Whats up GetBig
Lately I have been making some great progress in the gym and I though you might be interested in the approach.
--- I do not have a set amount of time between sets. Rather, I wait as long as it takes until I am completely psyched up and ready to go all-out. If this means I have to walk around for 10 minutes getting amped up, slapping myself on the scalp, jumping up and down, that is what I do. The point is to get myself completely psyched and ready to go. And then I go.
--- I do a moderate warm up with light weight, including some reverse work (pull vs push) to help with the stretch and with active recovery from previous days training. But my warm up does not tax the muscle. My working sets are usually few, with a weight about 95%-98% of my max for the given rep range. The point is to go as heavy as I possibly can without hitting failure. I have to get psyched completely up in order to hit this heavy of weight, but its just a couple pounds below what I could do at maximum, which means I am able to effectively stimulate the muscle without exhausting or over-training.
--- I alternate between low-rep (1-3) and high-rep (8-12) every 3-4 weeks. The goal here is to build strength, and then expand the muscle to allow for greater increases in strength.
--- I focus on the fundamental compound exercises. Bench. Rows. Etc. These
--- I only hit each muscle once a week, and never workout two days in a row. This means lots and lots of rest. Of course, I do a bit of reverse work in between sets so technically I do one heavy day and one very light day each week, but the very light day doesnt really count as I am only using about 100lbs or so for those sets.
--- every rep I do, I make sure to focus on proper form, squeezing the target muscle, with "as-explosive-and-as-intense-as-possible" positives, and "as-slow-and-as-controlled-as-possible" negatives.
So the point of this approach is to lift with good form, as intensely and extremely explosive as possible, with as heavy weight as possible, without going to failure, over-training, and exhausting the muscle. Lots of time between workouts for healing, and lots of time between sets for recuperation and getting yourself completely psyched up. Also, reverse work to hit opposing muscle groups for active recovery and stretching the reverse target muscle. This has really helped me make some good progress, guys.