guss
MuscleHead
- Aug 11, 2010
- 380
- 189
Aside from the usual workout reps there are several ways you can train to build muscle. These are a few useful muscle building techniques that you can use in your workouts:
Drop sets
These are a fantastic way to get your muscles burning and get them toned.
•Do however much you can on a weight lifting exercise e.g. let’s say you can manage to do at most 10 reps on a 60kg bench press.
•As soon as you have done those 10 reps, lower the weight to 40kg and do as many reps as you can.
•Then once again you can lower the weight to 20kg and do as much as you can.
•How much you lower the weight is up to you, this example just goes down 20kg at a time.
•This technique is quite challenging so you should only do it 2-3 times in a workout.
Pause reps
These reps focus a lot of work on your muscles and are great for muscle building.
Each exercise has a positive and negative section:
The positive is usually when you are doing a pulling or pushing action, for example pulling yourself up on a chin up bar, or pushing a bar on a bench press.
The negative is when you are lowering the weight i.e. lowering yourself from the chin up bar or lowering the bar on the bench press.
•Pause reps are when you hold your position for a few seconds between the positive and negative section of an exercise.
•So if you were doing a chin up, you would hold yourself up halfway for 3-5 seconds, and then repeat the exercise.
•The momentum is taken out of your exercises which makes it more difficult. This means you will probably have to use a lighter weight then you normally do.
Forced reps
A second person is needed for these exercises but is definitely worth it.
•Forced reps are simply as if you were lifting weights normally, but once you reach your maximum, for example 10 reps on a 60kg bench press, you have someone to give you a tiny bit of help so that you can squeeze in an extra few reps.
•They mustn’t help you too much; a tiny pull or push from your partner will enable you to keep lifting the weight.
•Stop the exercise as soon as your partner has to do most the work.
Negatives
As already explained above, the negative part of an exercise is usually when you are lowering the weight.
•Negative exercises are when you take 3-10 seconds to lower the weight after each rep.
•Like pause reps, there isn’t any momentum to assist you so this exercise will make the heaviness of the weights you’re used to a bit harder.
Partial Reps
These are very useful for building muscle. Partial reps are essentially ‘part’ of a full rep.
•You push or pull the weight as normal, but when lowering the weight, you only go half way.
•This method can allow you to fit more reps into your set. For example, if you managed to do 8 full reps on a bicep curl (each time your arm was fully contracted and then fully extended), you could try and fit in an extra few partial reps (each time your arm would be fully contracted and then half extended).
•This muscle building concept can also let you lift weights that are normally a bit a bit too heavy for you to do full reps on.
Drop sets
These are a fantastic way to get your muscles burning and get them toned.
•Do however much you can on a weight lifting exercise e.g. let’s say you can manage to do at most 10 reps on a 60kg bench press.
•As soon as you have done those 10 reps, lower the weight to 40kg and do as many reps as you can.
•Then once again you can lower the weight to 20kg and do as much as you can.
•How much you lower the weight is up to you, this example just goes down 20kg at a time.
•This technique is quite challenging so you should only do it 2-3 times in a workout.
Pause reps
These reps focus a lot of work on your muscles and are great for muscle building.
Each exercise has a positive and negative section:
The positive is usually when you are doing a pulling or pushing action, for example pulling yourself up on a chin up bar, or pushing a bar on a bench press.
The negative is when you are lowering the weight i.e. lowering yourself from the chin up bar or lowering the bar on the bench press.
•Pause reps are when you hold your position for a few seconds between the positive and negative section of an exercise.
•So if you were doing a chin up, you would hold yourself up halfway for 3-5 seconds, and then repeat the exercise.
•The momentum is taken out of your exercises which makes it more difficult. This means you will probably have to use a lighter weight then you normally do.
Forced reps
A second person is needed for these exercises but is definitely worth it.
•Forced reps are simply as if you were lifting weights normally, but once you reach your maximum, for example 10 reps on a 60kg bench press, you have someone to give you a tiny bit of help so that you can squeeze in an extra few reps.
•They mustn’t help you too much; a tiny pull or push from your partner will enable you to keep lifting the weight.
•Stop the exercise as soon as your partner has to do most the work.
Negatives
As already explained above, the negative part of an exercise is usually when you are lowering the weight.
•Negative exercises are when you take 3-10 seconds to lower the weight after each rep.
•Like pause reps, there isn’t any momentum to assist you so this exercise will make the heaviness of the weights you’re used to a bit harder.
Partial Reps
These are very useful for building muscle. Partial reps are essentially ‘part’ of a full rep.
•You push or pull the weight as normal, but when lowering the weight, you only go half way.
•This method can allow you to fit more reps into your set. For example, if you managed to do 8 full reps on a bicep curl (each time your arm was fully contracted and then fully extended), you could try and fit in an extra few partial reps (each time your arm would be fully contracted and then half extended).
•This muscle building concept can also let you lift weights that are normally a bit a bit too heavy for you to do full reps on.
