In our last installment we mentioned that our go-to workout after our grueling 17-week ripping phase is our X-Rep version of Eric Broser’s Power/Rep Range/Shock.
As we’ve said in the past, training each bodypart only once a week has never worked for us very well, but as we came off our strict, extended diet, it appeared to be just what the doctor ordered. We were right. We felt great the first three weeks with P/RR/S, and muscle growth and strength were on a serious upswing. We knew that part of it was anabolic rebound from being depleted and that, once we adapted, we’d need something more to make hitting each bodypart only once a week continue to work. Before we get to that, here’s a review of P/RR/S, which calls for changing the training protocol every week:
Power: Straight sets with heavy weights, four to six reps per work set.
Rep Range: On the first exercise the rep range is seven to nine, on the second it’s 10 to 12, and on the third it’s 13 to 15-or higher.
Shock: The rep range is eight to 12 on most exercises but with intensity techniques like drop sets, slow negatives, DC training, X Reps and X-hybrid techniques to shock new growth.
After Shock week, you go back to Power and begin again-and, as we mentioned, we are training each bodypart only once a week. Here’s our current split:
Monday: Chest, calves, abs
Tuesday: Back, forearms
Wednesday: Quads, hamstrings
Thursday: Off
Friday: Delts, triceps, biceps
It’s been working great, but to make it continue to work as we adapt, we’re getting innovative.
Damaged Goods
For a muscle to need seven full days of recovery, you have to hammer it hard and with specific techniques for producing significant microtears in the fibers. In other words, you have to damage the target muscle. We’ve devised a few effective ways to increase growth-triggering trauma:
Extra midrange-position work: Because we hit only two or three bodyparts at each workout, we can do a few more sets without exceeding our workout time limit-a little over an hour. The big, midrange exercises do a lot of damage to muscle fibers, so for most bodyparts we’re doing two or three midrange moves. For example, for quads we do two sets of hack squats, two sets of leg presses and one set of squats. For shoulders we start with two sets of overhead presses followed by two sets of dumbbell upright rows.
Negative-accentuated sets: It’s no secret that the negative part of the repetition is what causes muscle soreness. Some experts believe it’s the friction caused by the fibers dragging across each other in an attempt to slow the weight. To take advantage of that, we’re doing at least one set of a big, midrange move, like presses, in a negative-accentuated fashion-that is, two seconds up and six seconds down. The exaggerated lowering forces more fiber trauma. We know because the first time we did NA squats, we had trouble walking the next day.
Slower stretch-position exercises: We always do stretch-position exercises, like overhead extensions for triceps, but now we’re trying to slow down the negative to three or four seconds-and sometimes all the way to six seconds as in the NA style described above. Stretch exercises are notorious for creating muscle soreness, especially at the muscle insertion, like the inner-chest area. Slowing the negative amps up the trauma, which requires more recovery time.
Whether it’s Power, Rep Range or Shock week, we use all of the above; however, on Power week we’ve bastardized the original protocol somewhat-it’s not all low-rep sets for us.
Blood-Bath Chaser
When we tried P/RR/S the first time a year or so ago, we discussed our specific adaptations and objections to each protocol. For example, Jonathan, being more mesomorphic, got good results from the low-rep workouts during Power week. Steve, being a thin, ectomorphic type, got almost zero from it. Most of his endurance-oriented muscles need longer tension times for a growth response. Our solution was a few drop sets during Power workouts-two sets of four to six reps back to back.
Recently, Broser has been discussing his fiber damage/fiber saturation training. He suggests using low reps and slow negatives to create fiber damage, following up with isolation sets in the 20-to-40-rep range. The goal is to kick-start the recovery process via a muscle-engorging pump with light weights.
That makes a lot of sense and also provides Steve with the longer tension time his muscles respond to best; however, we decided to use 20 reps as the ceiling and do it only on two sets of the contracted-position exercise that ends each Positions-of-Flexion bodypart routine during Power week. For example, our Power biceps routine looks like this:
Midrange
Dumbbell curls 2 x 4-6
Cable curls 1 x 4-6
Stretch
Incline curls 2 x 6-8
Contracted
Concentration curls 2 x 15-20
The high-rep blood-bath chaser is making a big difference in both of our results-and we appear to be retaining more vascularity and muscle detail, which fits into our winter plan perfectly.
Just Say No to Winter Bloat
Muscle damage and higher reps are good for growth, but they’re also excellent for helping to preserve leanness. As we mentioned last month, one of our goals is to stay leaner over the winter so that it’ll be easier to rip up next year. It was grueling this past summer, and part of that was due to excess winter blubber.
While we’re trying to maintain some cardio activity, we believe our new workouts will also help keep the fat off, much as high-intensity cardio does. We’ve discussed high-intensity cardio before-short, all-out sprints alternated with low-intensity walking or jogging. It’s been shown to burn fat much faster because of a higher postworkout metabolic output than steady-state cardio. Why? Because of the muscle damage created by the all-out sprints.
According to the latest research, the body uses fat as an energy substrate to repair damaged muscle tissue. The more damage you inflict, the more energy your body needs for the repair process. In other words, interval cardio is a lot like an intense lower-body weight workout.
And vice versa. You get a huge metabolic uptick from your weight workouts if you do a lot of muscle damage, which is exactly what we’re doing with the aforementioned trauma techniques. Also, with the high-rep tension-and-occlusion sets on the contracted-position exercises, we’re getting a lot of muscle burn. Studies show that muscle burn is caused by lactic acid, which has been shown to ramp up release of growth hormone. What’s GH good for? Fat burning, as well as amplifying the anabolic effects of testosterone. Oh, and it also has a lot of anti-aging benefits, which Steve, who is 49, accepts with open, albeit wrinkled, arms.
A Few More Power-Week Comments
On most of the midrange- and stretch-position exercises we keep the reps at four to six; however, there are some exceptions. For example, on any stretch-position exercise that we deem somewhat dangerous-like stiff-legged deadlifts (lower back) or overhead extensions (elbows)-we raise the rep count to six to eight and slow down the negative stroke. That enables us to use less weight for less joint trauma and potential injury but still get the muscle-building stimulation.
As for the high-rep finisher sets, we usually do two, one set of two different exercises. For example, we finish triceps with a high-rep set of kickbacks, and then we do a high-rep set of pushdowns. For biceps we end with one high-rep set of concentration curls and one high-rep set of one-arm spider curls.
Obviously, for some bodyparts that’s not possible. On quads the only contracted-position exercise available is leg extensions; however, we use different foot positions on each set to slightly alter the fiber-recruitment pattern-toes angled in emphasizes the outer quads, while toes out focuses more stress on the inner quads.
As we’ve often said, continuous change can bring big gains, and we think our version of Broser’s Power/Rep/Range Shock is one of the best at doing just that. (A version of our current P/RR/S program is listed in the e-book 3D Muscle Building.)
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
IRON MAN Training & Research Center Home-Gym Program 112
Workout 1: Chest, Calves, Abs (Power)
Smith-machine low-incline presses (X Reps) 3 x 4-6
Bench presses (slow negatives) 1 x 6-8
Wide-grip dips 2 x 4-6
Flat-bench flyes 1 x 4-6
High cable flyes (X Reps) 1 x 15-20
Low cable flyes (X Reps) 1 x 15-20
Leg press calf raises (X Reps) 2 x 8-10
Knee-extension leg press calf raises (X Reps) 1 x 8-10
Machine donkey calf raises (X Reps) 2 x 8-10
Standing calf raises (X Reps) 2 x 8-10
Hack machine calf raises (X Reps) 1 x 8-10
Seated calf raises (X Reps) 2 x 15-20
Incline kneeups (X Reps) 2 x 8-10
Ab Bench crunches (X Reps) 2 x 8-10
Full-range crunches (X Reps) 1 x 15-25
End-of-bench kneeups 1 x 15-25Workout 2: Back, Forearms (Power)
Chins (X Reps) 2 x 4-6
Wide-grip pulldowns (X Reps) 2 x 4-6
Undergrip pulldowns (X Reps) 1 x 4-6
Machine pullovers (X Reps) 1 x 15-20
Rope rows (X Reps) 1 x 15-20
Machine rows (X Reps) 2 x 4-6
Bent-over dumbbell rows (X Reps) 2 x 4-6
Behind-the-neck pulldowns (X Reps) 2 x 6-8
Bent-arm bent-over laterals (X Reps) 1 x 15-20
Shrugs (X Reps) 2 x 6-8
Cable upright rows (X Reps) 1 x 15-20
Cable reverse curls (X Reps) 2 x 8-10
Dumbbell reverse wrist curls (X Reps) 2 x 8-10
Barbell wrist curls (X Reps) 2 x 8-10
Rockers 1 x 20-30Workout 3: Quads, Hamstrings, Lower Back (Power)
Leg extensions (warmup) 1 x 18-20
Hack squats (X Reps) 2 x 4-6
Leg presses (X Reps) 2 x 6-8
Squats (slow negatives) 1 x 6-8
Sissy squats (slow negatives) 2 x 6-8
Leg extensions 3 x 15-20
Stiff-legged deadlifts 2 x 6-8
Leg curls (X Reps) 1 x 6-8
Hyperextensions (X Reps) 1 x 15-20
Leg curls (X Reps) 1 x 15-20Workout 4: Delts, Triceps, Biceps (Power)
Smith-machine presses (X Reps) 2 x 4-6
Standing dumbbell presses (slow negatives) 1 x 6-8
Dumbbell upright rows (X Reps) 1 x 4-6
Incline one-arm lateral raises (X Reps) 2 x 4-6
Forward-lean lateral raises (X Reps) 1 x 15-20
Standing lateral raises (X Reps) 1 x 15-20
Bent-over lateral raises (X Reps) 1 x 4-6
Bent-over lateral raises 1 x 15-20
Close-grip bench presses 2 x 4-6
Lying dumbbell extensions (slow negatives) 2 x 6-8
Cable pushouts 1 x 4-6
Overhead dumbbell extensions (X Reps) 1 x 4-6
Kickbacks 1 x 15-20
Pushdowns 1 x 15-20
Dumbbell curls 2 x 4-6
Cable curls (slow negatives) 1 x 6-8
Incline curls 2 x 4-6
Concentration curls 1 x 15-20
One-arm spider curls 1 x 15-20
Alternate hammer curls 1 x 6-8
IRON MAN Training & Research Center Home-Gym Program 112
Workout 1: Chest, Calves, Abs (Power)
Low-incline presses (X Reps) 2 x 4-6
Bench presses or wide-grip dips 2 x 4-6
Incline flyes (X Reps) 1 x 6-8
Flat-bench flyes (X Reps) 1 x 6-8
Incline flyes (X Reps) 1 x 15-20
Flat-bench flyes (X Reps) 1 x 15-20
Knee-extension donkey calf raises (X Reps) 3 x 10-12
One-leg calf raises (X Reps) 1 x 8-10, 1 x 15-20
Seated calf raises (X Reps) 2 x 15-20
Incline kneeups (X Reps) 2 x 10-12
Full-range crunches (X Reps) 2 x 10-12
End-of-bench kneeups (X Reps) 2 x maxWorkout 2: Back, Forearms (Power)
Chins (X Reps) 3 x 4-6
Undergrip chins (X Reps) 2 x 4-6
Dumbbell pullovers (X Reps) 2 x 6-8
Stiff-arm pulldowns or undergrip rows 2 x 15-20
Bent-over barbell or dumbbell rows 2 x 4-6
One-arm dumbbell rows 1 x 6-8
Bent-arm bent-over laterals 1 x 15-20
Shrugs (X Reps) 1 x 6-8, 1 x 15-20
Reverse curls 2 x 8-10
Reverse wrist curls (X Reps) 2 x 8-10
Wrist curls (X Reps) 2 x 8-10
Rockers (X Reps) 1 x 20-30Workout 3: Quads, Hamstrings, Lower Back (Power)
Leg extensions (warmup) 1 x 20
Old-style hack squats 2 x 8-10
Squats 2 x 6-8
Sissy squats (X Reps) 2 x 6-8
Leg extensions 2 x 15-20
Stiff-legged deadlifts 2 x 6-8
Leg curls (X Reps) 1 x 4-6
Leg curls 2 x 15-20
Hyperextensions (X Reps) 1 x 15-20Workout 4: Delts, Triceps, Biceps (Power)
Barbell or dumbbell presses (X Reps) 2 x 4-6
Dumbbell upright rows (X Reps) 2 x 4-6
Incline one-arm laterals (X Reps) 2 x 6-8
Forward-lean laterals (X Reps) 2 x 15-20
Bent-over laterals (X Reps) 1 x 4-6, 1 x 15-20
Close-grip bench presses 2 x 4-6
Lying dumbbell extensions 1 x 4-6
Overhead extensions 2 x 6-8
Kickbacks 2 x 15-20
Dumbbell curls 3 x 4-6
Incline curls (X Reps) 2 x 6-8
Concentration curls 2 x 15-20
Incline hammer curls 1 x 6-8, 1 x 15-20
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