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Bodybuilding Program
Lesson 7-Intensity not Longevity
Sweat Eventually Hardens to Muscle, Really! by
Scott Jameson
You’ve just worked-out and spent an hour and half in the gym. You stayed focused, lifted and avoided making the gym floor a social area. You did your duty…right?…well maybe or did you just loaf through the motions?
The next level up from not wasting your time in the gym is pushing your time in the gym to be intense. Sweat really will eventually harden to muscle. The norm today seems to be to do a set and rest 5 minutes. What are you a power lifter or a bodybuilder?
The body returns to about 80-90% of the original strength in about 60 seconds. In one minute you should be able to swap plate and take a brief rest. But now back to gas. Tear down those muscle fibers, force feed the blood into the veins, make the muscles bloat into pump and cause the body to tax the respiratory system to the point of sweating! Now that is intensity.
Now take a minute (maybe a minute and half) to swap and rest. Now get going again. Remember I said that your strength recovers to 80-90% in the first 60 seconds. Well if you are tearing down your muscles on each set, your muscles are weakening. Good! Muscle recovery is really 80-90% of your previous set’s strength. You are working yourself down in weight. This is good.
Lower your weight; do not increase your rest time.
Need I mention that intense workouts are going to require a training partner. How else are you going to move this quick, get a spot to be safe and push your sets to failure. It screams partner!
Here’s the Set Cycle:
- Start your set
- Do reps to the point failure, force reps or negatives. Help me partner.
- Rest minute to minute and half. (I’ll concede that there are differences between bodies)
- Start your next set (repeat back to step 1)
Once you have completed your sets within in an exercise group, take a 2-3 minutes rest to replace the weight, get a drink of water and locate and start your next exercise.
Here's an Example for Training the Back:
T Bar Rows
- Start set 1 of T bar rows
- Rest 1 minute
- Start set 2
- Rest 1 minute
- Set 3
- Rest
- Set 4
Rest 2-3 minutes before going to next exercise
Wide Grip Chins
- Start Set 1
- Rest 1 minute
- Set 2
- Rest
- Set 3
- Rest
- Set 4
Repeat this Set Cycle for your remaining back exercises, Close Grip Rows and One arm dumbbell rows.
Take 5 minutes rest between body parts.
At the end of the routine the Back should be fried. If your next body part is Biceps, it’s okay to take 5 minutes between body parts. Your Back has gotten all it’s gonna get and it should have been a good one.
But use those 5 minutes to prepare yourself mentally for the Bicep routine.
Here are the benefits of Intensity Training:
- Accelerated Gains…and isn’t that what it’s all about
- Creates a good soreness of the muscles for a couple of days
- Elevated heart rate and aerobics benefit
- Reduced time to complete your bodybuilding routine so that you can:
- Use this time to add in few extra sets of Abs or consider adding another body part to your routine.
- You use as an early out the gym occasionally
If you can now finish your routine in 45 minutes, you really need to consider upping the content of your routine. One hour is a minimal amount of time to workout. A routine with an hour and half content will move you faster to your goals. I am sure you might have weak body part that could be trained twice a week. Or do some specialty muscle training like neck exercises.
This was true for me. Sometime ago, I found I could do Bi’s and Tri’s in about 45 minutes. So I added forearms into my routine as a complimentary part. I also added some additional Ab work.
Implement Intensity training into your routines and harden up!
"Sweat eventually hardens to Muscle"…. Scott
This article is property of Bodybuilding Program Zone and may not be reproduced without written permission from Scott Jameson. Besides it wouldn't be right....Scott
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