If you look at most arm workouts people perform, they usually consist of the same back exercises. The issue isn’t necessarily what you’re doing but how you’re doing them. In order to increase the intensity of the workouts you are doing you have to focus on increasing the intensity of each set you perform. Consider that in a normal set of 12 reps that only the last 2-3 are actually hard enough to provide enough stimulus for muscle growth.
What if you had a way that allowed you to more quickly tap into those harder, more growth producing reps more quickly? You do, by incorporating a rest pause technique into your training. Here, when the set is resumed you are instantly back to recruiting more type II fibers which are more easily able to respond to your hard work in the form of new size. The accumulation of these more difficult, effective reps is what can easily help you to increase the size of your arms while decreasing the length of your workout.
When it comes to training in the effective rep range, ask yourself a question. When you perform a set of any back exercise, do you take it to failure or close to failure? Likely, the only reps you feel that are challenging are the final 1 to 3 reps. This is because, it is only at the point after the muscle has been stressed enough to tap into the harder to reach type IIb muscle fibers that the task at hand becomes challenging enough to stimulate muscle protein synthesis.
With the back workout technique shown here and in this series, you’re going to more quickly tap into these growth inducing type II fibers. The strategy is as follows:
Perform a set of the back exercises shown below to 12 rep failure. Choose a weight that will cause you to fail at or close to the 12 rep mark. This is called the ignition set. At this point, the real work begins. Rest for just 15 seconds as part of a somewhat prolonged rest/pause. As soon as these 15 seconds are up, get back into another set. You will instantly recognize that the reps will be challenging more quickly due to the decreased recovery time allowed.
You are still using the same load however, therefore your back is still being subjected to the same external load. However many reps you get after each of these rest/pause increments are all deemed to be effective reps. Each bout should be taken to failure. Accumulate 20 effective reps, even if you’re getting just 1 out at a time at some point, and your work on that exercise is complete.
If for some reason you are unable to complete any more reps on your way to 20, end your set and aim to complete all 20 the next time you perform this workout.
Here is how to construct the 100 back workout with that in mind.
– Barbell Row – Ignition Set then 20 Effective Reps as a Rest/Pause as a Dead Row
– Lat Pulldowns – Ignition Set then 20 Effective Reps as a Rest/Pause
– Seated Cable Row – Ignition Set then 20 Effective Reps as a Rest/Pause
– DB High Pulls – Ignition Set then 20 Effective Reps as a Rest/Pause
– Underhand Grip ROM Pulldowns – Ignition Set then 20 Effective Reps as a Rest/Pause
Optional: Inverted Rows x 20 reps using a 5 second isometric hold at the top of each rep (Rest/Pause)
All totaled, this will amount to 100 effective reps in this intense back workout.
If you have to adjust your weights down as the fatigue mounts, do so accordingly. You are not necessarily using your 12 rep max on an exercise, you are using a weight that will cause you to fail at the 12 rep mark in that given workout. Fatigue accumulating in the later back exercises of this workout may cause you to have to drop down a bit to make this happen throughout the workout.
This is just one example of how to apply science to your back workouts. If you want to put science back in every workout you do, head to athleanx.com and get started right away on building a ripped, muscular, athletic body.
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