X Adaptation

Copyright by Oliver Wolter All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any manner whatsoever- electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any system of storing and retrieving information- without permission from the publisher. (except for brief quotations embodied in reviews)
X-Adaptation (http://www.x-size.com/)
Content
Training Introduction....................................................... 7 The reality at the gym....................................................... 9 Volume training .............................................................. 12 HIT Basis ......................................................................... 14 HIT background ............................................................. 16 HIT or volume which is the right one?....................... 18 Looking for the truth ...................................................... 20 Evaluation of the experiences......................................... 23 Muscle fibres the construction .................................... 25 Muscle fibres the operation......................................... 27 Muscle fibres sciences position .................................. 28 Single tests ....................................................................... 29 Repetitions ....................................................................... 30 Hypertrophy .................................................................... 32 The conversion into volume and HIT............................ 33 Composition of the jigsaw puzzle .................................. 35 Super compensation........................................................ 38 Application of the super-compensation model ............. 40 Diet ................................................................................... 43 X-Adaptation a breakthrough ................................... 46 How does it look like in practice? .................................. 47 X-Adaptation test ............................................................ 49 X-Adaptation training .................................................... 51 The future of training ..................................................... 56
Dear Friend, the reason why I wrote this book was that I want to help you building up muscle mass fast. But I am going further than giving you a few simple workout plans that put on some mass. I will deliver you some inside Information in this book to let you understand the Cohesions. I released this book a while ago in German language and this is the second edition. With this book and the related training plans I produced some really outstanding results. Some people gained up to 24 pounds of muscle mass in 6 short weeks. And you might be the next success story. In the following I will primarily look at bodybuilding. Maybe youll ask yourself: Why bodybuilding? I do Fitness, just want to have a good shape. Not gigantic muscle masses. Its quite simple Fitness Sports arose from Bodybuilding. Bodybuilding always was an exotic kind of sport. Movies heroes like Schwarzenegger or Stallone made it popular. The Fitness Sports developed from this. Fitness mostly is a popular sport and more useful for marketing and so on. More useful than bodybuilding. But real: every fitness athlete is a bodybuilder, too. The one and only difference are the goals. Bodybuilders want to have a body as big as possible and extremely low body-fat levels. X-Adaptation (http://www.x-size.com/) 4
Fitness athletes generally want to have a good trained body with some muscles to be healthy and to look good. The basics are the same. The difference is: how far do you want to go? This is your decision. Today there is much confusion about bodybuilding: how do you have to train to get optimal muscle development? Besides innumerable techniques of intensity, two opposite training philosophies developed. The so-called volume training and HIT. If you dont know these two training philosophies dont be afraid I will explain them to you at a later point in this book. Partly the advocates of both fractions are very stubborn in their opinion. Unfortunately, because of this a lot of knowledge is lost in the discussion. Both systems can be learned from, instead of dissing the other. The disciples of HIT training criticise volume training because of the unsatisfactory scientific background and the bad long-term effectiveness. The disciples of volume criticise HIT training because its no fun. They also plead HIT can not be the only correct training system because they have had good successes with volume training, too. In addition a lot of professional bodybuilders do volume training. X-Adaptation (http://www.x-size.com/) 5
In turn, HIT disciples reply they get much further in a natural way, without any doping. Which training technique is the right one? Regarding to natural athletes, HIT definitely leads the race. Main reason: the relaxation element is taken into account. The aspect of growing muscle mass while relaxing is absolutely essential. Very often this is ignored during volume training. But is this aspect that important? Can you only take this aspect of relaxation into consideration? No! But with a little more focus on relaxation, volume training would work a lot better. Confused?! Please dont stop reading this book, your anxiety will be gone real soon. At the end you will see how you can reach the maximum of muscle growth and fat burning with X-ADAPTATION within the shortest time.
Training Introduction
During my 19 years personal experienced training story I had a lot of training partners. I also knew a lot of people and their training style. Some people reach an excellent muscle increase, some not. Some do increase their body weight by 44 lbs others only by 4 lbs. Merely a question of their genetic potential? No! Genetic factors surely play a leading role, but they are extremely overestimated. It became a simple excuse for coaches. Not everybody can become Mr. Olympia like Schwarzenegger once was, but everybody can build up an excellent muscular body. Often people get the hard-gainer stamp only because their muscle increase doesnt explode immediately. Its no exception that people whose muscle increase is slower, are very ambitious because they finally want to grow as well. Thats because others say, people with slow gains totally exaggerate their training and thats the problem. Often the muscle gains are greater after a reduction of the training volume. If they train consequently according to HIT, they will primarily become better in strength performance. X-Adaptation (http://www.x-size.com/) 7
But theyll never reach the muscle gains of genetic gifted people. Primarily there is too little muscle mass. But which training concept can change this? As I very much enjoy experimenting I tried different training systems. Sometimes it was like: the crazier the concept, the more probable I will try it! Some concepts work excellent for a certain time, others do not work at all. I had experience with phases of stagnation, also with extreme phases of growing. But where is the key to keep this phase of growing? And how can everybody reach it? To explain this, I have to take a swing in the following chapters because knowledge is useless without a solid foundation . Only he who completely understands a concept is able to use it in a sensible way.. I promise you, you wont regret it. If you understand the emergence of muscle increase, your muscle increase will explode.
The reality at the gym

If you take a look around at a gym today this is the situation: there are only a few people who are very muscular. Some others are very skinny and have problems to build up muscles. All the others are in between these two categories. Especially at the hardcore gyms there are a lot of people using steroids. A lot of them want to become just like the gyms elite, just as massive. Unfortunately that doesnt really work, even if they use the same steroids. For this reason, they take more and more steroids but it doesnt really help. Once again a question of genetics? If you are talking about genetics in its classical meaning, its impossible. A lot of the more muscular men belong to the mesomorph body type, who should reach the best results. But they dont reach the same results like the gyms elite The gyms elite often cannot help in that case. They have been taking their steroids for a long time, and it simply worked for them. Through their personal training experience they have a lot of good tips. But these tips dont work for the people who want to gain more muscle mass. The key must be hidden in the training but where? There are a lot of sub-categories between the no-doping people. X-Adaptation 9 (http://www.x-size.com/)
Basically you can make a distinction between people who have build up good muscle mass and people who would like to have this muscle mass. Often those who have problems gaining muscle mass have a big collection of books and magazines. They hope to find the decisive tricks here. But they wont find any solutions here, the loads of information they will find inside the magazines might even scare them! There are new published super programs they partially try. Some work, some dont. Occasionally their goals will be reached. The additional tips to optimise their food or to test a new supplement doesnt really work. They take supplements that worked great for others, but they will only get a minor effect. The search goes on, they read about two very opposite topics HIT and volume. Most magazines primarily publish volume training. But sooner or later they stumble over HIT Training which should be the solution for hardgainers. Thats why they try HIT. It looked simple, but turned out to be a rock-hard training.
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The results at the beginning seem to be promising. The training units are terribly tough. It is a fact that predefined things are very hard to realize sometimes. And they have learned that they have to give the maximum to stimulate muscle growth. It seems to be the key to success in training, but this training is so hard and full of frustrations. Its no fun anymore. Some have success, others quit completely and some return to their conventional training style. Is HIT really the key to success? Does a good training have to be so hard and frustrating? I can tell you something right now Now there is a system which surpasses all others and its fun. A program which makes you look forward to the next training with continuing success. In the now following chapter I will further discuss both training theories. Maybe you think you know everything about them, but you really should read this. You will see how simple everything can be, when you understand the coherency.
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Volume training
The word volume training didnt always exist. It was created by HIT disciples to separate their training style from others. Volume training is the original bodybuildings training system. Volume training assumes you have to train one muscle for as many repetitions until it is totally exhausted, to get muscle increase. The pump effect is the indicator for a good training. The more the muscle is pumped up, the more effective your training was. Thats why innumerable techniques of intensity were invented to strengthen this theory. In volume training you try to reach a maximum adaptation through muscle training as often as possible. The individual recommendations arent very clear here. Some coaches recommend up to 3 training units a day seven days a week. Others say this is too much, they call it Over-training. When you are over-trained, your muscle cannot adapt anymore. If you go too far the muscle might even shrink. X-Adaptation 12 (http://www.x-size.com/)
Over-training is the biggest problem in volume training. Nobody can say exactly when over-training occurs. As a consequence there are too many training plans. Everybody recommends a different training plan or exercise as well. Only one thing is common: nobody can explain why their technique is the right one. Sometimes you could assume, set numbers like 3-5 or 7 had something magic because they are used a lot in training plans. Because of the big confusion resulting from this, the opinion of most of the readers is: everything works!. Frequent switching is the true key to success here.
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HIT Basis
HITs basis is that a short high-intensive workout is enough to stimulate muscle growth. This is the reason for the idea that one set per exercise is enough. Muscles grow while resting not while training. Its one of the highest principles: there must be more relaxing- than training days. Nobody pays attention to the pump effect. It must be seen as a simple heaping up of lactate (milk acid) inside the muscle, not as an indicator for muscle increase. Maybe this could be a mistake? Is it possible so much volume disciples are wrong? Please read on. HIT is very rationalized. Its not about the feeling during the training, its about the result. A training unit should primarily be productive. Besides that it should be fun. You try to give your best in every set to get the maximum out of your training. Because you can reach your maximum just once, its reduced to one set per exercise. Some coaches recommend more than one set for each exercise, but its the same problem like in volume training. Nobody can really explain why. X-Adaptation (http://www.x-size.com/) 14
In the HIT theory , repeated sets are useless, they merely reduce your bodys ability to regenerate. But is one set really enough? Has there ever been any proof of this? And how much sets would be enough?
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HIT background
HIT = High Intensity Training. The basic idea comes from Arthur Jones, the inventor of nautilus machines (the worlds first training machines). The HIT idea was coincidental. He developed HIT further and started some interesting experiments when he had the financial background. In the beginning of the 70s professional bodybuilders like Mike Mentzer or Casey Viator where coached by Arthur Jones. Jones brought some athletes to an unbelievable shape in the shortest time. The specialist publications was something else; the results led back to other facts. After selling the nautilus company Arthur Jones seemed to have no more interest in bodybuilding. Almost no one talked about HIT anymore. The only one who continued was Mike Mentzer. He represented the thesis, one set is enough for every exercise. HIT woke up again at the beginning of the 90s with the rise of Dorian Yates. Immediately, Yates reached second place at the Mr. Olympia contest, in the following year he became Mr. Olympia. X-Adaptation 16 (http://www.x-size.com/)
Yates had unbelievable mass, it looked like he wanted to sweep every other athlete from the stage. Of course, everybody was curious what his training was like. Big surprise only four days a week, 45 minutes per workout with the HIT system. For a lot of his competitors this was a shock. Most of them trained many hours a day. Because of Yates successes, Mike Mentzer was interesting for the publishing industry again. They started to publish articles about Yates and Mentzer. However, big questions had popped up about Yates success. Mentzer published a lot of articles and two books based on his heavy duty system which arose from HIT. The HIT wave came slowly. For a lot of people Mentzers books were the single source and the books were full of philosophy and didnt contain of much workout plans. So some didnt understand the important details tried HIT by simply using the plans failed and gave up. But it couldnt be stopped anymore. More and more authors wrote new books about HIT, it grew and became more and more famous.
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HIT or volume which is the right one?

You could fill books with these quarrels and their corresponding arguments. I just want to proceed with the following . At this time HIT is reborn: its a new hype. You can see one or more articles about it in any fitness or bodybuilding magazines. Some times its not named HIT, but if a training plan contains of three or less short workouts per week, it is HIT. There are no doped athletes who have greater successes with HIT than with classical volume training.
What is correct with HIT, is that one short and intensive contraction is enough to stimulate muscle growth. Further the resting aspect is very important. A muscle only grows in the resting phase, never while training. In volume training the relaxation factor is the limiting element: you start training too soon, so that the muscle cannot get enough rest to grow. The progress of growth will diminish at first and eventually in the long term stagnate. This is the reason why HIT was the hot tip for people who stagnated after years of volume training. X-Adaptation (http://www.x-size.com/) 18
But you should not forget the volume disciples experiences. Their experiences are not scientifically proven but they shouldnt be set aside too easily either.. Is one set really enough? Does a short workout really stimulate maximum muscle growth? If HIT is minimalistic and volume training is maximalistic training:, which one holds the truth?
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Looking for the truth

To find the truth you have to look at some successes without prejudice. Very extra ordinary experiences and observations are important here. I will tell a little story. Its about a friend of mine who accompanied me to training for years, but we didnt do the complete training plan together. Ill call him Stephan. Stephan started bodybuilding a few years ago. He decided to build up the same muscles as Schwarzenegger, as he was a big fan of his movies. In the beginning he was a really thin guy. He never did a lot of sports, and on top of that he was very tall and lean. He wasnt very self-disciplined, nor did he follow a sensible diet. His basic training points were his arms, chest and shoulders. He started training his chest muscles and arms with great dedication, but the most important thing for him was the pump effect. He loved it when his chest muscles and arms were filled with blood.
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He trained these muscle groups endlessly for innumerable sets. Training back and legs was annoying: therefore they were only trained occasionally. Real effort was horrible: he never wanted to workout with me because it was to much hard work. He began eating a lot and get a little punch. No one expected he would develop gigantic chest muscles and impressive arms with his time and persistence. But the opposite was the truth: He build up some really huge chest muscles and two 17,7 inch. arms. But of course he had conspicuous thin legs, he could compete with every top-model. But his chest was unbeatable, even some of the hardcore steroid users in this gym didnt have such a chest. His 17.7 inch. arms blasted out of his shirt, but his thighs were under 21.6 inch. Interesting: he never developed strength. It was too exhausting for him to reach his maximum. But he loved the pump effect. I can assure you he never used steroids. We were very close friends, and he always consulted me in these kind of decisions. On top of that he was too afraid of these kind of experiments. X-Adaptation (http://www.x-size.com/) 21
Another interesting case was that of a very good friend of mine as well. Ill call him Giorgios. Giorgios was very interested in building up a nice body as fast as possible. He was very ambitious and used to be a very good soccer player when he was younger. The story happened a long time ago. Giorgios and I had been training together for a few weeks when we began an short high intensity program. He nearly doubled his one rep maximum for squats within 8 weeks. We both increased our strength dramatically, especially in the lower body. We both got strong, but the muscle growth was in no relation to the strength growth. These are just two examples I have chosen. I dont want to bother you any further. In the now following chapter I am going to evaluate these experiences. But please read on, its going to be thrilling.
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Evaluation of the experiences

There are many stories just like the ones I told. But these two have something very interesting. The genetic factor cant be the decisive point: maybe on the professional level, but never on the average level. Why is that? Because Stephan is just one of many examples you never expected to get such muscle increase. But what can you learn? The one and only real interesting question is: how can I reach a maximal reaction of all my muscle groups? Stephan built up gigantic chest muscles and arms with his endless training, but his strength stagnated because of a lack of ambition. How was he able to reach that? And why did Giorgios and I develop so much strength but didnt get the muscle gains we expected? It seems like there is nothing like a direct relation between muscle gains and getting stronger. X-Adaptation (http://www.x-size.com/) 23
Only an intensive study of the muscle fibres can answer this question. How do they work and how can you train them to reach the maximum of hypertrophy? This knowledge will give you an advantage over the others at your gym.
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Muscle fibres the construction

There are two types of muscle fibres: 1. slow twitch fibres These muscle fibres are slow and have so-called endurance power. Because of this the body uses these muscle fibres in sports where an activity takes place over a longer period. These muscles work aerobic. That means, oxygen is used to generate power. 2. fast twitch fibres These muscle fibres are fast twitching, they dont have endurance power. They can build up a big tension: therefore these muscles are primarily used in strength training. They work an-aerobic and can be used for a maximum of 2 minutes. Which kind of fibres you have the most in your body is determined genetically. Endurance power athletes have a lot of (up to 80%) slow twitch fibres strength training athletes have more fast twitch fibres. This is the real genetic difference. But it is not as extreme as you might think. You can divide fast twitch fibres into subgroups. From type 1 and type 2, different genetic compositions are possible. X-Adaptation (http://www.x-size.com/) 25
Type 2A: fast twitching and moderately tiring. Type 2B: very fast twitching and fast tiring. Type 2X: a mixture of both types. Type 2B is the kind of muscle fibre which can develop the highest strength because of its specialization. Unfortunately they get tired very fast. As a conclusion : genetics tell you what you should focus on. What about your fibre composition? Do you have so many fibres of type1 that you could compete with the worlds elite?
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Muscle fibres the operation

Muscle fibres work with the all or nothing principle. Either a muscle fibres contracts, or it doesnt. Muscle fibres can only contract with full strength. Its the type of muscle fibres which makes the difference. The order of activation of muscle fibres is pre-defined. At first fibres type 1 are consulted. If the tension is insufficient, type 2A is consulted. If the maximum tension is not enough anymore, type 2X is consulted. Type 2B will be consulted at the end for ultimate support. Scheme (order of activation): 1 -> 2A -> 2X -> 2B
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Muscle fibres sciences position

Unfortunately there is not very much to read about this topic, although over the last couple of years there has been some research regarding the biological basis of muscle increase. Remember the chapter muscle fibres the construction? I wrote about the genetic pre-determination there. What science knows is, muscle fibres can change their type. Its not only a genetic pre-determined thing. I will try to explain it: Increased activity -> Transformation fibres of type 2 to type 1
Reduced activity -> Transformation fibres of type 1 to type 2
Of course this happens step by step.
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Single tests
Because of the order of activation, one thing is clear: a maximum test will activate the most muscle fibres simultaneously. Does this mean, that only one repetition with maximum strength is the best way to build up muscle mass? Logical answer: NO! You never use all your muscle fibres simultaneously. If you would, you would be unable to move after a maximum test. In a single repetition however, you learn your body to activate as much muscle fibres as possible simultaneously! A karateka who wants to break a brick with the side of his hand, needs no gigantic muscles. He needs 100% concentration to bring his hand to a maximum speed. This requires a special training of the internal muscle coordination. Maybe this is nothing new for you. But this is one more important piece of puzzle to understand the overall picture.
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Repetitions
If you do several repetitions of one exercise, less muscle fibres are activated simultaneously than with a maximum test. Your body always spares a part of its muscle fibres. Maximum test or repetitions a part of the fibres is kept as a back-up. Every time a muscle fibre is tired, its work will be done by a relaxing one. The tired fibres relax while the others do their work. As soon as one fibre is totally regenerated, it will be used again. This goes on, until there arent enough relaxed muscle fibres available simultaneously to do the necessary strength output. At this time no strict repetition is possible. The set comes to an end. The underlined sentences emphasis is in simultaneous. Some muscle fibres take a rest, but they arent sufficient to do the necessary effort. According to scientific examinations 30% of your muscle fibres are tired at the end of one set.
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Now its the state of your mind/will that is important. Most of the time its possible to do one more repetition. And this is the repetition the HIT disciples aim at, its the most effective one because it creates an overload. Your body adapts as if it has been overloaded. I know its a lot of information you are getting right now, but please read on as there are still a few jigsaw pieces left...
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Hypertrophy
Hypertrophy means muscle increase. To specify: type 2 muscle fibres become thicker. To reach a maximum of hypertrophy you have to tire as many muscle fibres as possible. Because of a strong fatigue of all of your muscle fibres your body is in distress. Your body has to react here because it always builds a back-up. The reaction is a growth impulse, sent from the brain to the muscles. The more muscle fibres you tire simultaneously, the more you stimulate muscle growth. The emphasis here is on simultaneously. At first the 2B -> 2X -> 2A fibres get tired to finally tire the type 1 fibres. How is this basic knowledge converted into HIT and volume training? The answer follows in the next chapter.
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The conversion into volume and HIT

Neither HIT nor volume are specified enough to trigger a maximum fatigue. I will now discuss both techniques one after the other: Volume training Here you try to tire the separate muscle fibres with permanent recurring sets. You can do it time and time again because your muscle fibres can relax in every break you do, before all of the type 2 fibres, become totally exhausted. Because of the exhaustion of more and more muscle fibres, lactation occurs along with the pump effect. This pump effect however has little to do with the effects of your training. In fact its interesting: the more muscle fibres you use, the bigger your pump effect. Ill tell something more about this in the following chapter. I want to remind you of the Stephan example. Stephan reached a gigantic chest and very good arms with endless sets. His aim was the pump effect. Unconsciously he tried to tire as much muscle fibres as possible in each training unit.
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HIT A completely different aim is pursued here. Your goal is to tire the muscle fibres type 2 with one set. During the last possible repetition, the muscle fibres are tired to the maximum. This kind of training brings muscle increase through a maximum exhaustion of muscle fibres in a restrictive number of repetitions. This is also a weakness of the HIT training system. Because of the loading of a restricted numbers of muscle fibres you can also only stimulate a restricted muscle increase. Strength grows rapidly, but the corresponding muscle increase fails to appear.
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Composition of the jigsaw puzzle

To trigger a maximum muscle increase you have to train the maximum of muscle fibres with a maximum of intensity. What does that mean in coherence with real training? At the beginning of each training career you make good progresses with every kind of training method. Endurance power athletes who worked a lot with their legs can develop them very fast and nice . Other body parts do not develop like they want them to, no matter how they train them. How come? Although their legs arent really big, they become muscular much faster than the rest of their body. The answer is easy, maybe you already know it.. Because of the permanent leg-load they activate a lot of muscle fibres. During the exercises they could stimulate more of them. Now I am going to have a look at the pump effect.
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Its no immediate indicator for the intensity but it says a lot of how much muscle fibres you have activated in the corresponding muscle. Everyone who gets in touch with volume training, will admit that no matter how hard you train a hard growing muscle , you will never get the pump effect. Other muscles can be pumped up very strong: their development goes easy. Muscles have a kind of regeneration memory: if they learned to activate as much muscle fibers as possible they can remind that any time. An optimal training activates as many muscle fibres as possible. But which training is the right one? Volume training is good for activating many muscle fibres. But its far from effective. Between the sets the muscle fibres get enough rest to relax. So its hard to activate new muscle fibres that werent in the game before. But the main problem is the relaxation factor. Because of the many sets, there is a need for longer rest periods. This results in a good muscle gain at the beginning of a training career that comes to a phase of stagnation after a while. In turn, HIT doesn't use enough fibres when performed in its classical style. X-Adaptation (http://www.x-size.com/) 36
Its possible to increase your strength dramatically, but your muscle increase isnt optimal because you use each and every time the same muscle fibres. Only occasionally new muscle fibres come into the game. Relaxation is very important: just as important as the simultaneous activation of as many muscle fibres as possible. Thats why I want to discuss the relaxation factor in the next two chapters.
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Super compensation
Relaxation phases have to be adapted exactly to your body. After a complete relaxation your performance ability increases and you are ready for muscle increase. Of course the relaxation phases shouldnt be too long. In sports science there is the super compensation model to illustrate this:
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The blue line is the line of your performance ability. The dark red curve is the performance curve. While training, the performance ability goes below the blue line. When you do your training before this phase has ended you get a drop in performance (red curve). This is called over training. In connection to the relaxation phase follows the phase of super-compensation. Here the performance ability grows high above the base line. If you do your training during this phase, your performance ability increases (green line). After the super-compensation phase the performance ability slowly returns to the base line. In the following chapter I am going to show you how simple this knowledge is to convert and how you are able to increase your performance continuously.
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Application of the super-compensation model

To apply this model seems to be much more complicated as it is. When choosing the optimal time to do the next training, you simply use the trial-and-error method. One of the basic things you need is a training plan: without a scheme, notes and diary you cant keep track of your progress. At first you have to relax your body for a day. At the next training you will see if your performance ability became better. To make this decision in bodybuilding is very easy: just watch your reps and weights. If both factors increase, your body is in the supercompensation phase. On the other hand, if the performance stagnates, even diminishes, the relaxation phase isnt complete. Before you do your next training unit you take two days off. Then check your training again. If there is an increase, you nevertheless take three days off before you do your next training. This is important to check if the supercompensation phase maybe is complete yet. You do this until your performance doesnt increase a lot anymore. Afterwards you know exactly how many days of relaxation your body needs to adapt. X-Adaptation 40 (http://www.x-size.com/)
All these things sound very theoretical and I want to illustrate it with an example. Ill use just one exercise, the bench press. The repetition speed is standardized at 5 seconds. Training day 1 (July 1st, 2000) bench press 4 * 240 lbs 1 relaxation day Training day 2 (July 3rd, 2000) bench press 4* 240 lbs (stagnation) 2 relaxation days Training day 3 (July 6th, 2000) bench press 5*240 lbs (performance increase-one repetition) 3 relaxation days Training day 4 (July 10th, 2000) bench press 7*240 lbs (performance increase-three repetitions) 4 relaxation days Training day 5 (July 15th, 2000) bench press 6*240 lbs (performance increase-one repetition)
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Therefore the optimal relaxation time is 3 days. After 3 days of relaxation you get the best performance increase. You can see: the application is really easy. Unfortunately the super compensation model is unpardonably and frequently ignored. If you apply it correctly, you will get continuing success.
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Diet
Diet is an important factor to build up muscles as well. Unfortunately there is a lot of confusion and chaos. To build up muscles you have to take in fewer calories than you use. If you consume less calories, you may have a only a very small muscle increase, perhaps even a loss of muscle. Of course you could take vast amounts of calories to be sure to build up muscle mass optimally. Unfortunately each surplus of calories is transformed into fat. One pound of bodyfat contains 3500 calories. If you take 1100 calories more a day than your body would need, you will have a fat increase of 2lbs per week. If you do this over a longer period, you cant see your muscles anymore because of the big layer of fat on top of them. The calories you need are easy to calculate. There are recommendations by the German diet institute by which you can easily calculate your exact needs of calories. However, there is some confusion about it, thats why I want to introduce my own formula: it calculates the basic need of an average adult.
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Formula One: Bodyweight *12 + Job activity very easy job (student, reading etc.) + 20% easy (secretary, driver etc.) + 30% heavy (harbour work, sports instructor etc.)+ 75 % very heavy (construction worker, furniture packer) + 100 % = Sum + 10% Impact (digestion loss) Example: a student, weight 150 lbs 150 * 12 = 1800 + 1,20 * 1800 = 2160 1,10 * 2160 = 2376 calories This formula represents the basic calorie needs to keep his weight exactly the same. To build up optimal muscles there has to be a calorie + 1 lb of muscles contains approximate 660 calories. If you start with a muscle increase of 3 lbs a week you calculate a calorie-need per week of 1980 calories, 283 per day. To make sure this calorie plus is enough, I recommend 3000 calories. In this example an athlete who has a bodyweight of 150 lbs must take 2376 calories per day. X-Adaptation (http://www.x-size.com/) 44
Some scientists wouldnt like such a short cut formula, but it is a good way to start from or do you want to waste half of your life getting an ideal formula for you? With this formula you calculate the theoretic basic needs. To optimise it I recommend to calculate it in an exact manner, as in the super-compensation. Its so easy: check your body fat once a week. Does it increase: reduce your calories by a 100 daily. Does your bodyfat level decrease or stay the same: increase your calories by a 100 daily. If you do this consequent every week you are always inside the optimal area for muscle increase without fat increase. In the next chapter we finally come to the X-Adaptation training.
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X-Adaptation a breakthrough
Over the past chapters I already discussed supercompensation and diet. These are two cornerstones of each muscle increase program or at least-they should be! Very often they are not taken into account or simply ignored. Super compensation is more important here than diet. If you dont eat optimally you will not reach a good muscle increase, but stagnate or even lose muscle. If you dont take enough relaxation time its going to harm you. In most cases youll over-train and at best-stagnate. What is it that makes X-Adaptation training special? What makes it unusual is the simultaneous attention for maximum growth and optimal relaxation. At this point X-Adaptation training is light-years ahead of conventional training methods With X-Adaptation you activate as much muscle fibres as possible and simultaneously tire them out as well. The result is gigantic.
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How does it look like in practice?

This cannot be generalised! There are different training phases. But let me explain with an example. At first you do a so-called initialisation set. In this initialisation set muscle fibres are loaded in a time period of 120 seconds. At the end of this 120 seconds your muscles begin to burn inside. This burning results from an overload of your muscles. You are using new and up till now unused muscle fibres at that moment. Following the initialisation set is a maximum set which tires your muscles with maximum intensity. The result is an enormous pump effect after. Everything an athletes has experienced till now is nothing compared to this. This is merely the heaping up of lactate as described earlier, but it shows that a lot of fibres were used. The whole training contains 6 sets maximum. Doing more than these 6 sets would delay the relaxation phase. Do not underestimate these 6 sets: they are really tough! What is important however: this kind of training is fun.
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Not only the long-term successes are good, which are visible after every training unit, but the pump effect is also really satisfying. To document the medium-term muscle build-up however, I have carried out a test with four persons which is described in the next chapter. You will be surprised about the results.
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X-Adaptation test
A theory without any practical test isnt truthful . Therefore I did a test which took 4 weeks (28 days) with 4 test subjects. They were on their highest level they ever reached: this means that the muscle mass they gained was new, and not merely the build-up of previously lost muscle-tissue. The persons did not take any supplement or anything.
Person 1 Start weight End weight Difference 174.6 lbs 190.7 lbs +16.1 lbs Person 2 206.5 lbs 220.7 lbs +14.2 lbs 17.0 Person 3 164.9 lbs 176.1 lbs +11.2 lbs 15.1 Person 4 187.6 lbs 204.6 lbs +17.0 lbs 16.1
Upper arm size 15.6 (Start) Upper arm size 16.5 (End)
18.1
16.0
17.5
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Upper Difference
arm + 0.9
+ 1.1
+ 0.9
+ 1.4
Body fat share 12.3% (Start) Body fat share 12.2% (End)
13.1%
8.2%
9.1%
13.1%
8.0%
9.2%
The average muscle increase therefore was about 13.9 lbs within four weeks. The upper arm size increased about 1.1 average. An average of 11 training units was carried out within these 28 days.
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X-Adaptation training
So - let's get started...
Explanation: Part One of the X-Adaptation Training Plan

Each workout begins with a "setup set". Used as a warm-up set, it prepares your muscle fibers for maximum growth. The "setup set" lasts 2 minutes. The motion during this "setup set" is nearly static - you're barely moving. The positive portion of the rep lasts 60 seconds. Once you reach the point of maximum contraction, the negative portion begins, lasting 60 seconds. You must always begin with the positive part of the motion. (On pushing movements like bench presses - the positive part is always the pushing part of the motion. On pulling movements like pulldowns - the positive part is always the pulling part of the motion). Make sure you use the appropriate weight for this setup set. I recommend starting with 50% of your one rep maximum weight for this specific exercise. For example, if you are able to bench press 200 pounds once, the optimum weight for the "setup set" would be 100 pounds. Dear Reader - don't get confused if you don't understand this the first time. Later on, I'll show you a sample workout that is easy to understand - so keep reading. X-Adaptation 51 (http://www.x-size.com/)
Immediately after the "setup set" you will perform a "maximum set". You should use a weight that you would "normally" use for 6-8 repetitions of the specific exercise. Without resting, immediately start the "minimum set". The weight for the "minimum set" is the weight for the "maximum set" minus 30%. For example if you are using 100 pounds for the "maximum set" - you should use 70 pounds for the minimum set. During the last rep of the "minimum set" you should perform a "static contraction" hold the weight at the fully contracted position for 15 seconds.
Training Plan: Part One Seated Cable Rows (setup set) Pull Downs (maximum set) Pull Downs (minimum set) Barbell Preacher Curls (maximum set) Barbell Preacher Curls (minimum set) 5 minutes pause Bench Press (setup set) Pec Deck (aka Butterflies) (maximum set) Pec Deck (minimum set) Pulley Pushdowns (maximum set) Pulley Pushdowns (minimum set)
X-Adaptation (http://www.x-size.com/) 52
Now, I'll start with a sample workout. Read it thoroughly and you'll easily understand how it works. Imagine this is your workout. If you can't use these weights today, don't worry. With X-Size you'll gain strength fast, so expect to be able to use these weights very soon.
Sample Workout Seated Cable Rows (setup set)

I start with the first setup set. My one rep max is 340 lbs, so I'll use 170 lbs. Slowly I start pulling the weight. Like slow motion - it looks like I'm not even moving. After 60 seconds, the grip touches my stomach . Now I start to let the weight back down - the whole way to the stack - very slowly. Ninety seconds have passed since the set begun and my back muscles burn like hell - 30 seconds left. The set is over - I am getting a huge pump. No time to lose...I start immediately with the next exercise
Pull Downs (maximum set)

I take my normal training weight of 290 lbs. I start doing the reps. My lats feel like they're spreading apart. Seven reps is all I can manage to do this time. Now I'll drop the weight.
Pull Downs (minimum set)

How much is 290 lbs - 30%? Man - I should have calculated the weights before training. I'll use 205 pounds. Eight reps is all I can do. But wait - there is the static phase - I hope I will survive. I hold the bar against my stomach X-Adaptation (http://www.x-size.com/) 53
for 15 seconds before putting the weight back down to the stack.
Barbell Preacher Curls (maximum set)

No rest - that's almost killing me. I will use 180 lbs. Wow my biceps look huge this time. Six reps is all I can handle.
Barbell Preacher Curls (minimum set)

Next time I will really calculate the weights before starting the workout. Let's see - 125 pounds seems to be the right weight. Seven reps - not to bad - but the 15 second contraction - okay - I will give it my best.
5 minutes pause
The first break since starting. Only 10 minutes have passed since starting this workout - but I feel like the workout has lasted hours. My biceps and my lats look unbelievably huge.
Bench Press (setup set)

Now I feel much better. Let's start bench pressing. 360 lbs is my one rep maximum - so I will use 180 lbs. I have to start with the positive phase. So, first I bring the barbell down to my chest and then start pushing up slowly. The 60 seconds seem so long. It works fine. Now the negative phase. I lower the weight in slow motion. Thirty seconds to go - no this isn't nice - 15 seconds left - I don't know if I can hold this another second. Well I'm done - but no time to rest. I have to go over to the next exercise X-Adaptation (http://www.x-size.com/) 54
Pec Deck (aka Butterflies) (maximum set)

I never believed my pecs could look this big. I will use 210 pounds. Wow - 9 reps - that's quite good. But no time to rest - I drop the weight and start the next set.
Pec Deck (minimum set)

150 pounds should work. My chest burns, but it is a good feeling. 5 reps - more isn't possible. Oh man - I almost forget about the 15 seconds to hold at peak contraction.
Pulley Pushdowns (maximum set)

170 lbs - a good weight. My triceps are already pumped up. Hey - only 6 reps - I'm really happy that I'm at the last set.
Pulley Pushdowns (minimum set)

I will use 120 pounds. Feels really light. But wait - only the 4th rep and my triceps burn like hell. Two more reps and I am finished. 15 seconds to hold the weight - That's all. Now I am finished. I can't believe what the mirror reflects is that really me??? I've never discovered a pump like this before.I never looked like this - and it only took me slightly over 20 minutes. It's time for a high carbohydrate drink. It feels like my muscles have already started growing. This is your first workout. Once you complete this workout, you will have two days of rest. You'll receive the next part of the training plan automatically via Email. If you did not subscribe to email course send an blank Email to ebook@x-size.com. X-Adaptation (http://www.x-size.com/) 55
The future of training

I got very much feedback when I released the first edition of this book in German. There were endless questions, for example about special plans for different body parts or a whole year training schedule. Especially the whole year training schedule is a complicated task. You cannot workout the whole year round with workout plans like described before and expect to make linear progress. The human body doesnt work like this or else nobody would have problems to gain muscle mass. There is not such a thing like a single silver bullet, that solves all your problems. Its all about doing the right things at the right time. And now I come to the problem that all workout programs have in common. They only work for specific people at a specific time. So if you ever wondered why some workout plan seems to work fine for one of your friends and with the same plan you couldnt gain a single pound of muscle mass now you know why. The training plan was exactly what your friend needed, but it was not designed for you. But it comes even more worse. Probably the workout plan works for you, but only for a few weeks. Did this ever happen to you? X-Adaptation (http://www.x-size.com/) 56
If not you are a lucky man but what was your reason for reading this book? You should already have your dream body and it was a childs game for you! In fact everyone has the same problems when it comes to gaining muscle mass. One has more problems one has less problems but nobody goes to the gym and leaves it after a few months of training with his dream body. Probably you have seen some fancy success stories before, where people claim they have gained an enormous amount of muscle mass in a short period of time. Why did that happen? They tried out for years to gain muscle mass and found out something that worked for them like crazy. But if it worked for THEM, that doesnt mean it will work for YOU. Again its the same problem. Shortcut solutions like body type training or hardgainer training dont work for real. Its not that simple. You must collect data of all your body reactions to specific workouts and you are on your way to find the perfect workout plan that works just for YOU. The workout plan that probably puts on 60lbs of muscle mass on your body within the next 12 months. But how to find this perfect training plan just for you? X-Adaptation (http://www.x-size.com/) 57
Well you may have heard of some professionals, that it will take endless years to have the dream body you always wanted. They are completely right in some way it takes several years to get out what works for your body and what doesnt work. Its not that your body would need years of training. You will need several years of experience. Developing your dream body needs between 6 and 24 months of time but to learn what your body really needs and all the background knowledge needs several years. In fact I took me 13 years of learning before I got the breakthrough in knowledge to develop the muscle mass I always wanted. After this it took only 5 months till I reached my aim. But again, I could give you this 5 months program, but you couldnt expect that it would work the same way for you. You will need your own program, not mine. And this was my problem, when I wanted to give away my experience about training 6 years ago. Less than 10% of all people reacted the same way like I did to my 5 month program. The 3 week cycle you will get with my training course works for over 90% of all people but the 5 month cycle only works for less than 10% of all people. But this is not my way to go! X-Adaptation (http://www.x-size.com/) 58
So I collected all data of 406 personal training clients within 5 years. I always tracked all of their data to develop the perfect training plan just for them. At first I tried to make an universal plan for the whole year. But the problem about this was the individual needs. For some people it worked, for some people it didnt work. I analysed the workout schedules of the people who had problems and let them do some tests. After this the success rate was some way over 90% which is extraordinary. But my time is limited and I could only help a small fraction of the people who needed some adjustments. At this time an idea came up in my mind. I wanted to develop a computer software that could do this task for me. When I started to develop this software in the beginning of 2000 it looked like an easy task. But the more I developed, the more questions came up. So I involved two friends that are software developers like me and we started a large project. After one year of development the software was completed in spring 2001. In the meanwhile I put together a team of 16 people who test drive new training plans. The first release of this software was a success, we got very much positive feedback. X-Adaptation (http://www.x-size.com/)
59
But I am not the kind of person who is satisfied if something works good I know I always can do it better. So we overworked the software and refined the training schedules with the experiences of the test group. This time we developed a German and an English version. With the long term experiences of the first users we can say we have made it better than we first expected. The results of some users are outstanding. So if you are interested to progress on a permanent basis, I would suggest that you check out our software at http://www.x-size.com/. Its not all the same like the XAdaptation training plans youll get, because there are many different cycles. There are more cycles with less work which I would call active recuperation cycles. These cycles can really skyrocket your strength while you body gets the rest for the next mass cycle. Yours sincerely, Oliver Wolter (Translated by Stefan van Heester, lawyer at the Bar of Antwerp, Belgium) P.S. Feel free to give this book to your friends. They can send a blank Email to ebook@x-size.com and will receive this book within a few minutes.
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The reality at the gym

HIT or volume which is the right one?

Looking for the truth

Evaluation of the experiences

Muscle fibres the construction

Muscle fibres the operation

Muscle fibres sciences position

Reduced activity -> Transformation fibres of type 1 to type 2

Of course this happens step by step.

The conversion into volume and HIT

Composition of the jigsaw puzzle

Application of the super-compensation model

How does it look like in practice?

Explanation: Part One of the X-Adaptation Training Plan

Sample Workout Seated Cable Rows (setup set)

Pull Downs (maximum set)

Pull Downs (minimum set)

Barbell Preacher Curls (maximum set)

Barbell Preacher Curls (minimum set)

Bench Press (setup set)

Pec Deck (aka Butterflies) (maximum set)

Pec Deck (minimum set)

Pulley Pushdowns (maximum set)

Pulley Pushdowns (minimum set)

The future of training

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