What Does It Take To Make Improvements In The Gym?
It takes more than just going to the gym and doing the same exact thing every single time you go there. You can be consistent, but if you always do the same thing, you may not see the improvements you’re looking for. Most of us get into weight training to reach certain goals. If you aren’t getting there, it’s gonna be a huge letdown. Eventually, you may even quit it altogether. So what does it take to make improvements in the gym?
Weight Training Is Hard Work
Weight training by itself is a very intense form of exercise. Lifting weights can be quite taxing, but you have to push yourself. Always just going through the motions isn’t going to get you anywhere. Why waste your time? You should constantly be trying to go beyond what you could do before in the name of progressive resistance during every single workout.
Creating Progressive Resistance
So how do you create this progressive resistance? The thing is that to really get the progress you are looking for you is to do more than you can do now. You aren’t gonna get any stronger if you always use the same amount of weight for the same amount of sets and repetitions. This means you have to constantly break through your ceiling by using more weight or doing more reps.
Record What You Do
It’s best to record your exercises, set, reps, and any other data that may be relevant when you weight train. This way you can know what you are trying to beat next time you do that particular workout. There are plenty of great apps on your smartphone specifically meant for this or you can go old school and bring a log book.
Go Beyond Failure
While straight sets to failure will do the job, there will come a point where you may want to do some more high-intensity weight training. There are some incredible techniques for boosting your weight training intensity. Anything that has you going beyond positive failure can be considered among these techniques.
Popular Intensity Boosters
Some of the most popular are supersets, which are 2 or more sets of different exercises done immediately after one another, and drop sets, which are done by decreasing weight after failure and continuing with more reps. You’ve probably taken advantage of these basic intensity techniques. Why not try something unique to boost the intensity of your workouts and help save time as well? Here we’ll discuss a variety of techniques, some commonly known and others that may open your eyes to different ways to go about your weight training.
Decrease Rest Periods Between Sets
One change I’ve made to my own workouts to boost intensity is to decrease my rest time between sets. This just makes sense as I don’t try to max out all of the time anymore. By timing my rest periods I can still lift optimally and keep my heart rate high for a better overall workout.
While I’ve been timing my rest periods recently, you don’t have to go overboard with it. Sometimes, you might want to say hey to a friend at the gym. Relax, and just make sure to time rest periods the majority of the time.
Different Rest Times For Different Exercises
This doesn’t mean I’m turning my lifting into a cardio workout by any means. On squats and deadlifts, at least 2 minutes of rest time is what I’m going for. However, on some arm exercises and isolation exercises for larger muscle groups, I might only rest for 75 or 80 seconds. If I’m training one limb at a time, I may only rest for 60 seconds because each limb gets more rest when I’m training the opposite side. Honestly, it feels like any less than that is too hard to maintain.
Forced Reps To Boost Weight Training Intensity
One of the most common ways to increase weight training intensity is to use forced reps. This technique involves performing additional repetitions beyond what would normally be possible for you to do yourself. For example, if you can bench press a weight ten times before your muscles fail, you may perform two forced reps with the help of a spotter during your chest workouts. This will help to push your muscles beyond their normal limits, leading to greater gains in strength and size.
Benefits Of Forced Reps
If you find yourself stuck at a certain weight, performing forced reps with a slightly heavier weight can help you break through that barrier and continue making progress. Doing some forced reps at the end of a set can lead to being able to eventually do those extra reps without assistance.
Exercises To Do Forced Reps On
Assisted “forced” reps are best used on certain exercises. Most of these will be movements that train your “pushing” muscles of the chest, shoulders, and triceps. Bench presses, incline presses, and overhead presses are the most common of these exercises. Other exercises really don’t lend themselves to this technique properly.
Don’t Overuse Them
However, it’s important to use forced reps sparingly, as they can lead to overtraining if used too frequently. You also don’t want to over-rely on them and constantly use way more weight than you should in an attempt to feed your ego in some way. When used correctly, though, forced reps can be a powerful tool for increasing weight training intensity.
Cheat Reps For Added Intensity
One way to increase weight training intensity is to cheat reps. This involves using momentum to complete a rep, rather than strictly following the form. For example, if you are doing a bicep curl, you might use your hips to arch backward and generate some momentum to help lift the weight. Cheating reps can help you to increase the weight you are lifting, as well as the number of reps you can do. However, it is important to use caution when cheating reps, as overly improper form can lead to injuries. If you are new to weightlifting, you should learn proper form before incorporating cheat reps into your workouts.
Only Use Cheat Reps On Certain Exercises
Cheat reps are going to be best to take advantage of on isolation movements. You should never try to cheat on major compound exercises like squats, benches, and deadlifts. However, using some body English to get up a couple more biceps curl reps or performing some “bouncing” reps on a set of calf raises can be great intensity boosters. Just be sure not to overdo it.
Boost Weight Training Intensity With Supersets
Weight training intensity can be greatly increased by doing supersets. A superset is two or more exercises performed consecutively without rest. This technique can be used with free weights, bodyweight exercises, or weight machine exercises, and sometimes even with a combination of them.
Benefits Of Supersets
By doing supersets, you can increase the amount of work you get done in a shorter period of time. Additionally, supersets can help to increase the intensity of your workouts by forcing your muscles to work hard for an extended period of time. When using supersets to increase weight training intensity, there really are a ton of options.
Superset Exercises That Complement Each Other
Traditionally, a superset is usually done by going to failure on a set of one exercise and immediately doing a set of another exercise. In most cases, multiple exercises that target the same muscle group are done, but this isn’t always true. You can certainly superset biceps and triceps exercises together, for instance. It really depends on what you’re trying to do in your routine. The best supersets will feature exercises that complement each other, whether they are for the same or opposing muscles.
Superset Different Versions Of The Same Exercise
To increase the intensity of my workouts, I’ll do some supersets combining a set of an exercise followed immediately by an easier version of the same exercise.
One great exercise I like to use this technique on is the goblet squat. It’s a good one to do on a Bosu ball as it doesn’t require much weight. Do the goblet squats with your feet on the rounded side of the ball. Use proper form, squatting as deep as possible. When you can’t do any more on the ball, do them with your feet on the floor. At the end of that set go back to standing on the Bosu ball and continue doing squats without weight. Finish off with a set of weightless squats on the floor. As you can imagine this will finish the quads off nicely to end a leg workout.
Pre-Exhaustion
One weight training technique done with supersets that can be used to increase intensity is pre-exhaustion. This involves performing an isolation exercise for a muscle group prior to doing a compound exercise that works for that same muscle group. For example, if you are going to do a set of bench presses, you would first do a set of flys. This is best to do if you have issues targeting the muscle you are trying to train.
In the case of the chest, you may find that your front delts or triceps seem to do most of the work. By fatiguing the muscles with the flys, you will feel the chest working more when you are benching. Pre-exhaustion is an effective way to boost weight training intensity and can help you to break through plateaus in your strength and size development.
Drop Sets
Drop sets are a great way to increase weight training intensity without having to add more weight to the bar. To perform a drop set, simply start with your heaviest weight and do as many reps as you can. Then, without resting, reduce the weight by 10-20% and continue for another set. By the end of the set, you should be reaching muscular failure. This is an excellent way to increase weight training intensity without adding more weight to the bar.
Save Drop Sets For Later
I primarily use drop sets to finish off a muscle group. This isn’t something you want to do at the beginning of your workouts. Drop sets are utilized to get a nice pump as opposed to building strength on major compound exercises. Not to mention that it’s not exactly easy to do drop sets, pulling the weight off quickly, on heavy barbell exercises.
The Best Exercises To Use Drop Sets On
The best exercises to do drop sets on are isolation exercises. Cable exercises work great, as all it takes to decrease the weight is to move a pin a couple of inches up the stack. Also, some dumbbell exercises like curls or side laterals can be done to failure, then you can simply grab lighter dumbbells to continue a drop set.
Short Rests to Increase Weight Training Intensity
The first unique intensity technique I will go into here is to take a very short rest after positive failure, then continue with more reps. To do this I will take a short 5 to 10-second rest after reaching failure, then continue with more reps.
What I like to do is to go for a set of higher reps like 12 to 15 when doing this. Then I’ll count down 10 seconds and get some more reps, usually another five or so depending on the exercise. After this, I go for another 10-second break before getting another 2 or 3 reps to finish off. Usually, the total amount of reps for the entire set ends up being 20 to 25. This is a great time-saver in the gym.
Only Use Short Rests On Certain Exercises
Certain exercises lend themselves better to this great high-intensity technique. Any exercise that allows you to easily rack or put down the weight is going to work out better when going for short rest periods. Weight and cable machines are going to be easy to stop training for 10 or so seconds. Even barbells can be used depending on the exercise. Dumbbells are where I see this technique getting difficult unless you are doing biceps curls or light triceps exercises.
When To Use Short Rests
This is another intensity-boosting technique I save for the end of my workouts. Going for high reps while using short breaks after failure will produce a great pump. Many times, I may do one set with short rests followed by a drop set to finish off a muscle group.
Back-To-Back Limb Training
Training one arm or leg at a time can help correct muscle imbalances. The best way to do this is to start with the weaker side, whether you are training the upper or lower body. You go to failure with one limb and then do the same amount of reps with the other. Even if you have more left in the stronger limb you stop at the same number of reps. This should lead to the weaker side catching up to the stronger side. However, there may always be one side that’s just a little stronger than the other. It’s just the way it is for most people.
Keep The Set Going
My favorite way to boost the intensity of training one arm or leg at a time is to continue the set by repeating the whole process after repping out with each limb. If I’m doing a set of dumbbell preacher curls starting with a set done with my left arm, I’ll immediately follow it up with a set done with my right arm for the same amount of reps. Instead of ending my set here, I’ll go back to training the left arm without resting. Then it’s back to the right arm. I may do this for one more round with each limb.
One Side Gets Rest
The reason I like doing back-to-back limb training for more intensity is that since one arm or leg is getting rest so it should be ready for more when you’re finished training the other. For instance, When you are training on your left side, your right is resting. When you start training your right side, the left is getting some rest.
How I Use These High-Intensity Techniques
I use these intensity techniques after my heavy straight sets on my main exercises. With every muscle group, I like to start with some straight sets done to positive failure on one or two major compound exercises. After this, I like to do a set of an exercise using my short rests technique. My next set will likely be one where I use back-to-back limb training. There are only a handful of exercises I do supersets on, so it depends on the workout I’m doing. Usually, I’ll finish every muscle group workout with a drop set for a nice pump.
Conclusion
As you can see, there’s so much more than going through the motions when you weight train. Adding intensity really will make a difference and make those workouts so much more efficient. Do yourself a favor and give some of these high-intensity techniques a try next time you’re in the gym.
