Muscles can be stubborn bastards! The human body is very adaptive, it can quickly adjust to stress and changes. This applies to bodybuilding and and form of resistance training.
Seasoned lifters will know that sooner or later you’re going to hit a sticking point. You won’t be able to gain any weight or strength. This is commonly referred to as a plateau. Everyone gets them, and experienced lifters know what to do. You need to change.
There are countless ways you can change your workouts to get your body growing again but today we’re going to look at ways to change your lifting to get that little bit more out of your muscles, make them work harder, shock them into growth!
Just a quick note, these techniques should not be used every workout. Using them too often defeats the purpose. Only shock a particular muscle group once every 3-4 weeks.
5 Shock Techniques For Growth:
- Supersets
Good ol’ supersets. Been around for years and are extremely effective. There are 2 types of supersets, same muscle group and opposing muscle groups. Opposing muscle group supersets are used to save time by training opposing muscles (like chest/back or hams/glutes) without any rest. What we’re focusing on is same muscle group supersets. A superset simple means you perform 2 sets without any rest in between. Good examples of supersets for muscle shock are bench press/flys, lat pull down/row, close grip bench/tricep pushdown, chin ups/bicep curl etc etc. Be creative! Supersets with a compound movement first, followed by an isolation movement work really well. - Drop sets
Drop sets are one of those shock techniques that if done correctly can blast you through a tough plateau. Drop sets work by forcing more reps out by dropping weight off gradually, this forces more blood into the target muscle group and causes more muscle tearing, which promotes more growth after the repair of muscle tissue. Drop sets are simple. Do a set until you can’t perform another rep, drop the weight, do another set, drop the weight…and so on. You can do anywhere from 3-6 sets in total. One of the most popular types of drop sets is “down the rack” dumbbell bicep curls where you start off at a normal curl weight and move down the rack, going to failure on each set. - Negatives
Like pain? I’m sure you do! Well, you’re in for a treat here! An exercise movement is divided up into 2 parts; the positive phase which is the contraction of the muscle, and the negative phase witch is the stretching of the muscle. Negatives focus on overloading your muscles on the negative stage. Negatives can be done with almost any exercise. What you do is load up the bar with more weight than you can usually lift, start the exercise at the top position and lower the bar for a count of 5. Raise the bar, and repeat. Some negative exercises can dangerous (for example the bench) so make sure you have the spotters to back you up! - Pyramid sets
Just like the name suggests, pyramid sets start at a certain number of reps (usually 12) and pyramid up and back down, adding weight on the way up and dropping it on the way down. For example: set 1 - 12 reps @ 50kg, set 2 - 10 reps @ 60kg, set 3 - 8 reps @ 70kg, set 4 - 6 reps @ 80kg then the reverse on the way back down. Pyramids have been proven to be very effective in increasing strength and pushing through plateaus. - Pre-fatiguing muscle groups
Not used as often as the first 4 techniques, pre-fatiguing works by hitting a muscle group with an isolation exercise until fatigue the with no rest between sets hitting the same muscle group with a compound exercise. A good example would be doing a set of flat bench flys, and following it up with barbell or dumbbell bench press. Like supersets, you can make up loads of combinations with different muscle groups and exercises. So don’t be afraid to try out your own combos.
That’s it for today. There are plenty more techniques, feel free to leave some of your own in the comments below! Now get back in the gym and train like fu*k!
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