Review of Elliott and Mike's 14-Day Hybrid Muscle Mass By Ted Landry of CriticalBench.com
Eliott Hulse and Mike Westerdal, the mastermind behind CriticalBench.com came up with a real winner when they developed the Lean Hybrid Muscle series. The most amazing thing about the Lean Hybrid Muscle approach is that it allows you to build muscle and burn fat at the same time—a seemingly impossible task for anyone who has followed the old 'bulking and cutting' approach. Elliott and Mike discovered that facilitating the development of Hybrid Type III muscle fibers is the key to unlocking the body's potential to simultaneously build muscle while burning fat. The LHM approach drives the development of these Hybrid Type III muscle fibers.
Lean Hybrid Muscle was created for guys who want to pack on lean muscle mass but who have also got some extra fat hanging around too. That's welcome news for millions of guys but not everyone. What about the guys who want to add muscle but who don't have any extra fat? What about the skinny hardgainers who can't seem to add muscle mass no matter what they do? Losing fat is the last thing these guys want to be doing.
Helping the hardgainers achieve the same incredible results that can be realized through Lean Hybrid Muscle is the reason Elliott and Mike conceived the 14-Day Hybrid Muscle Mass program. They recruited renowned bodybuilder Dennis B. Weis—the Yukon Hercules—to author this follow-up volume. Dennis is destined to go down in history as one of the most knowledgeable and innovative experts in the bodybuilding world. He's authored several best-selling books on bodybuilding and his articles have appeared in top media outlets around the world.
Hardgainers have such a difficult time gaining muscles because of their metabolic systems. Their metabolisms seem to continually function in overdrive, burning calories at an accelerated rate. So for them, no matter how hard they lift and how much they eat, their bodies remain the same. To overcome this seemingly impossible challenge the 14-Day HMM program combines the basic Lean Hybrid Muscle-building principles with an innovative, strategic approach to nutrition targeted specifically to the hardgainer.
The secret to success is the Anabolic Burst (Caloric) Cycling System (ABCS), developed by a Swedish research scientist and bodybuilder. In their efforts to put on muscle hardgainers typically try eating everything in sight in an effort to overcome their supercharged metabolic systems. Ultimately, though they may gain some muscle, they inevitably end up packing on unwanted fat, just like everyone else. The 14-Day HMM approach sidesteps that downside, driving the body to add lean muscle mass without adding extra body fat.
ABCS is based on a process of strategic overfeeding that incorporates the Macronutrient Ratio Theory. This nutritional approach—when combined with the Lean Hybrid Muscle training routines—drives the metabolic systems to flood the body with anabolic muscle-building hormones (testosterone, growth hormone, insulin and IGF1-levels). The release of these hormones stimulates the building of lean muscle mass—even in the most stubborn of hardgainers.
The 14-Day HMM program lays everything out for you in simple terms with an easy-to-follow plan. It's based of course on a 14-day cycle that includes eight extreme (anabolic) feedings per day. The plan includes a simple formula for calculating exactly how many calories you need to be eating everyday to push past the body's nature-induced metabolic limits and build muscle. The Macronutrient Ratio Theory provides the basis for determining the kinds of foods you should be eating—and in what quantities—throughout the day.
The training regimen is comprised of a series of Extreme "Rapid Response" Myofibril/Mitochondria Zone workouts. The training routines are based on the proven Lean Hybrid Muscle program, which enable any body type to quickly add lean muscle mass. The two-week overfeeding/training cycle is followed up with a second 14-day cycle that focuses on 'underfeeding' the body while simultaneously protecting the muscle mass that you added during the first phase.
In this phase you switch from eight feedings a day to six, while shifting your training routines to a "push/pull" approach, combined with dynamic stretching routines. The 14-Day HMM program doesn't stop there though—when you're finished with these two cycles, you go back to the beginning but this time you use your choice of one of four different cycles. By continually switching up the routines you avoid hitting the dreaded plateau, where your gains just come to a screeching halt.
I'll wrap this up by giving Elliott and Mike an enthusiastic double thumbs-up to the 14-Day Hybrid Muscle Mass program. Lots of hardgainer programs out there make some fantastic promises but few deliver real results. 14-Day HMM is one of the few that does deliver what it promises, even for the most difficult hardgainers.
