Intenser (Insanely Intense) Intensity
December 29th 2006 12:23
Let's go off the deep end with the concept off of intensity. There are some very intense training techniques that can be used by someone who is at least an intermediate trainer to push muscle groups to new limits while confining workouts to the same time frame. If you want to annihilate your body all you need to do is train with a set after set week after week with no real rest. That's not what I mean. I mean little techniques that can pack maximum stimulation into fewer sets and spur growth without going over the boundary to over training.
What is the most intense way to train? To me it is to pick out a body part and select 3 or 4 exercises for it. Then proceed through these four movements in a row with only enough rest to move and reposition. This is generally called a giant set and it is ugly. You will have to pare back your weights for these movements and you will feel a combination of pain and fatigue which does not occur in less intense work. I would never do this unless I had a couple of years in the gym under my belt. Its overkill for the more casual lifter.
You can use another technique as an irregular stimulant for you muscles. I call it "running the rack." It works with dumbbells on a rack or a rack of preset barbells and, of course, machines with a pin-activated stack of weights. Its easy to comprehend. Start where you normally start and do as many reps as you can. Put that weight back and go to the next lighter weight and use it until you cannot do any more. On and on. Do it once. If you have other exercises for that body part I wouldn't try to do the same thing with them- one rack run at a time. If you do this every workout you will flame out. Throw it in as a change of pace and a reminder of how far you can go in adaptation.
I use rack running when I am on a 3 week period of reduced load after 3 weeks of more difficult work. I enter the gym and take a body part and run the rack on it until my repetitions total 40,50,60. That is it for that muscle and I go do the same thing to another body part. This is telling the body that we are still seriously training,but does not come close to taxing the system like the 3 earlier weeks. The body gets the message and keeps the earlier level of compensation, but the system is not strained and I am ready and stronger when the next three weeks comes around. That's one you can try.Three hard, harder, hardest weeks followed by running the rack for three weeks to very high repetitions. Your servant, as always.
What is the most intense way to train? To me it is to pick out a body part and select 3 or 4 exercises for it. Then proceed through these four movements in a row with only enough rest to move and reposition. This is generally called a giant set and it is ugly. You will have to pare back your weights for these movements and you will feel a combination of pain and fatigue which does not occur in less intense work. I would never do this unless I had a couple of years in the gym under my belt. Its overkill for the more casual lifter.
You can use another technique as an irregular stimulant for you muscles. I call it "running the rack." It works with dumbbells on a rack or a rack of preset barbells and, of course, machines with a pin-activated stack of weights. Its easy to comprehend. Start where you normally start and do as many reps as you can. Put that weight back and go to the next lighter weight and use it until you cannot do any more. On and on. Do it once. If you have other exercises for that body part I wouldn't try to do the same thing with them- one rack run at a time. If you do this every workout you will flame out. Throw it in as a change of pace and a reminder of how far you can go in adaptation.
I use rack running when I am on a 3 week period of reduced load after 3 weeks of more difficult work. I enter the gym and take a body part and run the rack on it until my repetitions total 40,50,60. That is it for that muscle and I go do the same thing to another body part. This is telling the body that we are still seriously training,but does not come close to taxing the system like the 3 earlier weeks. The body gets the message and keeps the earlier level of compensation, but the system is not strained and I am ready and stronger when the next three weeks comes around. That's one you can try.Three hard, harder, hardest weeks followed by running the rack for three weeks to very high repetitions. Your servant, as always.
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