Heavy Training for Strength

Q: I just got your new e-book, Pre-Ex 3X. Fantastic stuff. I’m using the Ultimate Mass-Building Split you outline in it. Training the same bodyparts on Monday and Friday (chest/back) is cool. A question: You call for Pre-Ex 3X  on Monday and straight 4X on Friday. What do you think about doing Friday as a heavy workout, two to three heavy sets per exercise, instead of 4X?

A: If you’re into heavy training for strength, the idea of doing one 4X style workout—Pre-Ex 3X or standard 4X—and one heavy workout for the same muscle groups each week is a good one.

That will keep specificity high, as you’re training for only one specific goal at each workout: On heavy day you use more weight for lower reps to get myofibrillar emphasis; on moderate-weight day—you train with 4X or Pre-Ex 3X for more sarcoplasmic-size emphasis.

Keep in mind that heavy training is much more draining—it saps your nervous system, produces more cortisol and does more muscle damage. The excess trauma, the microtears in the actin and myosin strands in the myofibrils, will take longer to repair. Those two weekend days will not be enough for most trainees to fully recover.

Because of that, I suggest you do your heavy workout on Monday, not Friday. Then the muscle groups will have four days—till Friday—to replenish and repair.

On Friday you hit them again but with Pre-Ex 3X or standard 4X—oh, and you start the Friday workout with deadlifts for a First T-Burst effect. Doing that very big move first gets your testosterone up and helps the muscles you train afterward grow faster.

The extra anabolic drive, along with two full days of rest from the weights on the weekend, will have all systems ready to go and grow on Monday when you hit those same -bodyparts again with heavy work.

This alternating style should push your size and strength to the brink.

Note: The Pre-Ex 3X is available at www.X-Workouts.com.

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 DVD and Size Surge programs, see the ad sections in this issue. Also visit www.X-Rep.com  and X-Workouts.com for info on X-Rep, 4X and 3D POF methods and e-books.  IM