Train, Eat, Grow 109

Our M.O. in the gym is experimentation with the goal of finding the most efficient methods for building muscle. It’s how 3D Positions-of-Flexion training evolved and why it now includes end-of-set X-Rep partials as well as other X-hybrid techniques. We don’t have a lot of time to train—at the moment it’s four-days-a-week lunch-break workouts—so efficiency of effort is key.

That means we’re always on the lookout for effective ways to stimulate mass increases. Lately we’ve been reviewing some of the past studies from our files, and we came across one performed in Canada by John Little and company. His report, “The Nautilus North Study,” appeared in the November ’05 IRON MAN. The results were interesting almost to the point of being unbelievable.

We say that with all due respect, as John Little is a renowned historian, trainer and journalist in a number of disciplines, including bodybuilding. Some of the phenomenal muscle gains his subjects achieved after only one workout, however, make you shake your head in disbelief. Even if the gains were half of what he says they were, though, the key technique he employed in the study is worth a spin in the gym. Before we get to it and explain how we’re using it, let’s go over our four-day split, which hasn’t changed:

Week 1
Monday: Chest, lats, triceps, abs
Tuesday: Quads, hamstrings, calves, lower back
Wednesday: Delts, midback, biceps, forearms
Thursday: Off
Friday: Chest, lats, triceps, abs
Weekend: Off (with cardio)

Week 2
Monday: Delts, midback, biceps, forearms
Tuesday: Quads, hamstrings, calves, lower back
Wednesday: Chest, lats, triceps, abs
Thursday: Off
Friday: Delts, midback, biceps, forearms
Weekend: Off (with cardio)

Week 3
Repeat Week 1

Note that we work legs only once a week on that split. As we moved into extreme-lean condition, we discontinued deadlifts on Friday, which had been giving us some indirect leg work later in the week.

Insane Gains

Okay, so what were the unbelievable results John Little’s subjects achieved, and, more important, what was the mysterious technique he used? The goals of the study, according to Little, were as follows:

• To determine exactly when the body produces a muscular increase after a workout and thereby determine optimal training frequency.
• To determine when a mass increase so produced begins to leave the body.
• To determine if it’s possible to gain one pound of solid muscle in a week or two pounds in two weeks and whether it’s possible to sustain that rate of gain—adding up to 52 pounds of muscle over the course of a year.

Eleven athletic, well-trained subjects were put through one high-intensity training session and then measured every day for two weeks to chart muscle gain and the point at which overall muscle size began to deteriorate. The body-composition analysis was accomplished using a Bod Pod, one of the most accurate measuring devices available. The most startling result was that one subject added 9.3 pounds of muscle after that one workout, and peak-mass level occurred six days after the workout. It fluctuated downward from there all the way to day 14.

The nine-pound gain was the best-case scenario. Another subject experienced a four-pound muscle gain only one day after the training session, which was his peak-mass point, and by day 14 he’d retained only half a pound of the increase. Others showed peak muscle mass after four or five days, but the average recovery time for muscle mass to peak was six days after the workout. Interesting.
Unconventional

Mass Tactic

You may be saying, “Nine pounds of muscle after one workout? What the heck did the guy do in the gym?” All of the subjects did one workout of five to 11 sets, one set per exercise, and some used isolation exercises with no movement—only a static hold in the contracted position, such as at the top of a leg extension stroke. Was that the miracle mass tactic? It may have been a critical stimulus, as it was something new that provided fiber activation as well as extended blocking of blood flow, which is called occlusion.

When a muscle is flexed, fibers are firing and depleting oxygen from the blood trapped in the muscle. Also, a flexed muscle lets no blood flow in or out. Research has demonstrated that a long tension time of 30 to 60 seconds produces exceptional muscle gains, and many studies have used tourniquets or a blood pressure cuff to block blood flow to the working muscle. Static contraction has a similar effect, but there’s no movement—no reps—only a hold.

The bottom line is that static-contraction training can be an excellent adjunct to any mass-training protocol. Will you gain nine pounds of muscle after only one workout using it? Probably not, but we believe that you can significantly increase your gains by strategically applying static holds, which is why we’re experimenting with them.

In fact, we’re convinced that a lot of the muscular development you see on male Olympic gymnasts is due to static or near-static tension on the rings and floor exercise, and we believe static holds can provide a new muscular dimension to any bodybuilder’s physique—just don’t overuse them. We’re using them on two types of exercises, which we’ll discuss in a moment. First, let’s talk a little more about the study.

Study Observations and Comments

When Little released the results of his groundbreaking Nautilus North Study, we were intrigued and immediately had a number of thoughts. For example, there are lots of unknown variables, such as what the subjects were doing before the experiment began. Were they overtraining and then finally allowing gains to occur from that overtraining period during the experiment’s 14-day rest? It’s also possible that some of the subjects trained hard at one time, took a layoff and then entered the study. That would skew the results because they were regaining muscle during the two-week experiment, although Little said that wasn’t the case. Muscle is much easier to rebuild than to build from scratch.

Here’s another issue: We don’t know if any of the subjects were experienced bodybuilders. If most of them weren’t, they wouldn’t be accustomed to high-intensity anaerobic work, which could prolong full recovery from the unfamiliar load. Another fly in the ointment is that we don’t know which muscles got larger and which stagnated or got smaller over the 14-day rest. We’ve seen studies showing that quads need longer recovery times than other muscles, so it’s possible that the legs grew while other muscles stayed the same or regressed.

Then there’s diet: We don’t know how the subjects were eating. Their meal timing and macronutrient makeup would have been critical to decreasing or increasing recovery. If some or all of their diets were crappy, that would have skewed the results and prolonged recovery.

The average recovery time for peak-muscle-mass gain was around six days. That’s a good ballpark baseline. Still, each individual has to experiment to find his or her best recovery period, as indicated by the wide variation of when peak muscle mass occurred for each subject—for some it was one day, for others it was six days or longer. So much for simplifying the bodybuilding process. Turns out everybody is unique after all, and recovery varies with stress levels, intensity, diet, age and training volume.
Us? We’ve found that we tend to make our best gains training each bodypart about once every five days. That fluctuates with intensity and diet. If we’re training very hard during a calorie deficit, such as our summer ripping phase, we tend to need more recovery time, although we’re often too motivated to take the hint.

The Nautilus North Study was interesting and took meticulous effort. We applaud Little for the undertaking, which has further refined our training—with another tactic to torture our muscles into growth.

Static Training for Bigger Gaining?

In our latest e-book, X-Rep Update #1—you knew we’d eventually get a plug in—we discuss static-hold training as another weapon in our X-mass arsenal. We apply it in the fascia-expansion program outlined in that e-book, using static holds on either contracted-position exercises, like concentration curls and cable crossovers, at the point of flex or on stretch-position exercises, like incline curls and dumbbell flyes, at or near the point of max elongation. We use the designations StatC and StatS C = Contraction, S = Stretch.

Because optimal hypertrophic tension time is around 30 seconds, we suggest 30-to-60-second holds, whether in the contracted or stretch position. We’re using a static hold as either stand-alone sets or as the second phase of a drop set. For example, we do a set of leg extensions to exhaustion, reduce the weight, then immediately launch into a static hold at the top contracted position for as long as we can maintain lockout. There are other examples in our program on page 68 and the home-gym program on page 70.

We’ve just started experimenting with StatC and StatS, but we’re already noticing new muscle detail, vascularity and a deep postworkout ache, which signifies fast-twitch-fiber trauma. Stay tuned for future findings, and visit our training blog at X-Rep.com to check out how we’re currently using static holds and all of the X tactics.

Note: For more on static-hold training as well as other new X-hybrid mass-building techniques, see the new e-book, X-Rep Update #1, available at X-Rep.com.

Editor’s note: For the latest on X Reps, X e-books and the X-Blog training and supplement journals, visit www.X-Rep.com. A few of the mass-training e-books are shown below. IM

Workout 1: Chest, Lats, Triceps, Abs
Smith-machine incline presses (X Reps) 2 x 9-12

Superset
High cable flyes (drop; X Reps) 1 x 10(6)
Incline flyes (X only or StatS) 1 x 12-15

Superset
Bench presses 1 x 8-10
Pushups 1 x 8-10
Wide-grip dips (drop; X Reps) 1 x 9(6)

Superset
Low cable flyes (drop; X Reps) 1 x 10(6)
Dumbbell flyes (X only or StatS) 1 x 8-10
Wide-grip pulldowns (X Reps) 1 x 9-12
Chins (X Reps) 1 x 9-12
Undergrip pulldowns (X Reps) 1 x 9-12

Superset
Machine pullovers 2 x 8-10
Rope rows or dumbbell pullovers (X Reps) 2 x 8-10
Lying extensions (drop to dumbbells) 1 x 9(6)

Superset
Decline extensions 1 x 8-10
Decline close-grip bench presses 1 x 8-10

Tri-set
Undergrip pushdowns 1 x 10-12
Pushdowns 1 x 10-12
Bench dips 1 x 8-10
Cable pushouts (drop; X Reps) 1 x 9(6)
Dumbbell overhead extensions (X Reps) 1 x 9-12
Pushdowns (StatC) 1 x 30 sec.

Superset
Incline kneeups (drop; X Reps) 1 x 15(10)
Flat-bench leg raises 1 x 8-10

Tri-set
Ab Bench crunches 1 x 10-12
Twisting crunches 1 x 10-15
End-of-bench kneeups 1 x 9-12
Ab Bench crunches (StatC) 1 x 30 sec.
Workout 2: Quads, Hamstrings, Calves, Lower Back
Leg extensions (warmup) 1 x 18-20
Squats 1 x 10-15

Superset
Hack squats (X Reps) 1 x 10-12
Leg presses 1 x 8-10
Superset
Leg extensions (drop; X Reps) 2 x 10(6)
Sissy squats 2 x 9-12
Leg extensions (StatC) 1 x 30 sec.
Feet-forward Smith-machine squats 1 x 9-12
Leg curls (X Reps) 1 x 9-12
Leg curls (drop; X Reps) 1 x 10(6)
Leg curls (StatC) 1 x 30 sec.
Stiff-legged deadlifts 1 x 9-12
Knee-extension leg press calf raises (X Reps) 2 x 12-20
Standing calf raises (X Reps) 2 x 12-18

Superset
Hack-machine calf raises (X Reps) 1 x 10-15
Machine donkey calf raises (X Reps) 1 x 9-12

Superset
Machine donkey calf raises (X Reps) 1 x 12-15
Hack-machine calf raises (StatC) 1 x 30 sec.
Seated calf raises (X Reps) 1 x 12-20
Hyperextensions or
Nautilus lower-back machine (X Reps) 1 x 10-15
Workout 3: Delts, Midback, Biceps, Forearms
Dumbbell upright rows (X Reps) 2 x 9-12
Forward-lean lateral raises (drop; X Reps) 2 x 10(6)
Smith-machine behind-the-neck presses 1 x 9-12
Seated dumbbell presses (X Reps) 1 x 9-12

Superset
One-arm cable laterals (X Reps) 1 x 8-10
Leaning laterals 1 x 8-10
One-arm cable laterals (StatC) 1 x 30 sec.
Incline one-arm laterals (X Reps) 1 x 9-12
Bent-over laterals (drop; X Reps) 1 x 10(6)

Tri-set
Dumbbell shrugs (DXO or stage style) 1 x 9-12
Cable upright rows (X Reps) 1 x 9-12
High rows (X Reps) 1 x 8-10
Machine rows (X Reps) 1 x 9-12
Shoulder-width cable rows (X Reps) 1 x 9-12
Chest-supported dumbbell rows (X Reps) 1 x 9-12

Superset
Behind-the-neck pulldowns (X Reps) 1 x 9-12
Bent-arm bent-over laterals (X Reps) 1 x 9-12
Preacher curls 2 x 9-12
Cable curls (X Reps) 1 x 9-12
Concentration curls (drop to StatC) 1 x 9 (20 sec.)
One-arm spider curls 1 x 9-12
Incline curls 1 x 9-12

Tri-set
Forearm Bar reverse wrist curls 1 x 8-10
Cable reverse curls (X Reps) 1 x 9-12
Dumbbell reverse wrist curls 1 x 10-15

Tri-set
Forearm Bar wrist curls 1 x 10-15
Barbell wrist curls 1 x 8-10
Behind-the-back wrist curls 1 x 10-12
Rope hammer curls (X Reps) 1 x 9-12

Workout 1: Chest, Lats, Triceps, Abs
Incline presses (X Reps) 2 x 9-12
Incline flyes (drop to StatS) 1 x 10(30 sec.)

Superset
Bench presses or wide-grip dips (X Reps) 2 x 9-12
Flyes or decline flyes (X Reps) 2 x 8-10
Chins (X Reps) 2 x 9-12
Undergrip chins (X Reps) 1 x 9-12

Superset
Undergrip rows 1 x 9-12
Dumbbell pullovers 1 x 8-10
Undergrip rows (StatC) 1 x 30 sec.
Lying extensions 2 x 9-12

Superset
Kickbacks 1 x 8-10
Overhead extensions 1 x 8-10
Kickbacks (StatC) 1 x 30 sec.
Giant set
Incline kneeups 1 x 15-20
Flat-bench leg raises 1 x 10-12
Ab Bench or full-range crunches 1 x 10-12
End-of-bench kneeups 1 x 9-12
Workout 2: Quads, Hamstrings, Calves, Lower Back
Leg extensions (warmup) 1 x 12-15
Squats (second set with narrow stance) 2 x 9-12
Leg extensions (drop to StatC) 1 x 9(30 sec.)
Sissy squats (X Reps) 2 x 9-12
Walking lunges 1 x 9-12
Leg curls (drop to StatC) 1 x 9(30 sec.)
Stiff-legged deadlifts 1 x 9-12
Knee-extension donkey calf raises
(X Reps) 2 x 12-15
One-leg calf raises (drop to StatC) 1 x 12(30 sec.)
Donkey calf raises (X Reps) 2 x 10-15
Seated calf raises (X Reps) 1 x 12-20
Hyperextensions (X Reps) 1 x 10-15

Workout 3: Delts, Midback, Biceps, Forearms
Dumbbell upright rows (X Reps) 2 x 9-12
Forward-lean laterals (drop; X Reps) 2 x 10(6)
Incline one-arm laterals (X Reps) 1 x 9-12
Barbell or dumbbell presses (X Reps) 2 x 9-12
Lateral raises (StatC) 1 x 30 sec.
Bent-over laterals (drop; X Reps) 2 x 10(6)

Superset
Dumbbell shrugs (X Reps) 1 x 9-12
Upright rows 1 x 8-10
Bent-over dumbbell rows 2 x 9-12
Bent-arm bent-over laterals
(drop to StatC) 1 x 10(30 sec.)
One-arm dumbbell rows 1 x 9-12
Dumbbell curls 2 x 9-12
Concentration curls (drop to StatC) 1 x 9(30 sec.)
Incline curls (drop to StatS) 1 x 9(30 sec.)
Dumbbell reverse wrist curls 1 x 12-20
Dumbbell wrist curls 1 x 12-20
Rockers 1 x 12-20
Incline hammer curls (drop) 1 x 9(6)