Ways to Increase the workout intensity are for advanced users only! Beginners shouldn’t bump up the intensity because the gym workout itself is usually hard enough. It would be useful information for those who are entering a body building competition or who have worked out for quite some time, doing a simple routine doesn’t cut it.
Let’s come to the point at once. The main gym workout efficiency criterion is its intensity. It includes the following three major parameters:
1. The Amount of Weight used
2. Duration of Rest Between Sets and Exercises
3. Repetition Velocity (method and speed of performing exercises)
That means the following: the heavier workout weights are, the shorter rest intervals are – the HIGHER gym workout intensity is.
In the very beginning you need to set exactly the first point as your main priority. Regular increase of basic weights guarantees growth and increase of intensity of your gym workouts. In bodybuilding everything is about workout overload: when increasing it you force your muscles adapt to new loads and, consequently, grow. But when increasing workout weights we are to keep the correct exercise movement biomechanics and perform the required quantity of reps, that we had already talked about. If you increase weights but sacrifice performance technique your intensity does not increase because you deceive your muscles by an easier way of performing workout exercises.
You need to work harder and harder with each new gym workout session. Only in this case it’ll mean that your load intensity is increasing; and increase of workout weights is the most appropriate time-proved way of intensity growth.
Another way of training intensity increase is shortening of rest intervals (and the duration of the whole gym workout session in general). More rapid training rate will force you rest less during rest intervals; and it’ll be exactly the increase of workout intensity. If you remember, we decided to stick to one-minute’s rest intervals; and this is quite a short time; that’s why it would be unreasonable to shorten it even more at the current stage. If you do it than your training will become less of power and more of endurance character; and that will not allow you to build muscles.
The third method to increase intensity concerns the most technically correct way of performance of each workout exercise movement. These techniques are extremely dangerous; you need to use them very carefully because they can easily cause over-training state of your organism.
I’ll describe these gym workout techniques in brief in order you know about this matter; but what comes to their mastering – I advise you to use only positive failure.
Do or Die! Intensity techniques
- POSITIVE FAILURE
- CHEATING
- FORCED REPS
- PARTIAL REPS
- REST-PAUSE
- STRIPTEASE
- STATICS
- NEGATIVE REPS
So, let’s start. The first station of our journey is POSITIVE FAILURE. It’s not difficult to reach muscle failure when performing a particular workout exercise; the thing you need to remember is that you are to be sure in efficiency of this failure.
What else can you do? – CHEATING. It’s idea lies in the following: you assist your muscles to overcome the most difficult points of an exercise with the help of your whole body. You force muscles to complete 2-3 more reps in excess to muscle failure and by doing this you additionally stimulate muscle fibers. This gym workout technique is not for beginners because it’s extremely difficult and dangerous.
Cheating is followed by FORCED REPETITIONS which you should to do together with your partner (spotter) after your force has ‘died’ completely. For example, when performing Bench Presses on reaching positive failure your partner helps you to complete several additional reps.
The next gym workout technique is PARTIAL REPETITIONS. It’s absolutely clear: you limit an workout exercise trajectory, for example, by a third or a quarter of its amplitude; and due to this you can ‘squeeze’ out of yourself several additional reps in excess to muscle failure. It would seem that the rules of intensity increase prescribe you to increase this amplitude but not to reduce it; but you shouldn’t forget that after muscle failure you are almost a dead man. And for a dead man partial reps are just the right thing to do.
We go on: REST PAUSE WORKOUT. Do you feel it – something starts burning. It’s your muscles – you wanted it, didn’t you? So, the procedure is the following: on finishing a set you put the working weight back on a rack or just on the floor and rest right on the spot for about 20 seconds; then you start working with the weight till you are no more; than again – 20 seconds of rest… and again… and again…
Now we switch to STRIPTEASE (it is not about my occupation))). In the beginning of an workout exercise you should load the barbell with maximum weight but don’t put on locks in order your partners can easily ‘pull’ off the barbell plates according to your command. Start performing the workout set; as soon as you reach muscle failure, command to remove two plates; than again work till failure and command to remove the next two plates – and so on till there are no plates on the bar.
Finally we came to the most difficult gym workout techniques. The first of them is STATICS (static failure). It’s performed like this: after reaching failure you lift or lower (depending on the exercise) an apparatus by several inches or leave it in the upper point of the exercise trajectory and try to keep it there for as long as you can.
And the last one is for those who have no restraints – NEGATIVE REPETITIONS. After you reached failure your partner helps you to lift the weight to the upper point but you are to lower it absolutely on your own and to do it slowly, deliberately slowly. Did you manage it? – Well then, – UP once again with the partner’s help… and so on, till you reach one more (this time absolute or negative) failure when you will be able to move the weight not by one inch.
If you decided to try these techniques – then find spotting partners obligatory!
I need to stress this one more time: beginners should first apply all possibilities of traditional gym workout techniques and switch to the covered ones (that increase training intensity) only after this.