Are your muscles reaching their full potential from your
daily workouts? Have you ever felt like you are just going through the motions?
Blast through plateaus, create maximum muscular hypertrophy, and boost your
training intensity by experimenting with different training techniques!***Train past the pain***
Keep in mind that there is no “right way” or “wrong way” to
train. So don’t give up on an idea before trying it! Switching up the routine
can confuse the muscle and force it to grow like never before!
Muscle presence
Muscle presence is defined as
keeping “the mind in the muscle “. Muscle presence is key in any exercise. The
mind is as powerful as the body. Arnold Schwarzengger fully believed this
theory. When the body fails, the mind is what keeps the body moving through
that last painful rep. With each rep in the gym full concentration should be
placed on the muscle being worked. Therefore, if the burn/tension is not felt
in the desired muscle then the exercise itself can be considered pointless.
Feel the burn and visualize the muscle growing with each rep. Feel the pump and
the extra blood flow being directed to the desired muscle. Visualize what you
want the final goal to be whether it’s such and round thick shoulders or a
great peak on the bicep. Creating a visual image in your mind will create the
image in which your body will grow.
Drop Sets
Drop sets are best done with a
machine, that the weight level can be adjusted quickly and easily, or
dumbells/barbells, which can be switched immediately. Drop Sets can also be
done with an Olympic bar such as the bench press for example, if you have a
training partner that can swiftly drop some plates off the bar after each
failed set. Drop sets are best used at the end of your workout with the
intention to create an extended period of failure in the muscle. Muscle failure
can be described as pushing the muscle past the point of fatigue. Some people
believe that reps should start being counted once the muscle is burning, or has
reached failure, because these are the reps that count! As most people know
failure=growth. At the last set of your last exercise (really a drop set could
be done on the last set of any exercise), lift the weight using the heaviest amount
of weight possible, for a few reps until the muscle fails. Put down the weight
stack and immediately take a lower weight, and work until failure. Then skip to
another lower weight, and another. Rep out until failure. Done!
Partials (reps)
Partial reps are good for burning out the peak of the
muscle. Once your muscles are nearing the point of fatigue where proper form
and full extension of the muscle is becoming too difficult to complete,
“partial” rep it out. That means quickly pumping the muscle in half reps, or
the peak of the reps, in order to further reach muscle failure.
Negatives
Negative reps allow for constant tension on the muscle,
which enables activation of fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fiber. This
training technique helps you use every potential of the muscle! To execute a
negative rep, think “explode” on contraction, and “slowly” return to starting
position while keeping that constant tension on the muscle. Experimenting with
tempo, such as during negative training, may help the feeling of isolation of a
desired muscle. Negatives are generally done best on the last set of any
exercise.
Rest/pause technique
Rest Pause technique is similar to drop sets, without
adjusting the weight stack. Get the extra few reps in by dropping the weight
for 3 seconds only. Just enough time for the muscle to rest slightly, then pick
the weight back up and “rep out” or finish until you are no longer able!
Fascia Stretch
training
Fascia is the tissue that envelopes the muscle tissue. For
the muscle to reach maximum growth it is important to stretch this outer layer
of fascia so that the muscle has room to expand. Stretching the targeted muscle
immediately after finishing a set for 20-30 seconds will promote the direction
of large amounts of nutrient rich blood flow to the muscle. This allows for
hypertrophy of the muscle and maximum recovery and it feels great too!
Burnout
Burnout is another method of bringing the muscle to failure.
Technically one can “burnout” the muscle using any of these techniques to
really fatigue the muscle. When lifting for power and strength, a good
principle is to have 75% of your exertion focused on the first two exercises.
The first major exercises are best chosen to be compound exercises, such and
bench or squat, leaving isolation exercises (smaller muscle groups) to be
trained last. Burnout is a great finisher for these compound exercises, by
finishing the last set with a significantly lighter weight, for many reps. This
encourages blood flow to the muscle and allows for the full execution of the
muscle.
Hope these techniques can be useful in switching up your
routine! Best regards and Happy Training!
Celia
