Bigger, Fuller Muscles

Q: I’ve been using the e-book The 4X MassWorkout for a month, and I’ve noticed that my muscles appear to be not only bigger but rounder as well. I’m looking more like a bodybuilder. I’m not imagining it, as people have told me that at my gym. It’s fantastic, but I’m wondering why.  Is it because of the extra sets with 4X on three exercises for each bodypart? I was only doing one or two exercises for each muscle before, so it must be the added volume.

A: That’s part of it. Getting the extra volume with short rests during a 4X sequence helps deplete more glycogen from the muscles, and therefore they supercompensate and store more. The extra glycogen in the sarcoplasm of the 2A fibers gives the muscles a fuller, rounder look, more like you see on a competitive bodybuilder.

Remember, with 4X you take a weight with which you can get 15 reps, but you only do 10; rest 30 seconds, then do it again. Do that for four sets, and if you get 10 reps on the last set, add weight to the exercise at your next workout. That style of training definitely pumps up the target muscle and forces more fullness via sarcoplasmic expansion.

Even so, another big reason you’re looking more like a bodybuilder is that the program you’re using is full-range Positions of Flexion. The tri-angled mass method has you training each muscle in its midrange, stretch and contracted positions. So with 4X it takes only about 15 minutes to completely blast a muscle into the growth zone with total fiber activation and stimulation.

For example, a POF lat routine would be pulldowns for midrange work, pullovers for stretch and stiff-arm pulldowns for contracted-position work. You would do 4X on each of those for a complete lat workout that takes only about 15 minutes.

Training every muscle through its full range of motion with 4X is definitely an efficient workout that elicits optimal fiber activation for full, complete development in every muscle structure so you’ll look more like a bodybuilder. That’s four sets on each exercise, so you’re doing 12 sets per muscle—but only the last set of each sequence is to all-out failure.

As I said, a 4X sequence on the three POF exercises enables you to train a bodypart in about 15 minutes—very efficient. With that style of training you’ll be gaining big—and end up with a fully developed physique that turns heads and has the gals raising eyebrows.

Editor’s note: Steve Holman is the author of many bodybuilding best-sellers and the creator of Positions-of-Flexion muscle training. For information on the POF videos and Size Surge programs, visit www.home-gym.com. Also visit www.X-Rep.com for information on X-Rep and 3D POF methods and e-books.  IM