Bodybuilding and Physique Enhancement Maximized with Zone Training™!

The results that I have experienced are nothing short of breathtaking... I have to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming! Consider that I am still on a calorie deficit diet and have somehow managed to add 3/4 of an inch to my cold upper arm measurement as a result! My upper arms, when I initially switched to the method, were exactly 18-inches cold and would go up to a 18 5/16ths when pumped after a set of biceps curls and one set of hammer curls. They are now 18 3/4 cold and balloon up to 19 1/4 inches after a set of biceps curls and a set of hammer curls. The only difference being that I perform them JReps™ fashion. - Gareth Coombes

Forget Creatine and 'Cell Volumizers', JReps™/Zone Training™ is the the best volumizer I've ever tried. For something that appears so simple on the surface, the results are astounding. I gradually fine tuned my JReps™ implementation over the last few weeks (after a lot of detailing) and I've hit the target! - Robert Morrison

I must say that my shoulders felt more pumped and destroyed than they ever have. - Josh Ryan

Your first JReps™ book is excellent. It takes HIT training to new heights. Thanks for the innovation. - Steve Turner

For all the pain JReps™ put me through... holy crap... my triceps are still pumped and I finished my workout an hour ago. I am very excited to work my back next workout but I am not looking forward to the pain of a leg workout... ;-) Thanks again for the great info, the JReps™ book was awesome. - Adrian Schilling

I'm now currently 249lbs, But I've dropped 6 lbs of body fat from 255lbs. I've now been dieting for 2.5 weeks and everyone is telling me I am looking a lot leaner and bigger. You have to keep your ego outside the gym when using j-reps and perfect technique/form. But I just wanted to mess around on incline bench for kicks to see how much stronger I've gotten. Well, I warmed up with 225lbs and did it for an EXTREMELY EASY 12 reps for warming up. Some guy couldn't believe I was warming up with 225lbs again this is just a warm up and I just wanted to see how this felt. I then proceeded to drop the weight back down to 185lbs and do the JReps™ Extreme Thirds.... I did the bottom zone for 10 contractions, and the middle zone for 9 contractions, and by the time I got to the top zone, my chest was so pumped and my triceps where so fatigued, that I was only able to achieve 5 reps in the top zone. And then I did my back with JReps™™, and my lats, traps, and biceps were exploding out of my XXL underarmor shirt. - Farris Baba

If we are to believe Arthur Jones' advice to look for ways to make exercise harder and briefer then this is definitely harder and brief. - Richard Chartrand

No doubt JReps™ is the best of the best since my career in training. Everyone is saying I am becoming a monster... day by day same comments from people at the gym, at home, at work, everywhere, and I see the results. I arrived finally at 18-inches arm with JReps™™ and everyone is asking if I'm on drugs, but I'm not. They don't believe. it I must thank you for letting me know about JReps™. Old traditional lifting is finished. - Shakeel

JReps™ has really increased my overall physique and has brought up a lot of weak points. - John D'Ambrosio

Since I have been using JReps™ for the past 5 weeks, I can honestly say that this style of lifting is like a breath of fresh air. I no longer dread working out like I did with Heavy Duty and HD Consolidation training. By using much less weight and focusing on the breathing and muscle contraction techniques, my joints are starting to feel better and the muscle pumps are awesome. I'm already noticing better shape starting to take place, most particularly in the outer pecs and biceps. I don't feel drained like I did trying to lift heavier and heavier weights to failure (HD style), and so I can say that everything you wrote about in your book is proving to be factual. Right now I'm enjoying the process of trying
the different JReps™ protocols with various exercises, along with experimenting on frequency and volume. Excellent work on all of the research you have done, and thank you for FINALLY convincing me that trying to lift heavier weights for a few exercises and employing long rest periods (HD Consolidation) does not provide the best stimulus for muscular growth and development for natural bodybuilding. - Jim Ellcessor

I am so excited about your new method I am buying one for my buddy for his birthday. I have gained 3-4 pounds and showed very visual differences on my body to a degree that my wife even made positive comments as to my physique. She is a physician and has a very keen eye, and I didn't tell her that I have been experimenting with a new method of training. She noticed the difference after one or two workouts! BTW, I experienced zero hypertrophy w/ SS, only 'strength' gains and joint pain. You have again renewed my excitement with physical development. I am definitely switching from super - slow to JReps™. - Rick Yeung

I still can't believe how efficient a single set of JReps™ can be, how much inroad and fatigue I feel after it - and how little I can sometimes handle. Also, the days after effects are still there..fuller and harder all the time. Simply put, great job. I look forward to experimenting further. - Adam Reid

I have one thing to say about JReps™: Unbelievable! As I fine tune my workouts and select exercises I favor, and set rep goals, the execution of these reps leaves my muscles destroyed, full and dense for several days after the session. During the set, the muscle fills with fluid as I perform very controlled contractions... and as fatigue sets in, I move to the next segment. Then about three reps into that zone I feel a warm rush spreading across the muscle, and more fluid screaming into my cells. This is a feeling I have never felt before with all my years of quality training. I am still fine tuning my sets, and finding myself more eager then ever to return for further experimentation. I predict that JReps™ will make traditional full-range training a thing of the past. Unbelievable. - Stephen Downes

JReps™ are amazing. I thought I had some intense workouts in the past - not until, but I did a full run of JReps™. The book was a very good read - and even better putting theory to practical application. - Chuck Rainey

I just finished my chest and triceps workout. WOW! I can't straighten my arms and it's all your fault! Thanks! I feel like this concept is a true breakthrough. Thanks again for this amazing concept! - Craig Huntington

All I did was 1 set of JReps™ squats and I am cursing
every time I climb the stairs. - Marlin Koch

I am really excited about being in the gym again and I know I am going to see great progress. Plus, I am using a much lighter weight than I was using for a full range full body workout, and so I know this is going to be much better on my 48 year old joints. - Peter D'Cruz

I deem it is one of the most exciting prospects I have come across in a long, long time. One that pans out in both theory and application! I believe as people experience and see the changes that will occur through the use of JReps™, most will move away from full ROM training. I know for myself breaking exercises into segments is much more exciting as I can then focus on a range without fear of having to stop just because of the sticking point. This is a literal gold mine for advanced trainees! There is so much scope to experiment with, to keep the theory alive and exciting!!! The incredible pumps help to support the psychological aspect... the
'rush and fix' of every hardcore bodybuilder out there. I want to commend you for thinking this thing out as thoroughly and efficiently as you have. This is unique, moving well beyond what us advanced trainees have done in the past, which mentally and physically is refreshing and exhilarating. - Kevin Dye

 

The Trouble with Math By Brian D. Johnston How do you measure training progress? Most people focus on numbers. I made the same mistake. Understand that some degree of math is required, and more specifically, tracking your data by means of reps, sets, load, tension time, and frequency. However, in all those numbers there is a missing element, of which I'll be speaking about shortly. In the meantime, here is a general rundown of what is wrong with measuring workout productivity by focusing on the numbers, and that also includes those into 'total tonnage' and other similar protocols. 1. The body is a machine; however, it is a dynamic machine that is not always predictable. To expect the body and its highly subjective and altering brain/mind/conscious/subconscious to fit into a specific set of numbers during a workout is irrational. Training must adjust to the moment and while in the moment. 2. Relative to the first point, what we want to happen prior to training (days prior, a day prior, or hours prior) does not always happen during a workout, or may not be apropos. In some instances goals may be too lofty, and at other times we could have exceeded what we thought we could, if only we did not focus on the numbers and set benchmarks beforehand. 3. When making training very fixed, such as wanting to lift 'x' weight for 'y' reps in the 'z' exercise, several things happen: One, we become complacent in what we expect of ourselves, as alluded to in point 2. Second, exercise no longer is an exciting challenge and discovery of what our bodies can do, but a stressful experience, since we place it in our minds that if we don't achieve a certain number of reps, sets or tension time, the workout was a failure, and we won't improve. It then becomes near-impossible to shake the anxiety associated with a workout, and we then dislike exercise, but do it anyway out of habit and fear of losing what gains we did produce over several years of self-inflicted torture. Third, we discard the importance and effect of 'feel,' which element serves far greater purpose and supports what training productivity is about than the numbers. As I frequently state, it is how you use the weight, and not how much weight is used. Now, in regard to the final statement in point 3, this is where we separate the weight lifter mentality from that of the physical culturist (although those whose training depends on how much is lifted still should pay heed). This is where we separate the thinking person from the automaton who needs numbers to tell him or her what to do. Let's keep this simple. Have you ever had a workout whereby everything just clicked; everything just felt right, in regard to how the mind and muscles connected, your emotional state, the quality of contraction of the muscles, etc.? You were in that groove... you entered the zone... the workout was about as perfect as it could have been... you desired for your training to be like that always and you rarely did capture it again, saving and excepting the odd workout here and there. If you've been exercising long enough, you definitely did experience that training euphoria... that synergy of mind and body. The interesting thing is that it happened a lot more in the beginning, when you experimented, were excited about exercise, did not really know what you were doing, but focused as much on the feel and how you lifted than how much was lifted. Eventually the ego took over, and it no longer was about getting inside the muscles and feeling your way around in a workout, but wanting that 200-pound bench press, and then 250, and then 300... or whatever the 'number' goal happened to be. And if you are like me, or as I used to be, your physique did not correspond with the weights being lifted. You were becoming progressively stronger (more adept at lifting within the same biomechanical patterns/exercises), but you were not improving physically, or perhaps looking worse, which indicates a fourth problem in relying on math for workout productivity. In this regard, I'm well aware of many trainees out in cyber-world who claim they are even bigger and more powerful looking, but you can't flex fat. It is amazing how many 'big lifters' claim to be bodybuilders who are well above 15% body fat, with nary an ab in site. But they get around this by convincing themselves that they are as interested in 'strength' and train for strength, with their physiques being a side issue or benefit to the training. Whatever. Unless they are competing in powerlifting or Olympic weightlifting, and appearance is of little concern, I don't believe them. They would love to be as big as they are, but lean. However, they fear dropping the lard since it will expose how little muscle they truly have from all that heavy exercise based on the math. And then you have the genetic anomaly who does lift heavy and is quite muscular, but a person who is built for such training who then convinces many others that that is how to train. After all, if you can squat 500 pounds for several reps, then you're going to have large legs, but few of us ever will be able to squat such subjective loads, yet are capable of developing muscular legs under an approach that does not focus on the numbers. Obviously this article and these factors were discussed to entice the reader to enter the 'zone.' It took me about 25 years to realize that my training during my initial few years were more productive and on the mark then it was a decade ago, when I fell into the trap of the numbers game. It became an issue of bracing my body to move a heavy load rather than thinking about what muscles I was working, how they felt, my ability to isolate them, and how I could make an exercise feel more productive or challenging without, necessarily, increasing the load. And then there is the other issue of overall strategy, of how I thought about my training, the mental mind-set, and in forcing muscular change by creating unique challenges that were over and above 'add more weight.' Heck, the muscles were used to 'more weight,' and particularly the meager few pounds that an advanced trainee can add at any one time, thus making 'more weight' very typical and expected ­ a lack of stimulus to force or induce more change ­ an irritation as opposed to an agitation. (Keep in mind that I am well aware that the load is an important issue, in that a heavier load will stimulate more muscle fibers. However, as the body coordinates and adapts, it works more efficiently in handling heavier loads. Therefore, when performing biceps curls, for example, a progressively heavier load does not mean the biceps are working against more resistance, but that the body as a whole is doing so ­ greater tension and contraction in the shoulders, upper back, legs, etc. Therefore, more weight stimulating more fibers to produce more hypertrophy is only true within a certain context. When working in zones, and while forcefully relaxing the non-targeted muscles as much as possible, there is far greater concentration of training with the select muscles. And, as a consequence, when you do increase the load, and you can feel when this is necessary with the JReps™ method, it is a far more accurate indicator that the targeted muscles are taking a brunt of the added work.) It was the implementation of Zone Training™ that made a marked difference in my physical changes, even at age 41 after nearly three decades of very intense exercise. But mine is not a unique experience; thousands of others are experiencing the same thing, and for good reason: Zone Training™ is not a fixed, rigid, or dogmatic protocol, of how much weight to use, how many sets to perform, how frequently to exercise, etc. It is method of exercise performance that deals with the breaking down of an exercise's ROM to make any exercise more productive and effective (in fewer sets), and all the while offering a myriad of potential combinations, alterations, and variations in which to attack any particular exercise. In effect, it relies on its user (you!) to experiment and discover how best to make an exercise more challenging by tweaking the nuances of an exercise's force curve relative to your individual muscle's strength curve. In this regard, it is the epitome of agitation, of creating the most challenge from the least, and without specific regard to how much weight is used, but how you use the weight! And earlier I stated that those who do focus on strength should pay heed. As stated in another article on this site, there is irony in using JReps™, in that with many (but not all) exercises less weight is used when training in zones than when training with traditional full ROM. You can use more weight full ROM because of the bracing and greater full body integration in moving loads in such a manner. But simply try to use those same loads when training in zones, and it becomes apparent that there is something at play to enable you to use those loads full ROM ­ an indicator that you are not as strong as you think you are, but have coordinated the body like an adept furniture mover. In any case, every person of whom I am aware, including those who contact me with their training progress, have noted far superior strength changes from Zone Training™ when they return or try full ROM reps. And this occurs for reasons already spelled out on this site, that the greater concentration and inroad throughout the entire ROM by way of working within individual zones have a profound bearing on what is possible with full ROM. After a month or two of squatting in zones, and when you return to regular full squats, the latter will feel far easier. This occurs simply because you developed greater tolerance in the 'harder' zones and got so strong in the bottom range, where you worked the exercise for 15-30 consecutive seconds without reprieve. Moreover, full ROM reps feel so barren and lacking in stimulation that proper application of JReps™ (as outlined in our learning materials and on this site) will have you yearning and eager to work in zones as a mainstay in training.

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