More Frequent Muscle Hits

Q: I’m using 4X, TORQ and Super TORQ exclusively—no heavy training. I’ve already added about six pounds of new muscle in a few months. My question is, Can I train each muscle more frequently than every four days? It seems that with moderate poundages, each muscle would recover more quickly and I could train it more often so it would grow even faster. Should I try it?

A: Try it. Whether it works well will depend on your recovery ability, and your age may also have a bearing.

Consider this: New research has discovered that the older we get, the more we have muscle inflammation derailing muscle growth. (Merritt, E.K., et al. (2013). Heightened muscle inflammation susceptibility may impair regenerative capacity in aging humans. J App Physiol. Published online May 16.)

So the more trauma you inflict at your workouts as you get older, the harder it is for you to recover and grow. That may also be the case for hardgainers—they are more susceptible to inflammation, resulting in slow-to-no growth.

Here’s the researchers’ conclusion in that study:

“We show for the first time that human aging is associated with muscle inflammation susceptibility (MuIS, i.e., higher basal state of pro-inflammatory signaling) that is present in both tissue and isolated myogenic cells and likely contributes to the impaired regenerative capacity of skeletal muscle in the older population.”

By using lighter poundages, as with 4X, and/or more repetitions per set, as in our TORQ and Mr. America Doug Brignole’s Super TORQ, you reduce the trauma and increase your capacity for growth.

With TORQ and Super TORQ you also get a variety of tension times. TORQ stands for tension-overload repetition quantity. Our version is 30, 20, 15 reps, with 40 seconds between sets. We use multiple exercises per muscle with TORQ.

Brignole, on the other hand, uses only one key exercise per muscle, but his reps are 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, with drop sets on the last one. With either of those you get the high-end tension times that so many bodybuilders miss—60 to 90 seconds per set. And with either of those you may be able to get away with training each muscle every two or three days.

Brignole hits each muscle once every four or five days—but he is over 50 years old.

In a recent interview he said, “It’s truly amazing how good a workout one can get with only five sets and one exercise. I’m growing like a weed. Awesome pump.”

So, yes, you may be able to train each muscle sooner than Doug does—if you’re younger and you have good recovery ability. For us old guys, we get to suffer through TORQ less often. Hey, at least there’s one good thing about getting old.

Just remember, it takes experimentation for maximum mass creation.

Note: Brignole’s interview and complete workout are found in the e-book The Power-Density Mass Workout 2.0, available at www.X-Workouts.com.

—Steve Holman

 

Editor’s note: For more on moderate-weight growth-threshold 4X mass training, see The 4X Mass Workout 2.0, an e-book, available at X-Workouts.com. For e-books on X Reps, fat-loss nutriton and bodypart specialization, visit the X-Shop at X-Rep.com.