All the principles we teach are practiced in the ideal X3workout set. Variable resistance comes first, which isensured when using an X3 bar, followed by maintaining constant tension (notletting up at the bottom of a movement or locking out at the top), and finallyreducing the range of motion when tiredness sets in.
The reason we only do one set is that the stimulus you get with X3 isfar more powerful than what you get with regular weight training and in nature,stimulus and adaptive responses of the body, it’s usually one stimulus.
Some of you know my background: bone density medical devices. I created amedical device called OsteoStrong and that’s all over the world now, helpinghundreds of thousands of people build bone density.
The interesting thing about bones is the one loading cycle, one episode of forcegoing through the radius and the ulna will trigger an osteogenic response, andwe can see this through blood analysis.
Within a few minutes after an osteogenic experience, the biochemistry changes,and bone is being built, and that is how all adaptations happen.
When you build a callus on your hand, when you get a sun tan, nobody says howmany sets did you do in the sun today, to get your sun tan. That’s nonsense, noone would ask that question because we don’t do sets. So why do we do sets withweightlifting?
We do sets because the stimulus is garbage. It is very weak, we hardly getanything out of it. You have to do it over and over again to get everything, andyou compound joint damage when you do that.
Why is X3 not going to trigger any damage but also going togive a superior muscular stimulus and response in that one experience?
The obvious principle is variable resistance, and 16studies confirm variable resistance will grow muscle faster and not irritatejoints, if at all.
Here are the principles of variable resistance. When I’m doing a chest press,540 pounds here, 300 pounds here, and a hundred pounds here, it’s a very steep,variant curve.
Now, that is what my biomechanics are. I have much more capacity for creatingload here than I do here and so much more than when I’m here.
When I go through that experience, I’m fatiguing the muscle, by what thecapacity is. I’m also keeping constant tension. So never letting slack come intothe band.
When somebody ever says, “Oh, the band keeps slipping as I’m doing theseexercises,” well the band is slipping because you’re letting the tension off andyou’re using the device incorrectly.
You got to keep the constant tension. Bodybuilders have been using constanttension for a long time just to make sure the fatigue is profound in the muscle.Of course, it’s more profound with variable resistance, but we also apply thatconstant tension principle and never let off.
From a central nervous system standpoint, when people lift and lock out at thetop, that’s great for a weightlifting competition because that’s how theydetermine if you’ve completed the lift, but in reality, you’re turning themuscle on, and off. It’s a confusing stimulus, so no growth happens.
When you’re using X3, or you’re trying to grow, don’t dothat. The other thing we do in the protocol is diminishing range. So, the firstrepetitions go here. Not to lock out, but to about right here, short of lockout.And their full range repetitions until I can’t get to that powerful position,the strongest range. My range shortens, and I go half repetitions. And then, Ican’t do that anymore.
My last few repetitions might only be an inch or two and that provides acomplete stimulus of the muscle, a complete evacuation of the ATP glycogeniccreatine phosphate, and a complete fatigue of myofibril structure within thecell.
You’re stimulating both types of growth to the maximum degree in everyexperience. Now, when the set is over, yes, you are exhausted.
You’ll also notice that as you grow much larger muscles, which happens veryquickly with X3, the larger the muscles become, the moreexhausted you’ll be because a larger muscle has a greater blood demand.
With one set, we accomplish more than multiple sets with regular weighttraining. That’s why we do one set.
When you’re done with your set, we get the question very frequently, “How longdo you rest for?” It’s just until you catch your breath.
That might be a little longer than what you’re used to because this is anincredibly powerful stimulus, but once you catch your breath and your breathingrate goes back to normal, which says your heart rate has gone back to normal, goahead and do your next set.
