Hyper Hypertrophy - 3 special sets you're most likely not doing

Everybody that has ever set foot in a gym has done a "set" of something with an X amount of repetitions.... duh.  The problem is that people sometimes get too comfortable and adjust to the typical sets with a given rep range.  Sometimes this isn't enough and something is further required to really shock your muscles into hypertrophy for more growth.  When your workouts are looking prime, your failure points and weights are dialed in it's time to start tweaking your sets into something more savage (yeah we're going there.)

Triple Drop Sets
If anyone has every done Neil Hill's Y3T - 9 Week Trainer then you know all about these but can still be incorporated into your workout to help maximize gains.  Well what is a triple drop set?  It's much more than your standard 8-12 rep range because it's tripled.  How?  By lowering the weight each time. 

Here's how it breaks down per set for something simply like chest fly's.  
1. Pick a weight with for a desired failure point and carry out your set normally until failure
2. Without resting, lower the weight in accordance to fail within the same rep range and work again until failure
3. Drop the weight a final time, without rest, and perform the same rep range. 


Hill's program has you go through this with varying rep ranges of 10-12 or 14-16 per drop depending on the workout.  I personally find satisfaction in starting this out heavy for a solid 8 reps and gradually increasing the rep target to the 14-16 range if possible. This is definitely something to gear toward the end of your workout and can be combined to enhance endurance and super muscular breakdown of your troubled areas.  

Another cool tip for triple drop sets?
Use them on a final set of an exercise.  Why stop at the last rep of your leg press?  Throw some plates off, bang out another few reps and drop the weight again!  It's a last ditch effort to milk each exercise for what it can truly be worth. 

Breathing Ladders
Taking a page from The Governator's Blog is something called a Breathing Ladder.  This is a sort of pyramid of repetitions that are determined by your breathing; stay with me. 

The ladder works out like this (using squats as an example):
1 squat - 1 breath
2 squats - 2 breaths
3 squats - 3 breaths
4 squats - 4 breaths
5 squats - 5 breaths
6 squats - 6 breaths
7 squats - 7 breaths
8 squats - 8 breaths
9 squats – 9 breaths
10 squats - 10 breaths

Each is basically it's own set but rest is determined by your own breathing intervals.  When I use these, adjusting the weight accordingly, it can be an helpful tool to incorporate a lot volume into a workout as well as keeping the exercise heavy and proper without beating myself to death.

This is great to throw either in the beginning or middle of a workout and is meant for compound movements after a good warmup.  Further isolation really gets the blood flow to all the right spots once you're good and primed after these.  

Timed Sets

Sometimes a muscle won't grow, you get mad and need to get savage... it's ok we feel you.  Time to let loose and hit up some timed sets and always leads to great experimentation.  The basic idea is to set a timer (3-4 minutes can do it for me) and just go. 

Had enough of chest day? Hop on a chest press machine and start pressing!
Need to get those abs hurting? Hop on a bench and start crunching!
Legs not busting out of those pants, yet?  Grab a squat rack or leg press and get going!

They key is not to go heavy but to pick a weight that the first reps can be obtained relatively easy.  After that you still might have another three minutes to go and will have to take pauses and pump out as many as you can before resting.  The lighter the weight will yield a higher volume and lower injury chances (which is what I prefer). 

3:33 mark shows Antione Vaillant going heavy on deadlifts at the end of his back workout.  This is right where the maniacal kind of volume and little rest needs to be.  This is a great finisher to those stubborn parts that you're just sick and fucking tired of.  



-Pq

Building Your Wingsuit: My Biggest Tips for Your Biggest Back

It's not touched often, it isn't touched hard and its something that can be accomplished alone; of course I'm talking about your back.  Overshadowed by the biggest "Bro exercises" such as the flat "Bro" bench, "Bro" shrugs and "Bro" dumbell curls it seems overshadowed what a big back can do for the rest of your routine.  While "Bro" shrugs can help get you decent traps it takes more to build your Trapezius (traps) and Latissmus dorsi (lats) muscles.

Keeping in mind that the back muscles (when used correctly) are also incorporated into solid benching and chest training.   For myself it has also generated a very strong core and provided a basis for not only busting any moderately fitting dress shirt but granted the ability to carry through many exercises that are heavy on core stabilization (big squats anyone?)

While I admit it might be one of my favorite muscle groups to train, because of its strength I have been able to breeze other muscle groups up with greater confidence and encourage others to do the same for their backs.  I have my reasons for this and here are some tips to keep in mind.

Don't Be Afraid
This is the most important in my book and should be top for everyone else as well.  It is easy to keep in mind that any type of back work should be kept fearless.  What does that mean?  The majority of the exercises going into building your lats and traps are a type of pulling or rowing exercise in which the weight is pulled toward you.  Whereas most exercises are pressed away and might require a spotter (or serious balls if you want to do it on your own), exercises like squats or chest pressing can be intimidating and worrisome when trying to work to your limits.

Most negative motion of back work is typically falling away from you making it easy to stick with limit smashing lifts or endure longer repetitions without being afraid.  The same goes for incorporating your biceps into a routine; the weight is generally pulled toward you and leaves little room for dropping it on yourself.  While none of this isn't meant to forget about muscle contractions and form it is certainly a key element in telling your mind to shut up and let you lift.

Getting A Grip

Antoine Vaillant uses em... like a boss.

One of the biggest hurdles to overcome while building your back is your grip.  The muscles in your forearms will let your grip fail way before your desired rep range for working your back; unless you have forearms bigger than your biceps then maybe.  The best way to work around this is to invest in some decent lifting straps. 

They can be had for under $10, or even free when shopping with some sites, and will drastically improve your back game.  Mostly made of padded neoprene they can wrap around any bar giving your grip a better chance of hanging on while moving through your routine.

Don't just limit it to dead lifting either.  Rows, pulldowns, pullups and even moves like romanian dead lifts (for legs) will help you up the weight and use your target weight.  Personally I've even gone so far as to keep them on for heavy curls or even high rep curls, once fatigue starts setting in, as my biceps will outwork my grip any day.

Speaking of grip this is a good place to mention the grip position itself for bar work.  Many people go as wide as they possibly can while pulling down or not wide at all.  The beauty of working your back is that different grips will have different effects but so long as they make the contraction in the desired muscle groups.  If it's too far and you can's completely contract your back, ditch it and go narrow.  If you're not squeezing you're not gaining. 

Working With Your Elbows
Wait.... what?  
You heard me..... I said ELBOWS.    In between sets I people watch and one of the biggest flaws I see while performing exercises such as the pulldown or any kind of row is there people put their hands.  The majority of the time is spend trying to push their hands farther down than their chest or ram them into their stomach.  Watching this makes my shoulder hurt as well as pains me to see people take the load off of their backs and transfers it to well.... I don't want to know.

The best bet is to start focusing on how deep your elbows go through the movement and how hard the contraction is rather than how far the bar can be pulled.  I've found by bringing my elbows next to my lats (on any pulling or rowing motion), sticking my chest out and contracting my back (squeezing traps and widening lats if possible) gives me the best possible contraction.

Do It One Handed ;)

This one speaks for itself.  By using one arm for the same exercises you can help focus each side when you might be prone to giving a certain arm the favorite treatment (we're all guilty of it at times).  Not only will this knock your pride down a bit into focusing on the contractions than weight but can also serve to pre-fatigue. 

Focusing on one arm at a time for the first two sets can really work your back early.  Following this up with an additional one or two sets with both arms involved will help push each side past their failure points.  It's kind of like productive cheating....

A good dual pulley lat pullown machine, hammer high/low row or even single pulley can be improvised with the right handle.  Don't forget to look for plenty of dumbell work as well as one handed pullups for the daring.

Bring The Gun Show
Through these motions you are using a good amount of bicep effort to help power the weight around making this a prime opportunity to hit them at the end of your back routine.  Warm-up will be minimal as they are already heated from your back workout and can easily be fatigued in as little as two exercises long as the motion is full and the contraction is proper. 

With being said, this is a sample workout of what I've been using to shock myself out of Y3T and get my heart rate higher and will be part of my new secret split (coming pretty soon.)  Everything can be substituted for another piece of equipment and yes, there will be pre-fatiguing.  Give it a try if you dare ;)

-Pq

• 4-5 minutes of foam rolling
• T-Bar Row (substitute low pulley row)
• 2-3 warm-up sets
• 3 working sets reaching failure between 8-12
• Lat pulldown (everyone has this)
• 3 Working sets of 15-20
• Low hammer row (substitute bent over dumbell rows)
• 2 working sets 20-25
• Focus on 1 arm at a time
• Pullups (keep rest short; appx 30-45 seconds)
• 3 sets until failure changing grip each time
• Wide, medium/neutral and then narrow
• Pullup assist can be used so shoot for 10-12 reps with adjusted weight
• Bicep curl machine
• 2 Warm-up Sets
• 2 Working Sets of triple drop sets
• each drop should achieve between 12-16 repetitions
• Dumbell Curls (the big finish!)
• 3 working sets of 18-20 reps per arm
• Note:  I sometimes cut this down to two sets and go for two sets of spider barbell curls depending on my mood :)
• Finish strong with 3 sets of oblique work (twisting situps rock or weighted side bends)
• 7-10 Rounds of Hiit cardio