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Hi Friend,
Building more muscle with less work is the cornerstone of abbreviated training.
If you’re a regular reader of my newsletter or frequent visitor to my site, you will be familiar with this message.
But what if you want to fast-track your gains and ramp up the intensity?
Well, an old-school method for breaking through strength plateaus holds the answer.
Backed by science, research shows how the following strategy is an effective way to supercharge your strength and beef up your body.
Rest-Pause Sets
This old-school method is called Rest-Pause sets. Rest-pause is essentially three sets squeezed into one — and while they might sound easy, don’t be fooled: do these suckers right, and rest-pause sets are extremely challenging and will seriously test your mettle.
So how do you perform them?
Let’s take a look:
- Choose a weight you can lift for 10-12 reps (approximately 70% of your 1RM),
- Perform a first “activation” set taken to technical positive failure (by failure, I mean when another rep with solid form is no longer possible — absolutely NO grinder reps!),
- Rest 30 seconds,
- Perform a second mini-set to failure,
- Rest 30 seconds,
- Perform a third and final mini-set to failure.
Using the bench-press as an example, here’s how the above will look:
Set #1 − 12 reps Rest 30 secs Set #2 − 6 reps Rest 30 secs Set #3 − 4 reps
This gives you a Rest-Pause set of 22 reps.
How to Make Progress
How do you make progress? Well, that is simple too.
Keep using the same weight until you can perform one complete rest-pause set of 25 reps in solid form. As soon as you hit this number, you can add up to 5 pounds depending on the exercise (add less for dumbbell work).
Not only can this easy-to-follow training tool be adapted to most kinds of routines, but it also allows you to ramp up the training intensity without greatly increasing your workout volume.
The result? You get bigger and stronger in a fraction of the time.
To build the most muscle, you’ll want to use exercises that work the most mass (squats, deadlifts, bench press, shoulder press, rows, dips, chin ups, etc).
And remember, don’t go to complete failure. You want to stay a rep or two shy of maximum effort in order you don’t nuke your nervous system.
Until next time,
Squat for Glory!
Lee
P.S. When I’m not pumping pig iron in my man-cave, you can usually find me writing or creating art (my day job). For anyone who is interested, one of my paintings has recently been shortlisted for a prestigious art prize.
The competition is being sponsored by Winsor and Newton and the winner gets to have their artwork featured on the cover of the autumn/winter catalogue. The final result will be decided by public vote.
Here’s the link if you want to take a sneaky peek or cast your vote…
https://www.artsupplies.co.uk/covercomp/ |
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