SHOCKING PRINCIPLE:

The body is amazingly adaptable, so if you continue to use the same workout you body will come accustom to it. This principle deals with changing things up. Change in itself is shocking to the body. Here are a list of some things that you can change: poundage, sets, reps, time between sets, exercises, time you work out, number of exercises, order of exercises, and many more, just get creative.

FORCED REPS:

Once you have reached failure, have your partner or someone in the gym help you squeeze out a couple more reps. This ensures that you have utilized maximum effort. If you don�t have a partner, one thing you could do would be do go to failure, let the wait set for just a couple of seconds and then squeeze one or two more out.

PARTIAL REPS:

This technique is best to use after you have already brought your muscles to failure and you can no longer do a complete rep. This is a way of training parts of muscles that are not yet fatigued when the weak part of the muscle will no longer perform. Many people say that this is a bad technique because you are operating in the full range of motion, however, how are you supposed to train muscle areas when part of that muscle won�t even allow you to get there.

ISOLATION TRAINING:

This method deals with training a very specific muscle group. Often times people focus on compound lifts such as the bench press which works several muscles. However, if you have a problem muscle such as your pectoral it would be very beneficial to give it some special attention. Like by doing fly�s.

NEGATIVE REPS:

This is one of my favorites. This is a great way to shock the muscle. Most people only focus on the contractile phase of a lift. However, this is only half of the lift. The negative part of the rep actually puts a completely different strain on the muscles, it forces them to apply force when the muslces are actually lengthening. Negatives reps are achieved best if a partner can help you easily get the positive phase of the lift, so you can really focus on controlling the weight on the way down. Another great addition to this is to have your partner actually press down on the weight or bar to increase the resistance.

CHEATING METHOD:

This intensity booster is what most people would say is a big no no, and that is to not use strict form when attempting a lift. Agreed you should do as many as you can with good form, however, if you have to cheat on the last couple it will only help stress the muscle that much more. You just half to remember to not get to crazy and hurt your self. If you think about it you probably have used this technique before, such as while doing a curl. By just swing your body a little bit you were able to get that last rep.

STAGGERED SETS:

Staggered Sets involve doing a number of sets of a body part you want to train with increased intensity in between other exercises throughout your workout. For example; on a back day you would do sets for you calves in between each back set. This method is great for bringing around that one stubborn body part.

PRIORITY PRINCIPLE:

This principle involves giving any area of your physique that is weak or behind in development priority in your workout over other more responsive areas. This seems simple, but you always see people with huge biceps always doing bicep exercises because that is where their confidence lies. However, a lot of the time they will completely neglect a given body part and have a very obvious weakness like their legs. There are several ways to prioritize. The easiest is to just put your problem area first in your workout so you work that body part when you are freshest.

SUPERSETS:

Supersetting is putting two excises back to back without rest. One great way to utilize this technique is by switching off between pushing and pulling exercises. For instance, do bench press and then quickly jump to rows. The Idea behind this is that while one muscle group is working the opposite is stretching and vice versa. This will really increase your pump, which a lot of bodybuilders feel is what stimulates muscle growth. Try this with arms and you will have the best pump that you have ever had.

STRIPPING:

In my opinion this is one of the best ways to get the most out of your workout. The stripping method is where as you approach failure at one weight you quickly drop the weight and then squeeze out several more reps. You can keep doing this until you can no longer lift your arms. Lots of people go to failure at a given weight, but that doesn�t mean you have reached failure, all that you have done is reach failure at that given weight. This will insure that you have completely fatigued your muscles that you are working.

PRE-EXHAUST:

Many people are not completely balanced when it comes to complete body strength, so do to the nature of many lifts, especially compound lifts, given body parts are not stressed enough. For example, if you have week chest strength, your chest will give out quicker when doing bench press than your triceps. This makes it difficult to increase the strength in your triceps if you never reach failure with them. The idea behind pre-exhaustion is to fatigue your triceps before you begin your bench press. That way they will run out of steam at the same time as your chest.

ISOTENSION:

Most of the time when you are in between sets you sit down and take a break. However, you could be better utilizing that time. Isotension is the act of flexing and concentrating on the muscle you are working inbetween sets. This will increase your pump as well as keep your muscle warm.

I GO / YOU GO:

This principle is a fun way to increase you and your partners intensity. This principle is accomplished by switching on and off with your partner for a given lift. This way you can be resting while your partner is lifting and vice versa. This is best utilized by not adding any rest inbetween, just continue to switch off until you both cannot continue.

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