December 16, 2022

X3 FAQ: Why only one set? How long should I rest between X3 bar exercises?

All the principles we teach are practiced in the ideal X3 workout set. Variable resistance comes first, which is ensured when using an X3 bar, followed by maintaining constant tension (not letting up at the bottom of a movement or locking out at the top), and finally reducing the range of motion when tiredness sets in.

Full Transcript

The reason we only do one set is that the stimulus you get with X3 is far 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 a medical device called OsteoStrong and that’s all over the world now, helping hundreds of thousands of people build bone density.

The interesting thing about bones is the one loading cycle, one episode of force going through the radius and the ulna will trigger an osteogenic response, and we 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 how many sets did you do in the sun today, to get your sun tan. That’s nonsense, no one would ask that question because we don’t do sets. So why do we do sets with weightlifting?

We do sets because the stimulus is garbage. It is very weak, we hardly get anything out of it. You have to do it over and over again to get everything, and you compound joint damage when you do that.

Why is X3 not going to trigger any damage but also going to give a superior muscular stimulus and response in that one experience?

The obvious principle is variable resistance, and 16 studies confirm variable resistance will grow muscle faster and not irritate joints, 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 creating load 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 the capacity is. I’m also keeping constant tension. So never letting slack come into the band.

When somebody ever says, “Oh, the band keeps slipping as I’m doing these exercises,” well the band is slipping because you’re letting the tension off and you’re using the device incorrectly.

You got to keep the constant tension. Bodybuilders have been using constant tension 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 that constant tension principle and never let off.

From a central nervous system standpoint, when people lift and lock out at the top, that’s great for a weightlifting competition because that’s how they determine if you’ve completed the lift, but in reality, you’re turning the muscle 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 do that. The other thing we do in the protocol is diminishing range. So, the first repetitions 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, I can’t do that anymore.

My last few repetitions might only be an inch or two and that provides a complete stimulus of the muscle, a complete evacuation of the ATP glycogenic creatine phosphate, and a complete fatigue of myofibril structure within the cell.

You’re stimulating both types of growth to the maximum degree in every experience. Now, when the set is over, yes, you are exhausted.

You’ll also notice that as you grow much larger muscles, which happens very quickly with X3, the larger the muscles become, the more exhausted you’ll be because a larger muscle has a greater blood demand.

With one set, we accomplish more than multiple sets with regular weight training. That’s why we do one set.

When you’re done with your set, we get the question very frequently, “How long do 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 an incredibly powerful stimulus, but once you catch your breath and your breathing rate goes back to normal, which says your heart rate has gone back to normal, go ahead and do your next set.

With X3, you train with greater force to trigger Greater Gains

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