The bodybuilding champs of yesteryear used to swear by
high-rep sets for burning bodyfat. For example, they’d do up to
20 reps on leg extensions, believing that they were etching cuts
into their thighs. These days we know that spot reducing is
impossible, so the high-rep strategy was and is completely
wrong for getting ripped. Or is it?
As new studies indicate, lack of blood flow to an area on your
b o d y, such as your thighs or midsection, can hamper fat loss
there. So high reps may help. It’s kind of a round-about spot-
reduc tion str ate gy—or at least a more targeted fat-loss-
acceleration technique. From that perspective, high reps have
X-treme Lean potential. But there’s more...
Research shows that muscle burn induces growth hormone
s u rges. And growth hormone is notorious for firing up fat-
b u rning. Do high reps make a muscle burn? You bet they do!
(Try a 20-rep set of leg extensions and tell us you don’t feel the
fires of hell racing through your quads.)
So maybe those legendary bodybuilders weren’t wrong after
all. While they may not have realized the exact mechanisms at
work, they did instinctively employ some high-rep sets when it
was time to get lean—using some lower-rep sets as well—and
in the process ramped up GH and blood flow.
We know how important GH and blood flow are to the fat-
b u rning process—you’ve read about both throughout this
book—and that’s why we use a number of techniques in the
gym to maximize both. Those methods include drop sets,
supersets, tri-sets, high reps and X Reps.
If you’ve read our e-book The Ultimate Mass Wo r k o u t, you
know what each of those are, and you’ve seen how we use
them. For those who haven’t, here’s a brief description:
Drop sets:Do a set to failure, reduce the poundage and
then immediately do another set to failure. You can use
one, two or three weight reductions, depending on your
goals and pain threshold (just remember that the fires of
hell can help you burn more fat; you’ll feel them here).
Supersets:Do a set to failure of one exercise, then move