Weight Training Tips and Articles

High Rep Squats

  How much intensity you train with is one of the most important factors in how much muscle size and strength you gain from weight training. If you just go through the motions without pushing yourself to lift more weight or do more reps per set than you did at your last workout you’ll maintain what you have, but won’t gain more size and strength. Beginner weight trainers especially need to do intense workouts and hit every muscle group regularly.

  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.

Do Forced Reps For More Weight Training Intensity

  If you weight train it’s important to train with a lot of intensity to build more muscle mass and strength. If you just go through the motions and use the same amount of weight for the same amount of sets and exercises during each workout how can you expect to make gains. Challenge yourself, gain some strength, and eventually you’ll get bigger.

  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.

Finish Off Your Weight Training Workouts With Drop Sets

  When you weight train you want to get that pumped feeling in the muscles you are working. You should also have that pump at the end of your workouts. One great way to get a great pump in your muscles is to do drop sets.

  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.