Alright here we go. As you probably have read in the first article (if you didn’t, here is the link:
), we finished speaking about types of muscle actions. Now we will finish this article speaking about other important aspects of training:
REST INTERVAL LENGTH: research has suggested that resting at least 2’ between sets provides a hypertrophic advantage compared to shorter rest periods. One smart strategy to be used is to imply longer rest periods for free weight compound movements, and shorter periods for single joint and machine exercises.
REPETITION DURATION: it is the sum of the eccentric, concentric and isometric components of a lift, which is represented by TEMPO. TEMPO can be utilised as a 4 digit model (x-x-x-x) where the first digit would be the eccentric motion, the 2nd would be the transition between eccentric and concentric, the 3rd is the concentric motion, and the 4th is the transition from concentric to eccentric. Ex; a TEMPO of 4-2-1-1 means – 4 seconds lowering the weight, 2 seconds pause at the bottom, 1 second lift and 2 second pause at the top. As you exhaust, obviously the concentric portion will get slower, but that is not an issue. It is desirable actually. Current research suggest there is little to no difference between repetition durations from 0.5 to 6 seconds. Training at very slow repetition rations (>10 seconds per rep) appears to produce inferior increases in muscle growth.
EXERCISE ORDER: current guidelines prescribe placing large-muscle, multi-joint exercises early in a workout, and placing small-muscle, single-joint movements later. Studies suggest though that whichever muscles are worked early in a workout will have greater hypertrophy than those performed in the end of the workout. That suggest a benefit to working lagging body parts early in a workout, keeping energy and focus on the sets of most importance.
RANGE OF MOTION: the literature generally shows a hypertrophic benefit to training through a full ROM, particularly in the stretched position for both upper and lower body.
INTENSITY OF EFFORT: it is generally gauged by the proximity to muscular failure, which is when the muscle can’t generate movement in a given joint anymore. Provided sets are carried with a high intensity of effort, loads as low as 30% of 1RM (repetition max, meaning you can’t perform more than one rep. If it’s 10RM, you can’t perform more than 10 reps, so on so forth) can produce significant results in terms of hypertrophy. The lighter you train, the closer to failure you have to get.
And there you go. Here you have an almost complete guide to progress “forever” with your training. Obviously there is much more to it. If it was that easy, everybody would be already in pretty good shape. But my intention with this article is to bring you guidelines that will help you optimize your training, so you get closer and closer to your objectives. Training goes way beyond reps and set schemes, or exercise selection. It is of utmost importance to consider as well psychological and even socioeconomic aspects (some people just don’t have money to invest in a personal trainer, for example). But following those guidelines will allow you to stay on track and make faster progress than you normally would if you had to just guess what you are doing in the gym.
In my next article I will speak about one of my favourite methods for continuous progreesion: the “Kaizen Method”. Stay tuned!!
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