Here at BurnTech.TV, we specialise in fitness technology. As a result we get sent all sorts of gear to review – from heart rate monitors right the way through to books. I’m no big book reader and in truth we normally ignore the PR companies peddling books, but this one looked really unique and frankly very ‘fresh’ in its focus. Being a big lifter, I thought I would take a dive into it. Entitled Muscle Revolution: Loaded stretching, HyperPlasia & 334% faster muscle gains: Uncovering the scientific secrets behind the “greatest muscle gains ever recorded in any animal or human training system”
So on Friday we got sent “Muscle Building Revolution: loaded stretches, hyperplasia and 334% faster muscle gains” as part of a press release. On the surface it sounded like another overly dramatic book – the muscle-building and health sector sure has enough of those – but it was actually a fascinating read. So much so, we did actually feel compelled to help drive exposure for it.
Authored by Eric Blackburn, the book is almost the anti-bodybuilding (term used lightly here to cover anybody who is trying to build more muscle and look better as opposed to having to be a ‘meat head’) program.
Lets consider the ‘standard advice’ when it comes to building muscle. We’re considered to break the body down into small sections (like ‘chest’ and ‘biceps’). We’re encouraged to train these bodyparts somewhere in the vicinity of once every 4-7 days. We’re encouraged to blast these bodyparts with multiple exercises and plenty of sets in order to hit the fibers from all angles. We then have to force feed ourselves a high protein diet, preferably with multiple feeding windows throughout the day.
So this is where Eric Blackburn – whose quickly becoming a prominent high-end trainer out of London – is rapidly emerging as the anti-bodybuilding trainer of celebrities, athletes and other folks looking to specifically build muscle. He places much less focus on diet, he encourages a super-high frequency trainer approach where muscle groups are hit many times a week. He introduces a unqiue and revolutionary way of tracking progress (ensuring you ‘do more’ every workout, virtually guaranteeing that you stimulate growth). But more than all of that, he doesn;t actually build his training modality around lifting weights at all. Instead he encourages you to utilise a radical – and scientifically backed – stretching protocol.
So firstly, the diet, or the lack of it. This book places very little emphasis on diet. Not because the author takes no interest in bodybuilding diets (he actually has a number of books in market covering this specifically) but seemingly because the focus of this book is entirely on the novelty of this training method. So the book is not pushing supplements or tonnes of protein. You train each muscle with huge frequency (5 times a week verses your typical ‘Monday chest, Tuesday back etc). You use a formula to measure how long you hit each muscle for. You grow based on science and real world training.
But more than all of that, the focus isn’t even of lifting!
That’s right, you don’t lift weights, you instead stretch against them with a series of over 30 “loaded stretches”. The result is one of the most painful, unusual and yet deeply stimulating sets that you ever could do. The results though are truly startling.
Loaded stretches are not new. They have been secretly used by some of the biggest bodybuilders ever, including Arnold, Tom Platz and Ronnie Coleman – the biggest bodybuilder of all time.
All incorporated stretch overload, whether pulsing in the stretch position or outright stretch holds. Take a look at Tom Platz’s legs below. This guy was in am era with markedly less drugs than the bodybuilders of today use, yet he can lay claim to having built the most muscular legs of all time. Who knew that Tom Platz would religiously stretch his legs, using both traditional static stretches and also his own ‘loaded stretch’, where he would sit in the bottom of a squat and stretch against the heavy load?
Now, I’m not saying we want to look like that, but the point is that his special stretch focussed training style was having a profound impact on his leg mass. Replicating this can get us mere mortals to our goals many times faster than we ever otherwise could.
Stretch overload training is not just limited to a select few bodybuilding icons. There’s also the mainstream training program’s which have used elements of stretch overload with huge successes.
Training program’s ranging from IFBB pro BenPak’s MI40x through to DC training and FST7 all incorporate stretching, and these are amongst the most potent and time-tested workout systems out there. All of this points to a hidden but seriously potent growth tool. Yet remarkably, very few people have ever heard of it, let alone use it. If you walk into a commercial gym, or even a more hardcore ‘lifting gym’, how many people do you see using weights to progressively stretch their muscle?
Yet those that do, SWEAR by these stretches and their brutal and rapid effectiveness. They’re credited with changing the shape of muscles (lengthening them), adding size quickly, adding density, making muscles firmer, aiding recovery and building strength. Quite the claims, yet you only have to perform one of these stretches to just know it’s in a different ball game. Post set, you know you have triggered some real growth.
Where the Muscle Revolution system is unique is in the way that the author has built the whole training modality around loaded stretching. The book features the simple but genius “SOS” progression tool. This lets you work out the progressive overload point, meaning that all you have to do is beat your old score to be virtually guaranteed growth. This is a simple and also very effective way to actually measure progressive overload. Its much more effective than measuring how many reps you got with a certain weight, because that system can be gamed (the impact of shortening rep distances under increasingly heavy loads is very hard to measure with just reps and weight – how many times do you see somebody’s leg press start to only move a few inches as the weights get huge?)
Finally, the other value in this book is that you get the stretching exercise guide. The author has gone to town providing expert execution tips to really hit the sweet spot. Whilst there’s only 30 odd stretches (I can see a more comprehensive follow-up book with more stretches coming at some point), there is plenty to go at.
So in conclusion, this book is a great mix of science and the real world. It’s the most in- depth and unique look at bodybuilding and how you train to grow that I’ve seen. At the time of writing, this book is priced at $4.99/£3.00, and it’s a bargain. You can read more about it, including user reviews, on Amazon – click here Muscle Revolution: Loaded stretching, HyperPlasia & 334% faster muscle gains: Uncovering the scientific secrets behind the “greatest muscle gains ever recorded in any animal or human training system”