Explosive Reps

Q: A pro bodybuilder said that one of the keys to building mass is to explode at the bottom of every rep and attempt to move the positive rep as fast as possible. Is that a good idea?

A: The big pros are the genetic elite and have superhuman muscle-fiber density, as well as ironclad tendons and ligaments. Don’t forget that many use growth hormone, which fortifies cartilage, tendons and ligaments even more. That’s why many athletes use it—to rehab soft-tissue injuries quickly and prevent others from occurring in the gym and on the field.

That said, the pro bodybuilder you mention makes a good mass-building point. The myotatic reflex is a phenomenon that gets more muscle fibers into the action. When you explode with a weight out of the turnaround, it elicits an emergency response from the nervous system, and more fibers are called into action. The more fibers you activate, the more size you stimulate.

Nevertheless, it’s a dangerous way to train. So is it a necessary evil in the attainment of extreme mass? No! Those of us who are drug-free and without the luxury of supergenetics should use a controlled explosion at the turnaround on each rep. In our e-book The X-traordinary X-Rep Workout we discuss a study that showed a one-second-up/three-seconds-down cadence to be a superior mass-building tempo. You should use that on most sets, as a slower negative stimulates more muscle via fast-twitch-fiber tension and eccentric emphasis, and it better guards against an injury-provoking jerk at the turnaround.

Still, we believe that the turnaround is the key spot for fiber activation and that you should emphasize it. That’s one reason we developed end-of-set X-Rep partials. Here’s a quote from The X-traordinary X-Rep Workout—available at X-Work
outs.com—that hammers the point home:

“[X Reps] extend a set at the sweet spot of all the key growth exercises. You get extreme anabolic overload at the end of a strict set, no jerking or heaving necessary. You keep your reps strict and safe, and when you can’t get another full rep, you use short X-Rep partials to extend the set and overload the fast-twitch fibers at the precise sweet spot—anabolic overload right where the muscle needs it most.”

—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com