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What to Expect From Your First Protocol
By PJ Glassey, CSCS
In your first 7 weeks you will be doing the “7
Second” protocol. This method targets a specific energy
system and muscle fiber type. It will develop strength
as well as coordination. During this first phase your
muscles will improve their “innervation”, meaning the
nerves telling your muscles to contract are becoming
healthier and more efficient. This makes you stronger
without a significant increase in muscle fiber size[i].
During this phase women may begin to feel more toned
and tight and men may notice some improvement in muscle
definition, shape and form. Muscle innervation must
happen first and hypertrophy (fiber size increase) can
then follow. The hypertrophy stage won’t begin until the
innervation phase has run its course, usually in about 8
weeks for men and 10 weeks for women[ii].
X Gym clients will fall somewhere within a
Bell-shaped curve for improvement rates. A few will be
all the way to the right side of the curve and may see
visible results after their first four sessions! The
other minority on the opposite side of the curve will
have to wait two months or more before seeing changes.
If you’re in this “slow changers” group, you’ll
become impatient around the 4th or 5th week and pretty
frustrated that no visible results are happening. This
is quite understandable because you’ve been working hard
and would like a return for your efforts, but just hang
in there and wait your body out. It will give in
eventually and when it does, it all pays off. You can
also move yourself out of that group over time by
improving your metabolism as your muscle tissue changes.
The majority fall within the middle portion of the
curve and begin to see minor changes within their first
card (7 weeks), and even more marked results during
their second card and protocol. Progress is constant and
within about 8 months goals are often achieved.
Regardless of which group you are in, the results you
will experience will be at least double those of
conventional training.
Results differ from person to person so don’t compare
yourself to someone else. You may have a friend who is
at the right of the curve. You however, may be on the
left of the curve. It is all based on your hormone
levels, protein uptake ability, genetics, body
composition, resistance to change, and personal and
family history.
It’s the little things you will notice first like the
groceries feel lighter when you pick them up, or walking
up the stairs is easier than before. Enjoy this progress
and focus on these small changes. They can be expected
during your first 7 weeks as muscle innervation runs its
course. Next, you will notice that your legs, arms and
rear feels tighter and things “jiggle” less. You may
even begin to see some size changes if you are a man.
If you are a woman, don’t worry about “bulking up”.
Just as men don’t have the hormones to becoming
pregnant, women don’t have the hormones to bulk up[iii].
Some women can, but it takes a lot more training and a
regular steroid cocktail to do it.
Every woman who has ever come to us feeling as though
they were “bulking up” was also dealing with a weight
issue. They mistakenly assumed their clothes were
getting tighter because of muscle increase, when in
fact, it was due to a redistribution of their weight as
their body changed. Women who gain weight at the X Gym
are doing so because their food intake is increasing
(whether it be conscious or not) along with the activity
increase.
If you are a man, you are capable of adding
considerable muscle mass to your frame. The hormone
testosterone is your key to that. If bulking is your
goal, we have a special plan for you to achieve it
without drugs or elaborate supplementation. Just ask us
for details.
Another benefit X Gym members get from the program is
both fine and gross motor skill development. You will
notice sports become easier and your coordination
improves. Your pain tolerance will also increase
allowing you to endure longer with tasks and sports you
previously found too unpleasant.
Consistency is the key that unlocks the results,
proper nutrition opens the door, and cardiovascular
exercise paves the way. You must stick to the twice a
week regimen for proper consistency. If you miss an
appointment, make it up at a different time. The twice a
week frequency was created on purpose, based on the
latest research and is vital to your rate of progress[iv].
Cardiovascular exercise makes the initial weight loss
easier by burning more calories and temporarily raising
your metabolism. It also improves your recovery rate
between sessions, making your muscles more ready for the
next workout and getting more benefit out of the
previous one[v]. You will receive an individualized
prescription for this as well from the results of your
fitness test.
The three of these working together will give you the
results you are after. The 20 minute workout by itself
is not a weight loss program. It can be over time
because your metabolism will be increasing, but
short-term reduction depends also on the other factors.
We will do our part by training you with the weights and
checking in with you on the cardio and nutrition. We
will also supply you with the tools and formulas for
success. How closely you follow those formulas will
dictate how rapidly your results are realized.
In the beginning you will experience a few new
sensations. Our protocols cause an endorphin high unlike
other exercise programs. The high intensity nature of
the program also reduces stress levels drastically. This
can make you quite excited about the program and thus
begins the “honeymoon” phase. If you follow the
nutritional prescriptions included in the program you
will also see muscular changes about the time the
‘honeymoon” period starts to wear off. This will give
you renewed enthusiasm that often becomes addicting.
Your membership at the X Gym buys you into a fitness
system, not just a bunch of sessions. There is a big
difference. Conventional trainers merely give you
sessions (using the same system that Eugene Sandow
developed in the 20’s). They might even give you advice
on eating and cardio exercise, but even that will most
likely be outdated by at least 15 years. Our sessions by
themselves are vastly superior to conventional sessions,
but are also are a part of an overall system including
protocols, nutrition advice and cardio prescriptions
pulling from research as recent as this year!
This research tells us how to create our protocols so
muscles are worked more intensely and safer than ever.
It tells us how to pick the order of protocols so all
the energy systems and fiber types are affected for a
well-rounded fitness results never before seen in the
industry. It tells us how to prescribe cardio for
certain body types and metabolisms. It gives us the
latest nutritional insights for optimum fitness
improvement and weight loss. It creates a system that
when followed closely, produces results that make all
other protocols obsolete.
These claims might sound inflated or even cocky, but
are backed up with black and white numbers and data from
actual X Gym clients over the last 4 years and the
“guinea pig” clients for the 5 years preceding them.
You will never be alone in your quest as long as you
are with the X Gym. You will always have access to the
best protocols and most recent information available.
When you do reach your goals, you will have learned
enough to go out on your own and maintain it with the
tools you have acquired. It is our goal to create a
lifestyle habit with every member that can be applied
for life to live longer, healthier, and stronger with an
unsurpassed quality. You get only one chance with the
body you have so give it what it needs!
[i] Komi, P.V. Training of muscle strength and power:
Interactions of neuromotoric, hypertrophic, and
mechanical factors. Int. J. Sports Med. 7:10-15. 1986.
[ii] Baechle, Thomas. Essentials of Strength Training
and Conditioning: Human Kinetics. P. 15, 1994.
[iii] For a more detailed explanation on this subject
and research to back it up, see the article “Women and
The Myth of Bulking Up”. You can get this handout from
your trainer.
[v] Plisk, S.S. Anaerobic metabolic conditioning: A
brief review of theory, strategy and practical
application. J. Appl. Sport Sci. Research. 5(1):22-34.
1991.
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