Workout format - January 2010

Hi guys!

This month I'll be putting to the test a new workout format I was at work developing in December - and the results so far have been great!!

I came up with this plan for working each body part by thinking how to best annihilate as many different muscle fibres as possible. Let's start with the exercise format - it's simple, straightforward but tough. It can be used with just about any major machine or exercise (with a few exceptions) and better with compound exercises than isolation.


1. Warm up set - 15 reps on your 15-20 RM (rep max - eg a 15RM is the weight that you can do 15 times with proper form, and not a rep more)
2. Add about 10% to the weight and do 12-15 reps to failure
3. Rest 60 sec
4. Select a weight about 40-50% of your 1RM (ie a bit under half what you could possibly lift once and once only). You will do about 15-20 reps with NO pauses or rests, over a 2 minute period. Yes, that's right : 2 minutes. Non stop. Keep the tension on, keep form up all the way. (this is the tricky part and will need some fine-tuning of your weight selection. The best effect is when you've picked just the right weight to only just be able to complete a rep at the 2 minute mark. Other than that your muscles should be screaming by then!)
5. Rest about 30 sec
6. Double the weight (or in the case of shoulders, a little less than double)
7. Fire through as many reps to failure as you can, using <1 sec concentric and about 2-3 sec eccentric (ie. a "power" rep). You should be able to do no more than about 6-8 if you've picked the right weights for steps 2 and 4 above.


The concept here is to fatigue all muscle fibre types, and get growth throughout the whole muscle.


In skeletal muscle we have three main types of muscle fibres - Type I, Type IIA and Type IIB. 


Type I tends to be burnt out with step 2 above, whilst the first set, then the power set at the end, target the Type II fibre types (the biggest and most powerful ones). Burning out all your weaker Type I fibres first allows you to just target the big guns and really hammer the big weight home, wreaking havoc inside the muscle.


Start off experimenting on machine weights till you get a clear understanding of what you can tolerate in the 2 minute sets.


There are a few exercises I wouldn't suggest doing this with - like a deadlift, bent over row or possibly squats - as you might end up fatiguing your back muscles before the target ones.


Control of weights over these times and at these intensities requires a lot of skill and commitment to form so only attempt a tri-set like this if you have the nerve and the experience.


Good luck!!