STICK TO YOUR PRINCIPLES!

8 Great Muscle-Building Strategies

by Wayne Levitt, C.S.C.S.

Attention all you weightroom warriors who perform the same exercises over and over. Here are eight of the best training methods. Each is illustrated with an exercise for a specific muscle. Each principle, however, can be applied to most other muscles. We recommend that you review the principles now, then try one at a time during weight-training sessions. Many of the principles are stressful, so you must scale down on weight poundages lifted. Sets and reps should also be closely monitored. Be aware that you won’t like or take to every principle. And some principles won’t work for every muscle group. It’s the variations that are key, and between eight principles, eight muscle groups and any number of exercises, you can be doing new and stimulating maneuvers for years to come.

PARTIAL REPETITIONS
SHOULDERS — Dumbbell Military Presses
For this principle you perform a standard up-and-down set of repetitions
(1 & 2). Upon finishing the last rep, you instead continue, performing reps
halfway (3). You continue until you cannot do a single rep more. It’s better to
use light or medium weights so as not to strain at any time.

UP & DOWN THE RACK
BICEPS — Single-Arm Dumbbell Curls
You begin with a light weight and do three repetitions. A small amount of weight is then added (‘going up the rack’) for three more reps. This continues until the heaviest weight is used. Upon completion of this set, you move back ‘down the rack,’ doing mini-sets of progressively lighter weights down to the original weight.

FORCED REPETITIONS
TRAPEZIUS — Single-Arm Dumbbell Upright Rows
A cousin of partial reps, forced reps allow you to continue once muscle exhaustion has been reached. Perform a standard set of any exercise using one arm, like dumbbell upright rows (1 & 2), then use the other hand to help perform a few more reps (3).

NEGATIVE REPETITIONS
FOREARMS — Seated Palms-Up Barbell Wrist Curls
This ‘role reversal’ idea simply puts the emphasis on the lowering of the weight, rather than the usual raising. For example, with the exercise illustrated you begin in what would normally be considered the ‘up’ position, with wrists curled up. Then you lower them slowly, when the muscles under attack produce the most force.

TRISETTING
CHEST — Barbell Bench Presses
Utilizing trisets is simply doing three exercises back-to-back-to-back for one muscle group with little or no rest in between. In the illustrated exercises, a great chest triset is doing five repetitions of close-grip bench press (1), five for medium-grip bench press (2) and five for wide-grip bench press (3). These combine to work the inner, middle and outer chest muscles.

FLEXING
TRICEPS — Seated
Dumbbell Kickbacks
A small but effective change during
repetitions, this involves flexing the muscle being worked. Perform regular repetitions, then at the end of each flex the muscle hard for a few seconds.

POWER PAUSING
THIGHS — Barbell Squats
This involves working with heavy weights and doing the most repetitions you can. You do two or three reps, then rest for up to a minute, do a couple more reps at the same weight, then pause and lift once more.

PYRAMIDING
BACK — Bent-Over Barbell Rows
Another weight-changer, only this time the repetitions change too. You do multiple reps (12-16) with a very light weight, then add weight and do a few less reps. This continues for a total of six sets, until you have a heavy weight with only two reps. n