There is no bigger dissapointment than buying that newest and best supplement, only to find out it did nothing for you. So now what, you are out another 30-60 dollars depending on what you bought and are still in the same boat as you were two weeks ago. What can I do? Should I hire a personal trainer that will make me use all those fancy balls, bands and balancing exercises? Well wrong again. I am a personal trainer and hate when I see a fellow trainer making up these ridiculous exercises so that they look intelligent.

Doing exercises that have you balancing on balls and using the rubber bands are only going to help someone that is elderly who needs to work on their balance or a person that is rehabbing from an injury. The only way to increase strength and put on pounds of muscle is through hard work with old fashion iron. I am already doing that you might say.

My answer to you is that if you are working out with mostly barbells and dumbbells for your compound basic exercises and a few machine/cables for your isolation exercise then the problem is not what you’re doing at the gym, it is how you are doing these exercise. Intensity is what I am getting at. If you use a few of my ten intensity technique then there is no way that you will be stuck at your plateau. These techniques are to be used sparingly because when used too often one can find themselves overtraining. Now go to the gym and hit that iron with one of these new techniques and email me back your thoughts about them.

1. Training To Failure On Every Set

This seems straight forward.  Just do every set for as many reps as you can. It is that simple, but there are a few things that you need to know. Make sure that at the beginning of your workout, like always, you warm up. On your warm up sets DO NOT TRAIN TO FAILURE. Only train to failure on your working sets. Also when you go from one exercise to the next make sure that you use a warm up set to begin that exercise. This is a great high intensity technique but as you will find like all the techniques on the list you will get tired very quickly. Your workout should not last more than 30-40 minutes, anything more will be overtraining. When you use this technique you don’t have to use as many total working sets.

2. Stretching After Training

Most people hate stretching, and I am one of them. I do it anyways, because stretching after training helps to flush out all the lactic acid in the muscles that have accumulated throughout my workout. If one stretches effectively after a workout they will have less post workout soreness. Also, if all that lactic acid is out of your muscles ASAP, then your body can start recovering from its workout sooner. Some might say that they stretch before and during their exercises as well. This is good if you are looking to increase flexibility, but if you are looking to push around some heavy iron, then these stretches will diminish your strength. So hit the iron hard and stretch those muscles after so that your body can start recovering from your workout.

3. Posing And Flexing During And After Training

For all you bodybuilders out there, I don’t need to explain the importance of posing/flexing during and after your workout. Posing/flexing are excellent exercises for the muscle. After finishing a set of say barbell curls you hit a front double bicep.   Now that set has lasted twice as long. Well you might say I am not using any weight. My answer is, try it. You don’t even need to do a curl before you pose/flex. Right now flex both biceps as hard as you can. Look at the clock. After 30 seconds has passed, relax.  Now think about using this technique after you had just finished a set of barbell curls. Intense, huh?  This technique lets you bring your muscles to complete failure. Also, if you want to step on stage you will need to be able to comfortably hold all your poses for a length of time.

4. Drop Sets

Drop sets are excellent for someone with limited time or just someone who wants to inflict a little more punishment on themselves during their workout. Drop sets are performed by doing as many reps as you can with a certain weight. Rack the weight then have your training partner or yourself take off a little weight and repeat the set to failure. Have a training partner there to take off the weight makes the drop set a lot harder because there is less time to rest. If you don’t have a training partner then your best bet for great drop sets would be to use cables or machines that have pin adjustments so you can go from one weight to the next within seconds.

5. Negatives

How could anything negative help with a workout?  Well after you give negatives a try, you will realize that negatives are a great way to build strength and put on those extra pounds. To perform negatives you will need a training partner. The training partner helps you on the concentric part of the exercise and you perform the eccentric part of the exercise.

The concentric part of the bench press would be pushing the weight away from your chest and the eccentric part would be lower the weight to your chest. In a pull up the concentric part would be pulling yourself up and the eccentric part would be lowering yourself down. How does this help? With negatives you use a weight that is too heavy for you to push or pull. Your body is a lot stronger in the eccentric part of the exercise than in the concentric part of the exercise, therefore able to move more weight. You perform the eccentric part slowly and under control and your training partner should help you on the concentric part.

6. Super Sets

Now for the advanced bodybuilders out there, super sets will be something that they are familiar with. Even the beginner might know what super sets are, but still are a little shaky about incorporating this technique into their program. To super set you need to perform two different exercises in a row without taking a rest. The exercise can be for the same muscle or a different one. If you are going to workout two different muscles then the best combinations would be: Biceps/Triceps – Back/Chest – Quads/ Hams. You do not have to do them in this order, like Triceps first and then Biceps.

I would stick with these combinations because they are the antagonist of the other so when one is working the other is resting. Performing Supersets with one muscle group is a great way to get an insane pump in a short amount of time. Like drop sets, super sets will condense your workout, so you will not be in the gym as long. This is an excellent way to shock your muscles which are used to rest periods after one set. As with many of these high intensity techniques, they need to be done sparingly so that when you perform these techniques it will be a shock to your body.

7. Pre-Exhaust

Pre- Exhaust is an excellent way to help jump start a certain muscle into new growth. To pre-exhaust a muscle you have to start by performing an isolation exercise and then follow that up with a compound movement. An example of this would be flat bench dumbbell flies that are followed by flat bench presses. Pre-exhaustion is excellent for all muscle groups, but especially works well for your muscles that are lagging in improvements. One of the many reasons that these muscles fall behind is because when you are performing the compound movements your secondary muscles (the muscle or muscles that assists the main muscle in lifting the weight.

An example would be triceps and anterior deltoids assisting the pectorals in the bench press) do most of the work which takes a lot of stress off the intended muscle being exercised. Isolation sets only work one muscle at a time with minimal assistance from other muscles. By performing the isolation exercise first, the muscle gets exhausted so when you perform a compound movement next the muscle will already be engaged so the secondary muscle will help only in assisting not doing most of the work.

8. Rest Pause Sets

Rest Pause Sets will help you smash through your plateau. A rest pause set is performed by performing an exercise to failure then raking the weight and rest for 10-12 seconds, then pick up the weight and perform as many reps as you can. I would have a training partner there if you are doing an exercise in which you might drop the weight on you if you can’t finish the exercise. (e.g. Bench press, Squat, leg press, etc.) If you are performing any bicep or back exercise you probably will be able to do them on your own. This helps to burn those deep muscle fibers that were not stimulated in the first set to failure.

9. Decreasing Rest Periods between Sets

I see this problem all the time being a personal trainer. People come up to me and ask me why they aren’t making any progress in the gym. They tell me that they are there for an hour and a half five days a week. After watching them for five minutes I see the problem. They have only performed one set in that five minute period. If you are one of those people that go down to the gym and love to talk and don’t know why you aren’t getting any bigger, you should read up. The only athletes that should ever take five minutes between a set are power lifters and even then that is on the high side. If you take long rests between your set you can kiss away a good pump.

It does not matter how many nitric oxide products that you are using, a pump will only happen if you are working out hard with minimal rest periods. Now I am not saying that you should forgo your rest periods but anything over the 2 minute mark is way too high. I like to keep my rests periods at about 45-60 seconds between sets. There is an exception to this rule and that is when I am performing heavy Dead lifts and Squats. These compound exercises work almost all the muscles in your body, if being performed correctly. I will take a 1 - 2 minute rest so that I have enough energy to do the next set. Decreasing your rest periods between set is an excellent way to increase your intensity.

10. Taking A Week Off From The Gym

Now how can you get past a plateau if you are not at the gym you might ask? Well most of the people who hit plateaus are not doing anything wrong in the gym they just do not know when to go home. I have seen many people, myself included, who work themselves into a plateau. Maybe they are going to the gym too often or not taking enough rest days or have too many things to juggle. What ever it is, for some reason they feel that more is always better.

Well, it’s not. Everybody needs to take a week off from the gym. You might say, I am going to lose a lot of muscle. Wrong. Muscle was not built in a week, and it won’t be lost after a week.  With a good diet you will be fine. Not only will this give you time to assess your program, it will also give your joints and muscles time to fully recover. When you go back to the gym you will be all fired up to lift a personal best or put on a few more pounds. It is up to you.

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