by Steve Holman, Iron Man Editor in Chief
As we write this, we’re transitioning from the program we discussed last month to a new one, which is outlined on page 78. Our new mass attack will be very similar to the 10-week Size Surge program that Jonathan used to gain 20 pounds of muscle in a 2 1/2-month span back in the 1990s. It’s worked for lots of mass-seeking bodybuilders, so now is the perfect time to give it a go—because we’re looking to grow. For a taste of what the phase 1 workouts will look like, we’ve roughed in a home-gym version on page 82.
Size Surge Redux
For those not familiar with the Size Surge workouts, first you use a big, basic anabolic-primer program during the first five weeks. You do all-out workouts three days per week on this split:
Monday: Legs, chest, back, delts
Tuesday: Deadlifts, calves, arms, abs
Friday: Legs, chest, back, delts, calves
That may look like a helluva lot of bodyparts to train on Monday and Friday, but keep in mind that we will be doing only one to two work sets per exercise and two to four sets per muscle group. In other words, we’re cutting back the volume even more here than in our previous routine—but we’re training every bodypart more frequently. For example, notice that legs get blasted on all three days—deadlifts on Wednesday hit quads hard.
Doing fewer sets with more frequent hits for each muscle is a great variation bodybuilders rarely take advantage of. It’s good for the mind and muscles—with fewer sets you tend to put more into each one. More intensity leads to muscle immensity.
After five weeks in phase 1 we pull back to medium intensity and stop all sets two reps short of exhaustion for the sixth week. That will enable our muscles and nervous system to completely regenerate and totally prep us for phase 2. Jonathan recalls noticing a muscle-growth spurt during the downshift week, so it’s definitely mandatory for best results.
Phase 2, the last four weeks, is a full-range intensity attack with three-way Positions of Flexion for each muscle group. Nothing fancy, just pure POF workouts. For the uninitiated, this POF triceps blast illustrates how it works:
Midrange: Close-grip bench presses
Stretch: Overhead extensions
Contracted: Pushdowns
You hit your triceps through its full arc of flexion with the above—from overhead to midline to down next to the torso. That is, you train your tri’s at three different points along their range of motion.
Midrange. You train the triceps middle range of flexion first with close-grip bench presses. That’s a compound, or multijoint, move that brings in other muscle groups so you can drive up heavy weights for significant overload.
Stretch. Overhead extensions train the tri’s in the fully elongated, or stretch, position against resistance. That can trigger the myotatic reflex, which brings in extra muscle fibers, those that lie in reserve until an emergency—and stretch overload is just such an emergency. It’s also been linked to hyperplasia, or fiber splitting, and anabolic hormone release in muscle tissue. In fact, one animal study produced a 300 percent muscle increase with the equivalent of one month of stretch-overload “workouts.” That’s right—the muscle increased threefold with short stretch pulses against a progressively heavier weight (Med Sci Sports Exerc. 25:1333-45; 1993).
Contracted. Last is the point, or position, at which the triceps can be fully contracted, or flexed, against resistance with continuous tension. The constant muscle engagement throughout the set creates occlusion, a blockage of blood flow, which has been shown to increase muscle growth. We believe it does that because it affects the endurance side of the key fast-twitch 2A fibers and enhances growth in that often-neglected area, as well as initiating growth in the capillary beds and mitochondria.
You thoroughly thrash every major muscle with POF in phase 2 of the Size Surge program, which, as we noted, lasts four weeks after your downshift week. When Jonathan was the beta-test subject for the Size Surge program, he used an every-other-day two-way split; however, some of his workouts lasted 1 1/2 hours or more. To shorten those POF workouts, we’ll go back to one of our favorite three-way splits and train four days a week with weekends off.
New-Hit Size Surge Split
The every-other-day two-way split Jonathan used with the original Size Surge program was this:
Workout 1: Quads, hamstrings, calves, chest, triceps
Workout 2: Back, deltoids, biceps, abs
With the two to three exercises per bodypart that POF requires, you can see how those workouts could drag out, especially in a commercial gym with people getting in your way. Nevertheless, it was very effective for Jonathan. He was training each muscle through its full range of motion every five days. He also had to train on one weekend day every week. Most trainees, including us, want an alternative, so here’s how we plan to split up the workouts in phase 2 when we get there:
Workout 1: Chest, triceps, abs
Workout 2: Quads, hamstrings, calves
Workout 3: Back, delts, biceps
That split provides no overlap, which is important when the two upper-body sessions, workout 1 and workout 3, are on consecutive days—and that will happen, as you can see in week 3:
Week 1
Monday: Workout 1
Tuesday: Workout 2
Wednesday: Workout 3
Thursday: Off
Friday: Workout 1
Weekend: Off
Week 2
Monday: Workout 2
Tuesday: Workout 3
Wednesday: Workout 1
Thursday: Off
Friday: Workout 2
Weekend: Off
Week 3
Monday: Workout 3
Tuesday: Workout 1
Wednesday: Workout 2
Thursday: Off
Friday: Workout 3
Weekend: Off
At week 4 the cycle starts over with week 1. In other words, we simply follow the workout order on our four chosen training days.
Yes, it would be better to take Wednesday off and train on Thursday instead—two on/one off/two on/two off—but we like Thursday as our off day for work-related reasons. We simply cope with three training days in a row, even if it’s somewhat less effective. If you use this split and it’s feasible, we recommend training Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, as outlined in the alternate phase 2 routine that appears in the e-book The X-traordinary Size Surge Workout.
Is the alternate three-way split better than the two-way version that Jonathan used? It could be, as there is less volume at each workout. That means you’ll have more energy to train harder and more left in your tank for recovery. In fact, severely recovery-challenged bodybuilders may get better results training on the three-way split and training only Monday, Wednesday and Friday; that is, hitting each bodypart once every seven days.
Exercise Execution
By execution we don’t mean form; we mean kill, kill, kill. If you’ve been reading our series lately, you know we’ve eliminated heavy free-bar squats from our workouts. Steve was getting hip pain, and we both have had numerous lower-back injuries due to spine compression from having hundreds of pounds across our shoulders while awkwardly lowering into a crouch. We knew something wasn’t right.
Then we put two and two together. Many older bodybuilders who have relied on heavy squats throughout their training careers were having hip-replacement surgery, including Clarence “Ripped” Bass, John Grimek and, most recently, Lou Ferrigno, to name a few. Steve just turned 50 and took his hip pain from squats as an early warning sign. Also, and unfortunately, we know we’ve already done some permanent damage to our vertebrae from squatting with a quarter ton on our backs a few years ago—stupid.
Still, heavy full squats are a great metabolic stimulator and train multiple muscles at once. That’s especially important during the Size Surge anabolic-primer phase, when you’re getting the key growth hormones surging. So how do we get around not using squats? We’ve decided to substitute Trap Bar deadlifts, which give us a more perfect, or ergonomically correct, full squat. In addition, because you hold the bar at arm’s length, rather than supporting it on your upper back, there’s very little, if any, spine compression.
Another exercise we’ve extricated from our routine is dumbbell upright rows—but not because of injury concerns. We’ve been using it for a while, so it’s time to move to rack pulls, a similar but heavier exercise that works extremely well in the power-oriented phase 1 routine.
As for a pressing movement for delts, Jonathan used behind-the-neck presses as his first delt exercise. We’ve since found that when we do behind-the-neck presses first, the heavy weight irritates our shoulder joints. That’s why we do them last in our delt program—when we rotate them into our routine.
In our current incarnation of the phase 1 Size Surge routine, we will still start with a pressing exercise, but instead of behind-the-necks we’ll go to standing dumbbell presses for more freedom of movement and, we hope, less shoulder irritation. If our shoulders start bothering us, we’ll do the rack pulls first, as a type of delt preexhaust, then follow with presses.
We’ll have more on our Size Surge attack next month. It’s an ideal back-to-basics program for capping off your season of size. [Note: For information on the new e-book, X-traordinary Size Surge Workout, see the ad below.]
Editor’s note: For workout and nutrition features, the latest e-zines and our X-Blog training and supplement journals, visit www.X-Rep.com. and www.X-Workouts.com. IM
IRON MAN Training & Research Center Muscle-Training Program 125
Workout 1: Chest, Delts, Triceps
Bench presses 3 x 9, 7, 5
Wide-grip dips (X Reps) 2 x 9, 7
Incline dumbbell presses 2 x 9, 7
Low cable flyes 1 x 12-15
Rack pulls (X Reps) 3 x 9, 7, 5
Superset
Smith-machine presses 1 x 10-12
Seated dumbbell presses (X Reps) 1 x 8-10
Lateral raises (X reps) 1 x 12-15
Lying dumbbell extensions 2 x 9, 7
Superset
Dumbbell close-grip bench presses (X Reps) 1 x 10-12
Bench dips (X Reps) 1 x 8-10Workout 2: Quads, Hamstrings, Calves
Leg extensions (warmup) 1 x 18-20
Machine hack squats (X Reps) 3 x 12, 9, 7
Superset
Leg presses 1 x 10-12
Dumbbell squats (X Reps) 1 x 8-10
Hyperextensions (X Reps) 3 x 15, 12, 9
Stiff-legged deadlifts 1 x 8-10
Leg curls (X Reps) 1 x 12-15
Leg press calf raises (X Reps) 3 x 15, 12, 10
Superset
Standing calf raises (X Reps) 1 x 12-20
Hack-machine calf raises (X Reps) 1 x 9-12Workout 3: Back, Biceps, Forearms, Abs
Pulldowns (X Reps) 3 x 9, 7, 5
Superset
Parallel-grip chins (X Reps) 1 x 10-12
Rope rows (X Reps) 1 x 8-10
Dumbbell pullovers (X Reps) 1 x 10-12
Bent-over rows 3 x 9, 7
Superset
Machine rows (X Reps) 1 x 10-12
Shoulder-width-grip cable rows (X Reps) 1 x 7-9
Dumbbell curls 2 x 9, 7
Cable curls (drop) 1 x 10(6)
Rockers (drop) 1 x 17(9)
Hanging kneeups (X Reps) 2 x 15, 12
Incline kneeups 1 x 8-10
Superset
Ab Bench crunches (X Reps) 1 x 12-15
Full-range twisting crunches 1 x 9-12Note: Every Friday add a drop set of seated calf raises to the end of the workout to train the soleus muscles.
IRON MAN Training & Research Center Home-Gym Program 125
Monday, Workout 1
Squats 2 x 7-9
Leg extensions 1 x 7-9
Stiff-legged deadlifts 1 x 7-9
Leg curls 1 x 7-9
Bench presses 2 x 7-9
Dumbbell flyes 1 x 7-9
Incline dumbbell presses 2 x 7-9
Chins 2 x 7-9
Bent-over rows 2 x 7-9
Behind-the-neck presses 2 x 7-9
Dumbbell upright rows 2 x 7-9Wednesday, Workout 2
Deadlifts 2 x 7-9
Standing calf raises 2 x 12-18
Barbell curls 2 x 7-9
Lying extensions 2 x 7-9
Wrist curls 1 x 12-18
Hammer curls 1 x 7-9
Incline kneeups 2 x 7-9
Crunches 2 x 12-18Friday, Workout 3
Squats 2 x 7-9
Leg extensions 1 x 7-9
Leg curls 1 x 7-9
Seated calf raises 2 x 12-18
Bench presses 2 x 7-9
Dumbbell flyes 1 x 7-9
Incline dumbbell presses 2 x 7-9
Chins 2 x 7-9
Bent-over rows 2 x 7-9
Behind-the-neck presses 2 x 7-9
Dumbbell upright rows 2 x 7-9This is a version of phase 1 of the original Size Surge program. For the exact version Jonathan used in the 1990s, see the e-book The X-traordinary Size Surge Workout, available at www.SizeSurgeWorkout.com.
Note: If you don’t have a leg extension machine, do old-style hacks, nonlock style. Use partner resistance, towel around the ankles, if you don’t have a leg curl machine.
source:www.ironmanmagazine.com
