Jack was staring at me from across the restaurant table, leaning back in his chair, his face screwed up into a snarling grimace, arms folded in front of his chest. I had seen that look many times before... and it usually meant he was about to go off.

"I mean seriously, dude. This is killing me. I've been working out JUST as long as you have...we're both 50 years old now and we literally started training together at the EXACT same time... what was it, like, 35 years ago now or something?"

I opened my mouth to talk but before I could fit a word in, he continued, his voice getting louder as he got more and more worked up.

"I've been training consistently that whole time..."

"I've been eating good..."

"I work hard every time I hit the weights..."

"I mean, I THINK I'm in pretty good shape overall... definitely in better shape than most of the guys we grew up with. They're friggin falling apart. But that was never me. I train... I put in the work..."

"I need to know why the f%#$ am I getting smaller and weaker?... And why do I just feel OLD? I'm not old."

"I keep getting all these stupid injuries doing stupid little things. The other I day, I was bending down to pick a pen up off the floor. I sneezed and it felt like somebody hit me in the back with a hammer. My wife almost had a panic attack when she heard me scream from the kitchen."

He shook his head slowly, his lips pursed, recalling the pain and embarassment.

"Do you know what it feels like to have your wife have to help you get up off the floor because you hurt yourself frickin SNEEZING? She used to think I was invincible." he said quietly, looking down before closing his eyes and letting out a deep sigh.

"It took me 10 minutes to get out of bed the next morning and another 20 minutes in a hot shower to get it feeling better enough to drag myself to the car to go to work."

"And, of course, a few weeks before that, I was playing basketball with my kid, whipping his butt as usual. I jumped up to make an easy lay up and when I came down my knee gave out. Just gave out. No reason. Knee just said 'screw you' and gave out and I fell over."

"Man, this is KILLING me because I follow your stuff on the Internet and you're lifting stuff that's just INSANELY heavy, you're doing things that would put me in the HOSPITAL, you're still JACKED like freaking Wolverine, and you're the EXACT. SAME. AGE. I. AM."

He pounded his hand onto the table with each word, rattling his coffee cup on the table and drawing questioning looks from a couple of the other people sitting nearby.

I raised my eyebrows and he calmed down a bit, going back a normal voice.

"I mean for real...what am I doing wrong? I feel like my age is catching up to me and I'm just so frustrated...I'm not ready for that. I hate this." he paused for a moment.

"Especially because it seems like it's not happening to YOU."

"What's your secret?"

I looked at him and dropped the bomb...

"You can build muscle and strength like you did 20 years ago if you regenerate the systems in your body that SUPPORT your muscles, and NOT just the muscles themselves..."

(continued below...)

That's me in the picture below here at age 50... I've been a strength coach and bodybuilding author for more than 30 years and a lifetime natural trainer for 35 years (that includes no TRT).

I've written more than 20 books on weight training and I KNOW what it takes to keep building muscle and strength into your 40's and 50's and beyond (I literally hit a personal record deadlift of 605 lbs 3 weeks after my 50th birthday).

I'm going to tell you WHY you're getting smaller, weaker, and more injury-prone as you get older...

   ... even if you're still training hard and eating well...

      ... and I'm going to tell you EXACTLY how you can FIX it.

First, you need to understand that aging is a process, NOT a disease, and that process can, in many ways, be REVERSED.

I won't tell you that you can "age backwards" or anything like that. But you CAN absolutely target specific physiological processes that happen in your body DUE to aging and improve them with training, nutrition and targeted supplementation.

You're going to discover the four highest-impact factors that can reset your body's "muscle clock" back approximately 15 to 20 YEARS.

Jack was my best friend from high school. We're literally the EXACT same age...born on the same day, in the same hospital (I'm 8 hours older).

We grew up in the same town... went to the same schools... we even started training together at the exact same time in a little storefront gym at the local strip mall (Goldie's Gym... yeah, not kidding... that was the actual, real name).

Honestly, he's like a walking control group for the stuff I'm about to share with you...

It had been about 6 years since I had seen Jack in person. I hadn't had time to get back home in a really long time.

So when I finally got a chance to visit, I dropped him a text to meet up for lunch at the Dairy Queen we used to go to for lunch all the time in high school.

We met up and started talking about how things were going for both of us...family...work...all the usual stuff when you get together with old friends. It was great to catch up and we had a lot of laughs talking about old times.

Then after about an hour, after a bit of a longer pause in the conversation, he looked out the window for a minute then back at me then surprised me with those words... "Man, how come I got old and you didn't?"

"What's Your Secret?"

He stopped and continued to stare at me.

I looked back at him and said... "You know what... I'm going to tell you. And since I know you have a hard time learning new things, I'm going to talk really slowly..."

He let out an exasperated curse word under his breath.

"Dude, just shut up and start talking."

"As you get older, your body starts 'diminishing'..."

"It's not exactly a scientific term but anybody who's past the age of 40 knows exactly what this feels like. You can't do all the things you used to be able to do. You can't run as fast, you can't lift as much weight, your muscles start getting smaller. You can't recover as quickly from workouts. Quite frankly, it sucks."

"Now, the crazy thing is, I actually just read a study that showed that aging happens in two major bursts... once in your mid 40's and once in your early 60's."

"With regular weight training and exercise, you can mostly power through these bursts and hold onto a good portion of your muscle mass. It's starting to catch up to you, though."

He was nodding his head in agreement.

"Yep, that sounds about right. A couple of years ago is when I really started noticing my mass and strength levels were falling off."

"Here's the problem... even if you train hard, 'normal' weight training is not going to fix this because it physically CAN'T."

He looked a bit stunned by this...as though I had insulted his dog or something.

"Don't get me wrong...normal weight training is awesome. I train, well, kinda normal most of the time."

Jack was looking a little skeptical... he was in for a brain-bender now, though...

"You can build muscle and strength like you did 20 years ago if you build back the SYSTEMS in your body that SUPPORT your muscles, and NOT just the muscles themselves..."

By the look on his face, I could see his brain working overtime as he mentally digested this statement... I could almost smell the smoke...

"Wait...what?" he finally managed to get out.

"I'm going to tell you something it took me almost all 35 of my years of training to figure out and it's going to help you turn back the clock on your muscles by almost 20 years."

"Ok..." he said hesitantly.

"When you just train for building muscle or strength, you're not fully working all the underlying systems in your body that support your muscle mass."

"And one of the MAJOR reasons you start losing muscle mass as you get older is BECAUSE those support systems are weakening as you age."

"You need to work your INTERNAL INFRASTRUCTURE, too...all the stuff that supplies and supports your muscle."

"If you don't, then your body just can't physically support a higher level of muscle mass and you start to lose it."

"Think of it like the infrastructure of a town...you can only build as many houses as you have water to supply them...or lumber to build them... or grocery stores to feed the people.

If you don't have the infrastructure to support the town, the people will leave...just like your muscle mass does if YOUR internal infrastructure can't support it."

He paused for a moment...

"So let me see if I've got this straight... all the training I'm doing to build muscle is just fighting a losing battle...unless I ALSO train these OTHER systems that support my muscle?"

"Exactly right."

He looked thoughtful for a moment but still a bit skeptical.

"And you're saying if I bring those systems back up, I'll have an easier time building and keeping muscle?"

"Exactly right again."

"Ok, so what are these muscle support systems and how do I get them back up and working like they were 20 years ago?"

"I thought you'd never ask." I said with a smile. "This stuff is my idea of fun."

"There are four major systems that diminish with age and as these start to go, your muscle starts to go with them. And I'm not just making this up...there is a TON of research that backs this up. I'll pull up those pages as I tell you about them."

"So I know you took some basic physiology in high school but I'm going to give you a bit of a refresher here so that we're on the same page."

"You know what arteries and veins are...and you know the arteries get smaller and smaller until them become those tiny blood vessels called capillaries. And that's where the action happens. That's where oxygen and nutrients are delivered to the muscle cells and where carbon dioxide and waste products are picked up and removed."

He nodded his head.

"Now, what you may NOT know is that as you age, you start to LOSE muscle capillaries. Your body starts to close them down and they just go away. This means your muscles have less blood supply feeding them where it counts...where the nutrients and oxygen are getting delivered."

"And what do you think happens when your muscle cells can't get enough food?..."

Jack nodded again...

"They get smaller."

"Exactly."

"So no matter how hard or how effectively I train my muscles, if they can't physically get enough nutrients, then they can't grow or even stay as big."

"You got it. It's all about supply and demand. The demand may be there, but your muscles aren't getting the supply."

"So how do I train to fix that?"

I smiled slyly..."You're going to love this..."

"I've come up with a science-based 'pump' training protocol that pushes SO much blood into your muscles that it literally FORCES your body to create NEW blood vessels to feed them."

Jack had perked up when I said the word "pump."

"So wait...won't any training that I do that gets me a pump do this?"

"Great question." I nodded. "And to some degree, yes, so even without this protocol, training for a pump will give you some of these benefits."

"However, it's not going to be nearly as good as with training that's specifically designed to not only GET the pump... but to KEEP the pump going as long as possible as well."

"The analogy I like to use is that it's like trying to learn Spanish by watching soaps on Telemundo. You'll get something out of it but not nearly as much as if you do something actually designed to get the results you're looking for."

Before he could say anything, I kept going...

"The other thing you need to know is that there is also one specific nutrient that MUST be present in the bloodstream at the EXACT moment that you're training for those new blood vessels."

He looked at me questioningly and made a gesture with his hands... "and that is..."

"Arginine."

"Ok, great." he said. "So I'll load up on arginine before I train."

I smiled and shook my head.

"Now what?" he said.

"Well, unfortunately arginine has a really hard time getting past your gut. You can load up on it on and only a tiny fraction will ever get into your bloodstream."

He rolled his eyes and looked up at the ceiling.

"But there IS a supplement you can take that CONVERTS into arginine in your bloodstream at a rate more than 100 TIMES higher than if you actually take arginine."

"Ok, so what is it?"

"You're going to hate me but I'm going to tell you later. I don't want you rushing out the door before I finish talking about the other 3 factors first."

"Yep, you're right. I hate you."

"As we get older, our connective tissue dries out...like literally dries out. As the fluid that is SUPPOSED to be circulating through it diminishes, your connective dries out and gets more brittle."

"Well that doesn't sound very good." Jack said.

"No... it definitely doesn't.." I responded.

"That means your connective is much more susceptible to getting an injury where when you were younger, the same thing would NOT have results in an injury."

A light bulb went off in his head.

"So that's why my knee gave out when it wouldn't have before." he said.

"You got it. Your connective tissue simply can't take the forces that it used to be able to take."

I continued..."Here's why..."

"Weak, dry connective tissue will cause your body to shut down your muscle strength to try and prevent injury."

"Your body has a really clever way to assess the force being put on the muscles called Golgi tendon organs. If those tiny organs sense there's too much force being applied to the muscles fibers and connective tissue that they can't handle, it basically hits the kill switch on your muscles...like when your knee gave out. That system prevented you from getting either a muscle tear or connective tissue tear."

"It didn't prevent me from getting an ego bruise, though..." he smiled.

"Yeah, though I'm sure your kid might have a hernia now from laughing at you."

"That is true." he said.

"But wait, doesn't heavy training like squatting and stuff work the connective tissue enough?"

I nodded. "Yep, to some degree it does, just like with circulation. You'll get SOME results from normal training...much better than not training at all, of course."

"What I've found, though, is that even normal heavy training doesn't give you the same benefits as what I'm about to tell you...the loads aren't heavy enough or sustained enough to really impact the connective to the highest degree... you'll see what I mean."

"I'm going to tell you how to not only FIX your connective tissue, but also how to FORCE more fluid into it so that it can actually heal and regenerate."

He raised his eyebrows at this.

"Seriously?" he said. "Can it help me heal old injuries, too?"

"Honestly, yes. I've actually had people use this training protocol and have old injuries and old nagging pains completely heal up after doing it. It's really simple and it works INCREDIBLY well."

"So what's the secret?"

"You're going to alternate between COMPRESSION and DECOMPRESSION."

He paused. "I was expecting something more...well... insane... from you."

"Just wait til you hear what you have to do, then get back to me." I said.

"The example I like to use is standing in the squat rack with a heavy weight on your back, like you were at the top of the squat. You're going to just stand there with it on your back and let the weight compress your body and your connective tissue. The goal is minimize your muscle activation and just let your connective tissue and bones bear the load."

"This heavy, continuous compression squeezes the fluid out of your connective tissue...then after a set period of time, we set the weight down, reach up and grab the chin-up bar and do a dead hang. This will decompress everything."

"This is like a bellows or like hydraulics that use pressure to force the fluid out then decompression to suck the fluid back in from the other side (figuratively speaking).

"We're literally CREATING circulation in your connective tissue with weight."

"So my dried out connective tissue will get rehydrated like beef jerky soaking in water?" he said.

"Well...yeah. That's actually sort of right.... and there's one more thing..."

"Of course there is" he said.

"We're ALSO going to flood your system with structural, connective tissue-supporting nutrients right before we do this training."

He cocked his head to the side.

"Ah...so that we're pushing those nutrients right into the connective tissue where they need to get to and where those nutrieents COULDN'T get to before."

I smiled.

"Nailed it."

Jack was getting pretty excited at this point and looked like he was itching to jump out of his chair.

"Settle down, brother. We're only halfway through... just wait til you see what's next."

"As we age, the number of muscle fibers we've got starts to decrease. Most guys aren't using their muscles as much, those muscles aren't getting fed because their circulation is going away...and their connective issue is drying out and getting weaker by the day."

"And as you can imagine, the fewer muscle fibers we've got, the smaller and weaker our muscles are going to be. Then to make it worse, most of those muscle fibers that are dropping off are the bigger, stronger fast twitch muscle fibers."

"It's a nasty one-two punch...it's like you're slowly turning into a hardgainer, even if you weren't one before. And if you WERE one before, well now you're doubly screwed."

"So we need to train to SPLIT the muscles fibers you've got into MORE muscle fibers. More muscle fibers mean bigger, easier-to-grow muscles."

Jack was being awfully quiet now, looking skeptical again... so I pressed on.

"I can see by the look on your face that you're not sure about this one."

He nodded.

"Yep, I remember reading about this... I know growing the muscle fibers bigger is called hypertrophy. Everybody knows that. Then I read that SPLITTING the muscle fibers is called hyperplasia and it's like the Holy Grail of building muscle. And I also read it didn't happen in humans."

I looked at him...

"Ok, this is where we get what I like to call 'ahead of the science.'"

"While it IS true that there hasn't been direct proof shown in research in humans that you can increase the number of your muscle fibers, there IS direct proof it happens in animal research and there ARE indirect indicators that it happens in humans."

"The problem is, the training protocols that show it happening in animals are really hard to replicate in humans. And also to really count the number of muscle fibers manually would be impractical in humans who want to not be picked apart like a Thanksgiving turkey. So we're stuck with indirect evidence."

"I've got a resistance-based stretch training protocol based on those animal studies that showed a 300% increase in muscle size."

Jack just about spat out his drink.

"300 PERCENT!?" he coughed. "WHAT?"

"For real." I said. "Heck, I even got in contact with the researcher who did those studies, Dr. Jose Antonio, and ran my protocol by him. He really liked it and thought based on his experience, it definitely could work."

"And check this out...any time I've used this protocol on myself, I've gained 10 pretty solid pounds in just 3 weeks."

"Dude, I've NEVER gained 10 solid pounds in 3 weeks, even when I was in my 20's." he said.

He was shaking his head at this point.

"Why didn't you come back to visit sooner..."

"Ok, on to the last one now."

"It may not sound quite as glamorous as that hyperplasia thing but the stuff I'm going to show you here can help you get stronger faster than anything you've tried before."

"As we get older, our nervous systems start to deteriorate. Your balance starts to go. You're less coordinated. Then we have the problem that your nerves don't regenerate and there aren't any training protocols or supplements I could find that could make that happen."

"So we need to make better use of the nervous system that we've got."

Jack was nodding slowly in agreement.

"Let's say a 'normal' person can activate their nervous system with a 60% efficiency, meaning that they can activate 60% of their muscle fibers to lift a weight."

"With regular weight training, they might be able to bring that up to 65 or 70%. Elite strength athletes can hit up to 80 to 85% activation...that's why they can get stronger without getting bigger."

"You owned a gym for 5 years...you know that the VAST majority of beginner strength gains happen because of that improvement in nervous system efficiency. People get stronger fast because their nervous system learns how to fire better."

"I've got techniques that can INSTANTLY increase your strength 5 to 10% by teaching your nervous system how to fire more effectively."

"And 5 to 10% may not sound like much but that's an additional 20 pounds on a 200 pound bench press... it's 30 pounds on a 300 pound squat."

Jack looked skeptical again..."Yeah, but instantly?"

"Yep, I've got a technique that uses what I call contralateral antagonistic neuromuscular activation to transfer 10% more nervous system impulses through the corpus callosum that connects the two halves of your brain when you lift a weight with one side of your body and activate the opposing muscle on the other side at the same time. It delivers 5 to 10% more strength instantly in the working muscle."

Jack looked angry.

"Ok, all I heard was Charlie Brown's teacher talking there... wah wah wah, wah wah."

"Basically, you can use this to go from curling a 50 lb dumbbell to a 55 lb dumbbell instantly."

"Gotcha...that I like. Just say that next time."

"I've also got new versions of methods that you're probably already familiar with like isometrics, cluster training and max effort training to really maximize nervous system activation."

"Now you're talking my language. I've used cluster training before and I love it."

Jack slapped his hand on the table.

"Man, of course I want to do it! This stuff is really resonating with me. I think it's EXACTLY what I need to get back on track."

"I'm SO sick of feeling like I'm going downhill... getting old... falling apart.

"I'm just done with it. I'm not afraid of a little hard work, especially with what you've told me."

"I want those 20 years back and I think this is going to do it for me."

"I mean, shoot, I'm ALREADY training hard... I want to train hard with a plan that's going to set me up for LONG TERM success, not just fighting the decline. I want to BEAT the decline."

"And all that crazy stuff that you still do PROVES to me that it can be done. This is exactly what I need."

I smiled and nodded.

"I think you're going to love this program, Jack. I'll get a copy over to you as soon as I get to my laptop."

"Sweet! What's the name of the program?"