. Box 2800, Ventura, CA 93002
www.X-Rep.com
www.BeyondX-Rep.com
www.X-tremeLean.com
www.X-traordinaryAbs.com
CONTENTS
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
Introduction
The Ultimate Mass Workout e-book showcased our gains with
X Reps and explained that mass-building technique in detail. It
essentially kick-started the X-Rep muscle-building
phenomenon—and the gains of muscle-building enthusiasts all
over the world. Our results with X Reps showed that, if used
correctly, it has the power to transform a physique in as few as
35 days. Trainees have re p o rted incredible gains in size and
s t rength in only a few workouts due to finally being able to
overcome the nervous system roadblock during any set to failure
( i t ’s usually the nervous system that craps out first, not the
muscle). Power partials at the sweet spot along an exerc i s e ’s
stroke at the end of a set to exhaustion obliterate that roadblock,
allowing you to trigger new hypert rophic stimulation like never
before—so much so that many trainees said that X Reps are the
last 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 seasoned
bodybuilder knows, nothing works forever. You have to find ways
to jack up the intensity if you want X-traordinary growth.
So after more analysis and research we created new ways to
X-ponentially increase the intensity of the X-Rep technique. The
best of the best of those X-Rep hybrid techniques helped us
pack on nearly 10 more pounds of new muscle to our alre a d y
developed physiques (which is even more amazing when you
consider that Steve is now 46 years old!). These techniques can
do the same for you—take
your mass to the next level
at a rate that will astound
you.
Consider yourself in the
fast lane to X-treme muscle.
Are you ready? Let’s put the
pedal to the metal!
—Steve Holman and
Jonathan Lawson
Steve H. and Jonathan L.: Bigger IRON MAN Training &
and better in ’05 thanks to new
Research Center
X-Rep hybrid techniques.
4 Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building
CHAPTER 1
X- h i l i r a t i n g
Mu s c l e - B u i l d i n g
Ob s e r va t i o n s
Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building 5
It all started when we began analyzing the way the biggest
bodybuilders train for mass. These men are huge, so they have
to 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 six
to 10 reps on a lot of exerc i s e s.” No wonder the failure rate in
bodybuilding is outrageous. It’s much more than that!
T h a t’s why we decided to observe rather than ask. We
watched them train, analyzed their techniques, read up on
t raining re s e a rch and then applied what we saw to our ow n
workouts—well, sort of. Due to our drug-free status we had to
be more discerning and keep an eye tow a rd science (we eve n
a n a l y zed how steroids work in order to get many of those
effects natura l l y, as yo u’ll see in an upcoming chapter). And
t 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 opened
our eyes—like all the cheating that goes on (and we’re not
talking about steroids).
Yo u’ve no doubt heard a mass monster at your gym or in a
magazine article go on and on about strict form, but when you
see him train, most of his reps look more like a re j e c t e d
Olympic lift. Ronnie Coleman, Mr. Olympia and one of the
biggest and strongest bodybuilders of all time, is the perf e c t
example. 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 d
m ovement. On shru g s, for
e x a m p l e, he loads up an
o u t rageous poundage,
s t raps onto the bar and
pulls for all he’s worth, but
Watch Ronnie Coleman train and
you’ll see that he does most of
his exercise in an explosive,
partial style, blasting the weight
through the key semistretched
position and only moving it
halfway or two-thirds of the way
up through the stroke.
6 Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building
his shoulders barely ri s e. It looks like arm - s t retching tort u re
f 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 e
and/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 growth
is force. The more force you can get a muscle to generate, the
more growth you’ll stimulate. That’s one reason compound, or
multijoint, exercises produce more mass gains than isolation
m ovements do—you use more weight when a number of
muscles work together, and you can increase the poundage
m o re easily over time. That’s pro g re s s i ve overload. (We’re
getting to the cheating part; hang on.)
But there’s more to it than just adding more weight to the
bar on the big exercises, much more. As we explained in UMW,
many re s e a rchers believe that the real growth trigger on
certain exercises is near the turnaround, where you move from
the negative stroke to the positive. Why? Because that’s where
the most force occurs. And where do most of the big
bodybuilders cheat or explode? Near the turnaround—bottom
of a squat or pre s s, for example—which provides a wicked,
g rowth-jolting overload. (Fo rce-plate studies show that as a
trainee recoils and then explodes near the bottom of a press to
re verse the direction of the bar, the force can more than
double. It’s a wicked hypertrophic shockwave!)
Think about it. At the bottom of an incline press your pecs
have to put the brakes on and then reverse the direction of the
b a r. Lots of potential for maximum overload, or forc e, there.
The problem: Many scientists say that the pecs can’t quite exert
maximum force at the ve ry bottom of the move m e n t — t h e re’s
too much stretch. That means the muscle must be elongated to
exert maximum force but not to the extreme. The key max-force
point, then, is just below the middle of the stroke but not all
Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building 7
the way down at the
bottom, stretch position
(and not at the completely
c o n t racted position, as
many people believe). It’s
at a semistretched point.
T h e re f o re, if you can
overload the position that’s
just above the stretch but
not quite to the midpoint,
you can significantly
i n c rease the anabolic
power of any set.
Force-plate studies show that when a T h a t’s exactly what
trainee recoils and explodes near the many of the biggest
bottom of a press to reverse the
bodybuilders do on almost
direction of the bar, the force can
e ve ry re p. Watch them do
more than double. That’s a
tremendous stress overload on the incline pre s s e s, and yo u’l l
muscle right at the key semistretched see them re verse the bar
point. However, that’s a dangerous b e f o re touching their
practice. A better way to overload that
upper pecs, exploding
max-force point is with end-of-set X-
Rep partials or one of the new X- u pw a rd from there. (So m e
hybrid techniques. e ven bounce it off their
chests to get the bar to the
more advantageous max-force point.) By stopping a little short
and exploding, they hit the semistretched position with more
overload. 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 only
w o rks the bottom part of the stro k e, never getting it near the
c o n t racted position. Though he only works the stretched and
s e m i s t retched points and slightly above, he does it with
e x t reme overload. And that’s why his traps are gigantic! (He
actually uses a hitch at the bottom, but we’ll have more on that
Double-X Overload technique later).
8 Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building
One of Arnold’s favorite
biceps exercises was
cheat curls. Notice how it
overloads his biceps right
at the max-force point,
just below where his
elbows are bent at 90
degrees. That’s the X spot.
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 then
explode the weight up to his shoulders. Where does the most
f 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 below
the halfway point of the stroke (see the photo above). There’s
ve ry little resistance anywhere else during the entire curl.
Could that have been at least part of the reason for Arn o l d’s
giant biceps and incredible peaks? Possibly.
Eve ry exercise has its own sweet spot, and the biggest
bodybuilders seem to instinctively know where that key point
is and then exploit it for gigantic leaps in mass. (We explained
and identified the key exercise for each bodypart and its sweet
spot, or X position, in UMW.) They do a lot of their reps with a
slightly shorter range of motion and explode out of the
t u rn a round with heavy weight. (Watch Co l e m a n’s tra i n i n g
v i d e o s, and yo u’ll see a lot of that.) It’s precisely what give s
them excessive hypertrophic overload at the sweet spot of key
exercises. It shifts the muscle machinery into overdrive!
As you know if you’ve been to our Web site or read our other
Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building 9
e - b o o k s, we don’t advocate jerking and heaving giant
weights—especially if you don’t use things like grow t h
h o rmone to fortify ligaments and tendons. That’s the wro n g
s t ra t e g y, despite what the pros do (re m e m b e r, even with
pharmaceutical help a lot of pros have been seriously injured
doing that, from pec and biceps tears to vertebrae blowouts to
shattered shoulders). So here’s what you should learn from this
discussion...
Muscle-building lesson 1: The semistretched point of an
e 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 to
maximize your mass gains. The best way is with X-Rep partials
at the end of a strict set or Stage Se t s, which are a series of
e x a g g e rated X Reps right off the bat that encompass the
s e m i s t retched position, and/or Double-X Overload, which is
the between-reps hitch method we saw Ronnie Coleman using
on shrugs at the semistretched point and that big Jay Cu t l e r
uses 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 d
techniques, as well as have more discussion on those two pro
bodybuilders’ training techniques, later in this e-book.
10 Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building