A Heavy Duty routine calls for as little as 1 or 2 sets per exercise and only a few exercises per muscle. Every set must be done to failure and possibly even beyond it with forced rep and other high intensity techniques. With the set count so low, only major compound exercises should be done.

  To do a Heavy Duty weight training routine effectively you really need to know your body and have the ability to get a lot out of each and every set you do. It’s not a good idea for a beginner to try Heavy Duty since they are still trying to learn proper exercise form and how their body reacts to weight training. A good time to try Heavy Duty would be when you feel you’ve been overtraining for a while. If your body feels beat up and you weight train almost every day for hours at a time you could give Heavy Duty a try to get more recovery and allow your body to “catch up” and build more muscle and strength.

  The 10 sets of 10 workout sounds simple enough - you do 10 sets of 10 reps. Waht makes it interesting is that you take a major compound exercise for the muscle group you’re training that day and do 10 sets of 10 reps with one minute of rest between sets using a weight that you can normally do for 20 reps to failure. For example, if you’re doing a chest workout and can usually do 175 lbs. for 20 reps on the bench press you take that 175 lbs. and do 10 sets of it for 10 repititions each set with one minute of rest between sets. It’s much harder to do than you would think. While the first 3 or 4 sets should be relatively easy and shouldn’t bring you very close to failure, you’ll be struggling by the middle sets and may not even be able to get the 10 reps by the last couple of sets if you’ve never tried this before. No matter what, the 7th through 10th sets will be very intense.

  If you’re going to try the 10 sets of 10 reps workout you should use a major exercise for whatever muscle you’re working. This means bench presses for chest, deadlifts for lower back, rows or pulldowns/pull-ups for the upper back, military or dumbbell presses for the shoulders, squats or leg presses for the quadriceps, leg curls for the hamstrings, curls for the biceps, or tricep extensions for the triceps. If you decide to try this workout you will only need to do one exercise for the muscle you’re training - you won’t need to do any more exercises or sets. Because of this you shouldn’t be trying the 10 sets of 10 workout with isolation exercises.

  Even though you’re only using one exercise per muscle when you try the 10 X 10 workout you will feel it the next day, and probably for a couple of days after that. The intensity of the 10 X 10 workout is no joke. This workout is something you should only do for 2 or 3 weeks at a time to kick your weight training workouts back into gear before going back to your normal routine.

  One great technique to use for any biceps exercise is to get a few extra “cheat” reps when you’re doing a set of curls after you’ve done as many with good form as possible. Once you get to the point where can’t do another rep with good form bend your back a bit and straighten it to get the weight up. When you have the weight at the top part of a rep lower it as slowly as possible. Doing this allows you to take advantage of the negative part of a repitition when you’re doing sets of biceps exercises. This should give you a great pump in the bis and give you a better chance at more muscle growth in the arms. You can use cheat reps on pretty much any biceps exercise.

  Another great way to add some high intensity weight training into your biceps workout is to do some drop sets. To do drop sets for biceps do a set of curls and when you get to failure drop the weight and do more reps. You can drop the weight a few times if you want to get a great burn in the biceps. Barbell, dumbbell, cable, preacher, or concentration curls will all work well for drop sets. Drop sets are best used as a finisher to a biceps workout.

  One of the most intense weight training workouts you can do is one involving high rep squats. If you’ve hit a plateau in your leg workouts or just want to try something that’ll boost your weight training intensity, a couple of sets of high rep squats may be right up your alley. 1 or 2 sets of squats for 25 to 50 reps will give you a great boost in testosterone and help you build more muscle in the quadriceps and hamtrings. In fact, after doing a couple of sets of high rep squats you may not need to do much more for your legs during that training session. Use a weight you know you can handle for a good 20 to 25 reps and once you hit that many reps rest and breathe between reps to crank out as many more reps as you can. You’ll be surprised at how much you may be able to do. This will cause you to breathe a lot and your hands may even get a bit numb from all of the blood rushing to your legs.

  Another great trick you can do with high rep squats is to do a set of dumbbell pullovers immediately after your squat set. Since you’ll be breathing so hard from the squats doing a set of pullovers will help stretch the rib cage out and help give you a larger upper body appearance.

  If you decide to try high rep squat sets during your leg and hamstring workouts you’ll likely need up to 10 minutes of rest after completing a set or superset with pullovers. If you don’t give yourself enough rest you could end up vomiting. Yes, that’s how intense high rep squats can be if you go all out.

  One great way to get more intensity in your weight training workouts is to use forced reps. Forced reps are extra reps that you do on a set that you’ve already went to failure on with the help of a spotter. If you are bench pressing and can’t possibly get one more rep have a spotter assist you for a couple of more.

  Forced reps are best done on certain exercises. Bench press and shoulder press exercises are perfect for getting some extra forced reps with the help of a spotter, as well as many bicep and tricep exercises. Pull-ups are another exercise you can use forced reps on by having a spotter give you a boost to finish a few extra reps. You can also get some assisted forced reps on certain leg exercises such as leg presses, leg extensions, leg curls, and hack squats.

  When you have a spotter help you with some extra reps be sure not to overdo it. Too many forced reps could very well lead to overtraining. Just try to get 1 or 2 extra assisted reps on a few sets per workout. If you get to the point where your spotter is working almost as hard as you are while they assist you, you’re doing too many. Just having their hands under the bar with a small amount of assistance is all you should need for an extra rep or 2.

  Try some forced reps on a few exercises and eventually you should be able to get those extra reps by yourself.

  While drop sets will give that pumped feeling in your muscles during your weight training workouts, doing them early in your workout may take too much out of you and negatively affect the rest of you workout. Because of this, you should save drop sets for the very end of your workouts to finish them with that pumped up feeling.

  To perform a drop set take a weight you can do on a weight training exercise for 8-10 reps, do those 8-10 reps, then quickly drop the weight by anywhere from 25-50% and continue doing reps until you can’t do anymore. If you want you can drop the weight a few times to really pump up the muscle you are training.

  Drop sets are best done on exercises performed on machine, with cables, or with fixed barbells or dumbbells because you can quickly change the weight you are using. If you want to do drop sets on certain compound exercises like the bench press you’ll be best off having somebody quickly drop the weight for you.

  Since you are saving your drop sets for the end of your weight training workouts you should stick with isolation style exercises for them. Try machine flyes, dumbell flyes, or cable crossovers for chest, cable pulldowns or rows for upper back, leg extensions for quadriceps, and leg curls for hamstrings. You will be able to easily and quickly drop the weight on these exercises. Most shoulder, bicep, tricep, and calf exercises can be used for drop sets.

  Do 2 or 3 drop sets to finish off every muscle workout for some added intensity and to finish with that all important pump.