Holman & Lawson, from Iron Man Magazine, mentioned this 4X Mass Training method in their recent Iron Man E-Zine. Basically you do 4 sets of 10 reps on a weight that you would normally do 15 reps with. You only rest 30 seconds between sets.
I tried it yesterday and did a circuit of one exercise for each bodypart with about 10 seconds of rest between each set. It tore me up. The plus is that I finished my workout in about 30 minutes, extremely helpful, since I workout during my lunch hour.
I am planning on doing the same today, but doing the circuit with different exercises. Hoping to keep this up for a few weeks to see what kind of results I get.
Anyone ever try this training method?
Are You Working Out Too Hard?Q: I train my butt off in the gym. I hit it harder than every other dude in there. But I haven't gained much muscle in a long time. Is it my genetics? My nutrition is perfect, so I should be growing like crazy, but I'm not. Very frustrating.
: Yes, your genetics could have something to do with it; HOWEVER, you may have just been training too hard for too long. It's time to step back with a new plan...
Even hardgainers start growing at warp speed when they snap to the fact that too much ALL-OUT training stops all muscle gaining flat in its tracks. You need to take new less-stress action for a major mass-building reactions (we'll outline that exciting change to gain in a moment)...
But isn't intensity the key to muscle-size results? To a point, yes--but too much triggers nervous system burnout and floods your bloodstream with cortisol. If you don't know what cortisol is, realize that it's the devil incarnate when it comes to building muscle (and even burning fat)...
Cortisol is a stress hormone that results from the emergency fight-or-flight response. When you're in an extreme situation, cortisol spews from your adrenal gland and your body begins using muscle tissue for energy. In other words, your body starts throwing your hard-earned muscle tissue into the energy furnace. NOT GOOD!...
The ironic thing is that the all-out intense workouts you do to build muscle send your cortisol through the roof, especially if you overdo it. Too much and you can actually lose rather than gain muscle. That's why most high-intensity routines call for only a few all-out sets per exercise...
But even doing only a few all-out sets per exercise results in a CUMULATIVE stress effect that can build to an overtraining cortisol crescendo--muscle gains stop and it's time to back off. You need an intensity downshift...
In many of our past e-books we've mentioned phase training and the need to back down on your intensity after about four weeks of all-out training. We often suggest stopping every set short of failure--but a better MASS-ACCELERATOR is something many pros of yesteryear used to build muscle right up to a contest on low calories...
It's 4X mass training. With this method you trade in multiple all-out sets on an exercise for a fast medium-intensity supersaturation sequence. Take pulldowns for example...
Here's the 4X drill: Take a weight that you could get 15 reps with, but only do 10; rest about 30 seconds and do 10 more; rest 30 seconds and do 10 more--and so on until you do four sets of 10 reps. If you get 10 reps on your last set, add weight at your next workout. It's quick, simplified muscle supersaturation training for more super-size increases! And you use that 4X mass method for every exercise.
When we first started using a total-4X Mass Workout, we got dramatic muscle-size increases like we'd never experienced during our recent ripping phases. We believe that's because dieting itself is a cortisol producer. We'd been training TOO HARD during our dieting phases, and that caused us to lose rather than gain muscle mass thanks to excess cortisol...
We believe that's why so many bodybuilders of yesteryear, like Danny Padilla, used 4X-style workouts for a few months before their competitions--it minimized cortisol output and allowed them to continue to pack on muscle as they dieted away bodyfat. Check out Padilla's results and judge for yourself (Note: He didn't use the exact 4X method above but a tweaked version one of his former training partners discusses in our 4X e-book)...
We won't say 4X workouts are easy, but your joints, tendons and ligaments will get much less stress due to the medium poundages you use (great for older trainees). Less joint damage also results in less evil cortisol release....
Plus, each exercise takes you less than five minutes to complete--and the pump is unreal. Remember, only the last, or fourth, set is all out, and even then the muscle is pre-exhausted from the previous sets. But that's exactly what allows you to reach the ultimate GROWTH THRESHOLD quickly and efficiently with minimal stress. Exciting stuff!...
If you've been busting your ass in the gym with slow to no muscle growth, give the 4X Mass Workout a spin--and let your new muscle-mass surge begin!
Till next time, train hard--and smart--for BIG results.
--Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
