Bigger Arms In One Week

Q: I read that an [X-centric Mass Workout] user reported a full half-inch gain in arm mass after only one week. Muscles can’t grow that fast. Sounds like B.S. to me.

A: Not B.S. at all. It’s completely possible and did happen, as that X-Rep trainee reported. X-centric-style training, which emphasizes the negative, or lowering, stroke, triggers much more muscle trauma than standard sets—and the excess trauma can result in inflammation.

Inflammation isn’t muscle fiber hypertrophy per se, but it will make your arms—or any bodypart for that matter—appear larger because they are. It’s due to swelling from fluid that assists with healing and recovery from the X-centric fiber trauma. The point is that the muscle is swollen to larger-than-normal proportions.

The inflammation will subside, but as you continue to use and adapt to X-centric training, your body will generate significant increases in fiber size to protect itself from further traumatic assaults. So solid muscle growth does eventually occur.

In the e-book X-centric Mass Workout Jonathan Lawson and I discuss how Arthur Jones, the creator of Nautilus machines and the father of high-intensity training, added a full inch to his arms in only two weeks with negative-style workouts—and he was almost 60 years old at the time. X-centric training works—for quick, temporary size gains at first that eventually return as impressive solid mass results.

Editor’s note: Steve Holman is the author of many bodybuilding best-sellers and the creator of Positions-of-Flexion muscle training. For information on the POF videos and Size Surge programs at www.Home-Gym.com. Also visit www.X-Rep.com for information on X-Rep and 3D POF methods and e-books.  IM