4
winning tools to break through training plateaus and build your best body
ever
Years
ago, a friend and I were working together to prepare his physique for an
upcoming acting role. As he was training, he said to me, “Jimmy, irrespective of
what your dream is, keep digging. Most people stop digging 3 feet from gold. But
if they’d only kept going … clank!”
His
words bound to me. And its message is relevant even within the gym. You’ve
worked hard to arrive at where you are. You haven’t missed workouts and you’re
dedicated to eating clean. But alas, you seem to have reached a plateau of
sorts. And as you stand to catch your breath, you wonder whether or not your
body can reach the next level. Well, this issue we’re offering you five tools
that are sure to help you finally pierce through. So, let’s go. Plus you know
you could be 3 feet from gold. We’ll give you the tools; it’s to you to keep
digging.
Plateau
Buster #1: Negatives
Most
guys hear “
negatives” and consider merely lowering a weight slowly. Not so fast.
The negative tactic is much far more than lowering the weight slightly slower
than usual. The fact is, negatives have a dual purpose: They can be tailored to
promote strength or size, with clear distinctions between them. Here we’re
focusing on how best to use the negative movement to elicit quick and lasting
changes in size.
Anatomy
of a Negative
During
a negative contraction, the muscle lengthens while it contracts fisherman s lure
load exceeds the force supplied by the muscle. This contraction occurs during
the downward phase of your exercise, like when you’re lowering the bar on a
curl, descending toward the floor during a squat, or resisting the bar as it
approaches your chest on the punch press.
Turn
a Minus into a Plus
The
main reason you’d want to consider negatives for building muscle is the mere
fact that you can damage so a lot more muscle fibers during negatives than you
can during the positive (concentric) phase. The better you can stimulate muscle
fibers, the quicker you pierce through your plateaus. But most lifters ignore
the negative portion because they typically end their sets when they can do not
lift the weight throughout the positive rep. Here’s the key: At that point, your
muscles still have the ability to resist the weight in the negative rep.
Get
to the stage
Consider
this scenario: You’re doing a set of bench presses and have chosen a weight that
causes failure around eight reps. You’re struggling with six, then seven and
finally —aaaargh! — eight. As you attempt another with a mighty effort, you
simply can’t lift the bar past the first quarter of the rep, so you stop. This
is the point of initial failure. That’s when negative-rep training begins for
muscle mass. Pay attention to resisting your working weight from it negative at
the point at which you reach positive-rep failure.
Partner
Up
Whatever
exercise you choose, you’ll need an attentive training partner. He should be in
a position that allows him full control of the bar. Because you’ve reached
positive failure, you still have gas throughout the lurch tank for a few
negative reps but will need help lifting the bar on those concentric reps.
Ensure that he helps whenever you can — this isn’t forced reps — so that you can
concentrate fully found on the negative portion.
Best
Exercises
Barbell
exercises are great for negatives because you can work with a great deal more
weight than with dumbbells and your partner can engage himself best when balance
is less of a concern. Machines are also effective.
Working
It
You
don’t need full sets of negatives, but you can do 2–3 reps (resisting the weight
for a full three seconds) following positive failure. This shouldn’t be done on
every set, just the last 1–2 sets of each exercise suggested.
Negatives: To summarise
-
-
- Negatives for size are best
performed only after positive failure.
- You can incur more muscle-fiber
damage (and thus gains) with negatives than positives.
- Do only a number of negative reps
and only on your last couple of sets.
- Negatives are best carried out with
barbell exercises.
- To perform them properly, you’ll
need a qualified, attentive partner.
Plateau
Buster #2: Max-Out Method
This
max-out technique takes advantage of a phenomenon that occurs when you try to
use a weight that’s heavier than you intended. Using a baseball analogy: The
on-deck batter is practicing his swings with a weighted donut around the bat,
making the bat feel heavier. By the time the batter steps to the plate
donut-free, the bat now feels much lighter.
Anatomy
of the Max-Out Method
The
technical name for the max-out method is post-activation potentiation method, or
PAP, which is (definitely) not to be confused with Pap, the women’s cervical
screening test. It’s predicated status idea of enhancing your performance of one
exercise by preceding it with a heavier one. The mechanism works by tricking the
neurological system (CNS) besides as the target musculature into becoming
stronger for a given weight.
What’s
Really Going On?
You
can feel the benefits of the PAP technique in just one workout. By front-loading
a set by a heavier set of the same exercise, you’ll recruit a maximal number of
muscle fibers to accomplish lifting the heavier weight. When you back off the
resistance person of it next set, you’re able to move the bar with greater
power, much like the baseball hitter who now has a more powerful swing.
PAP
Potential
Start
by choosing an exercise using something near to your maximum weight — about 90%
of what you can lift for just one rep with propriety on a particular exercise.
After performing just 1–2 reps at that weight, rest 2–3 minutes, then reduce the
weight. Choose a poundage you can do for eight reps, plus add 10% weight back
on. The goal now is to do eight reps with a weight that’s 10% heavier than what
you could previously do for eight reps. The other option is to use your
eight-rep max and try for 10 reps. Either way, you’ll see immediate gains.
Best
Exercises
The
most effective way to incorporate the max-out method is to limit its use to
multijoint exercises like bench presses, squats and bent-over rows, though you
may feel safer doing the machine variations of those moves since you’re going to
do a very heavy set. Because the technique is so demanding, you want to use
major lifts that incorporate heavy weight. It’s simply more effective when
working several muscle groups at the same time, even if you’re focusing on a
particular bodypart. If you feel uncomfortable using a near-max load for an
exercise like squats, use the technique with leg presses instead, where you’ll
have more support.
Working
It
Use
the max-out PAP-technique sets early in your routine when your muscles are
fresh.
After
a sufficient warm-up with 2-3 sets of light weight today leg press, hit your
potentiation set (“the weighted bat”) for 1–2 reps, then take ample rest 2–3
minutes before doing a lighter working set of leg presses. Do as much as three
working sets, preceding each working set with a PAP set. Then add in other moves
(without using the PAP technique) to balance out your routine.
Max-Out Method: To summarise
-
-
-
- Think “on-deck hitter with weight
bat” phenomenon.
- You’ll feel the benefits immediately
throughout the lurch influence on your next set.
- Use a load that’s about 90% of your
1RM for just a rep or two.
- Drop the weight chicken out to your
8RM, rest a few minutes then aim for eight reps with 10% more weight than usual.
- Choose multijoint moves and do
around three sets early in your training session.
Plateau
Buster #3: Partials
The
best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a stretch, goes the old adage. And
that probably best describes how partials training can chew up obstacles you
face travel gym and propel you through to the next level of growth. Simply put,
partials entail overloading small sections of the full range of motion (ROM)
with more weight than you could possibly handle if you tried moving that same
weight through the entire ROM.
Anatomy
of Partials
You
may be stronger at the top portion of a lift like overhead presses, squats or
bench presses, but the weight you choose is always limited by how strong you are
through the so-called sticking point, typically the weakest section in the ROM.
But that’s not the case with partials, because you’ll be training above the
sticking point, so you’ll be able to use more weight. By applying more force
across a particular area than the muscles are typically accustomed to, the
fibers will be stimulated to grow. The genius of this technique is that you can
ultimately apply it across the entire ROM, one segment each time.
Complete
Benefits of Partials
Partials
are best done inside a Smith machine where you have the benefit of safeties but
you also have multiple levels built in to the machine to use as guides.
(Hardcore lifters do them in something called a power rack, but the Smith works
well, too.) You can choose the top portion of the range of motion, like the last
6 inches of the overhead shoulder press, or the middle sticking point, or even
the bottom portion of the rep. That’s important to know because your gains will
be limited to the particular ROM you train in, so over time, you’ll need to
adjust the safeties and work all various parts of the full ROM. For the shoulder
press, the full ROM starts with the bar just off your upper traps to a position
in which your arms are fully extended.
Working
It
Do
partial-rep training early in your workout. Because partials are so intense, do
them with only one bodypart at any given time over the course of your training
split, even if you train multiple muscle groups on a given day. It’s also a good
idea to precede a partials day with a full rest day so that you’re fresh and
ready to go.
Select
the top third of the range of motion of a given move and insert the lower
safeties today Smith machine, which restrict your ROM. Compute your 10RM weight
(the weight at which you can do just 10 reps with good form), and add 25% to
this. Do two sets of 10 reps — the bar should be moving only about 6 inches.
Lower the safeties another third of the ROM and reduce the weight back to your
10RM and do two more sets of 10 reps. Put the safeties entirely to the bottom of
the ROM and do two more sets of 10 reps, working through the full ROM.
Partials: To sum up
-
-
-
- break the full range of motion of a
given movement into thirds.
- Partials allow more force per sq in
than standard lifting, especially when working above the detail. So make use and
go heavier accordingly.
- Doing partials only helps you at
that particular angle, so it’s important that you work throughout entire range
of motion.
- The technique is best used on a
Smith machine or power rack for safety and ease of varying angles.
- Because they’re so intense, do
partials early in your session.
Plateau
Buster #4: Antagonist Sets
If
it’s true that opposites attract, you’ll go crazy over this plateau breaker.
You’ll see the benefits of this tactic travel mirror immediately after the first
time you try it. While you may be knowledgeable about the idea of doing two
exercises back to back, this variation entails pairing exercises for antagonist,
or opposing muscle groups. Research shows that a muscle is stronger if its
antagonist is contracted immediately before it.
Anatomy
of Antagonist Training
The
reason behind the increase in strength of the second muscle group is because
there’s an innate limitation of an agonist by its antagonist. Or in other words,
during a good number of standard sets of bench presses, the back muscles inhibit
the contraction of the chest to a degree. But if you precede the bench press
with a set of wide-grip rows, it will lessen the inhibitory effect so your
bench-press motion can contract with greater force. And this phenomenon can be
applied to virtually every bodypart.
Perfect
Pairing
For
whatever bodypart you’re training, select an exercise for its opposing muscle
group to perform first. If you’re doing leg extensions, precede the movement
with some lying leg curls for hamstrings. Antagonist muscle group pairings
include: triceps with biceps, quads with hams, back with chest, and shoulder
exercises with other delt or back exercises (as an example, pair front- and
rear-delt movements, but choose overhead dumbbell presses with lat
pulldowns).
Working
It
You
can add this plateau buster at any time during your training session. Some
caution points on the first exercise: Do only a good number of light reps and
don’t pay a visit to muscle failure. Instead, do 5–6 reps with a weight you
could do for about 15, and use an explosive motion. Rest 1–2 minutes before
doing the target exercise. After the rest period, ratchet up the weight
throughout the focus bodypart and do a set of five reps with roughly 85% of your
1RM (that’s 85% of your one-rep max weight).
Switch
It Up
The
next training session where you pair two exercises together, switch the order in
which you train, allowing the opposite muscle to reap the same benefits of the
agonist/antagonist relationship.
Antagonist Sets: To summarize
-
- Choose opposing muscle groups.
- Try to select a move that’s the
mirror image of the target move.
- The target muscle will be stronger
if its antagonist is stimulated prior adieu as you choose a fairly light weight
and do just 5–6 reps.
- After a short rest, hit your primary
target with a fairly heavy weight. Be sure to swap the order the next time you
pair the two moves.
- You can do this technique at any
point in your workout, but since you’re strongest early in your training
session, it’ll have more impact when done early.
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