X3 FAQ: Do I really only need to do one set?

Full Transcript #

So question we receive, Why do you only have to do one set?

Well the answer is you don’t have to do one set. There are some people who do two sets, or I suppose three.

However I wanna caution everyone, that you are going to a much deeper level of fatigue with the X3 than with any other type of resistance.

So fatiguing in the strong range, with a weight that you wouldn’t normally handle—So when I’m doing chest presses, let’s say I’m holding 250 or 350 pounds (depending on what band), right here. And I may hit that 15 times, and I may hit that 15 times. Well that’s a kind of force going through my upper body, that would not otherwise happen. So, then of course, the medium range I’m going to fatigue in, and then the weaker range, so, the stimulus is very profound.

How extra sets affect recovery and adaptation #

And doing an extra set, is really creating in roads in your recovery, and not really giving you extra stimulus. Because ultimately, if you show the central nervous system that there is a deficit, anything that you’re trying to do with the human body to create an adaptation—whether its growing muscle, making your lungs stronger, if you’re a runner, whatever—you wanna show the central nervous system that you don’t have enough of something to contain you with what you’re trying to do.

So the central nervous system is brilliant in that it will make changes based on your environment.

But you have to make sure you understand the environmental forces, and make the environmental forces make the central nervous system see what you want it to do.

So, for example, people who lock out at the top of the bench press—it’s like, “Turn the pectorals on, turn the triceps on, turn off, turn back on, turn em' off.” So, you don’t wanna do that. Because its confusing signals in the central nervous system, and you won’t get that great of an adapter response> You won’t gain as fast. Or maybe even at all.

One set is enough #

So, one set. One set is just such a deeper level of fatigue, that you don’t really have to worry about doing two. Now some people, maybe the people who are more pre-disposed to slow twitch muscle fiber, people who have been better at like, distance running for example, they may—this a theory—they may be better off doing two sets, if they don’t feel absolute fatigue, out of the one set. But for myself and for most of the athletes that I’ve worked with, and regular people, one set is enough and they absolutely grow from that.