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Bodybuilding
Techniques
Copyright Andy Fairclough
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Though by no means
all of the bodybuilding techniques out there, this article
covers the techniques that have the best results. Negatives,
drop sets, pyramids, giant sets, twenty-ones, partial reps,
forced reps, and super are the techniques we will consider.
You can use one or two of these for each muscle in a given
workout, and vary which ones you choose depending on the day.
These all are nice ways to end exercises for a particular
muscle group, so you could add whichever ones you felt were
appropriate to your standard workout. for example, if you
were working your chest and triceps you could throw in a pyramid
set for your triceps one day and some negatives the next time
you work out. This variety will not allow your muscles to
adapt to your workout and thus you will prevent stagnation.
Negatives - Negatives are an extremely
effective way to add size and strength. They are so effective
because they stimulate muscle fibers that normally aren’t
worked. To perform a negative you need a weight that is
more than you can lift up. You start at what is normally
the end of the rep and slowly lower the weight. If you choose
the right poundage, you will be able to hold the weight
in place for a few seconds, and then you should be unable
to resists its decline.
There are two ways to have a weight heavier than you can
lift. The first is just to grab it off the rack, have a
spotter set you up, and go at it. The second is to perform
some reps to absolute failure, and then have your spotter
put up the weight so you can lower it for the negative.
We recommend the second technique. Both, though, are great
ways to stimulate your muscles. Also note you may feel sore
not one but two days after performing negatives; this is
normal and even has a name: DOMS, or delayed onset muscle
soreness.
Drop sets – These are a nice way
to finish up a workout for a particular muscle, and they
will give your muscles a pumped up feeling. Drop sets are
easy enough to do; you start an exercise with a high weight
you can only do once or twice. Do as many reps as you can,
then you have a partner strip off 5 or 10 pounds quickly
and again, do as many reps as you can. If you do it right
you will end up using 5 pounds and barely able to lift it.
Drop sets can be performed using free weights or a machine,
but using a machine is probably easier. Pyramids are similar
to drop sets except if you start out doing high reps with
low weight. Then, you add weight until you cant do a single
rep, and finally you move back down the pyramid by stripping
the weight exactly as you would in a drop set.
Giant Sets - a workout in themselves for
one muscle group. For every muscle except your back you
could get away with doing only a giant set as the workout
for that muscle. This is because a giant set is essentially
three exercises performed successively for a particular
muscle. The best way to illustrate a giant set is by example:
If you were to work out your biceps using a giant set you
would first choose three of your favorite bicep exercises.
Figure out what weights you can do for each of them and
then subtract about five pounds from each. Then arrange
the exercises in the order such that you lift the most weight
first and the least weight last.
So for biceps if you chose barbell curls, reverse curls,
and hammer curls as your exercises, and you could do 10
reps of 80lbs. for barbell curls, 10 reps of 30lbs. for
reverse curls, and 10 reps of 40lbs. for hammer curls, then
you would do them in this order: barbell curls, hammer curls,
and reverse curls. Perform the three exercises one after
another with no rest in between, and then give yourself
a 2-3 minute break afterwards. 10 reps for each exercise
works best. After your 2-3 minutes rest perform another
giant set.
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Twenty-ones - a technique used to work
every part of a muscle, rather than just one range like
the middle range. The full range of a rep is from a fully
extended position to a fully contracted position. Using
the bicep curl as an example, the low range of the rep would
be having your arm fully extended and your elbow locked
straight, while the high range would be with your bicep
fully contracted and your hand as close to your shoulder
as possible. If you are doing a regular curl, any weight
you choose will not be enough to stimulate your biceps whole
range. For example, if you choose 80 pounds and you can
do 12 reps, by the end of the 12 reps you will too tired
to continue. However, you know that if you had to lift the
weight only slightly, (maybe you start resting off your
leg and lift it a few inches) or if you started with the
weight almost all the way up and had to lift it up to your
chest you could have.
This means your bicep was fatigued in its middle range
but not in its upper and lower ranges. This is where twenty-ones
come in. To perform twenty-ones you do 7 reps in the low
range, 7 reps in the middle range, and 7 reps in the upper
range. So if you were doing bicep curls you would start
fully extended, then do 7 reps where you came up 30 degrees
(or a couple inches), then do 7 reps in the midrange from
30 degrees to about 60 degrees, and finally do 7 reps from
60 degrees to the point where the bar is touching your chest.
Keep repeating until you cant do any reps in ANY range.
So, if you couldn’t do any in the bottom or middle
ranges but could in the upper range, keep going until absolute
failure.
Partial reps - are an exercise in one
particular range of a muscle. Maybe you feel that you want
to build a particular part of a muscle or work on weakness
in a certain range. To beat a dead horse, let’s use
the biceps as an example. Usually, people do various types
of curls for the biceps and work primarily the middle range.
This builds general thickness in the bicep but neglects
the bottom especially. When you see a really built bicep
it has thickness right next to the inner part of the elbow
(plus, its farther down from the sleeve of your tee-shirt!)
To build this thickness you would want to perform partial
reps from a fully extended position to where you lifted
the weight about 30 degrees. On a side note, a particularly
effective exercise for the bottom range of the bicep is
a decline bench curl, where you angle the seat of a bench
so you sit back 20 or 20 degrees and perform dumbbell curls
from a fully extended position. Partial reps are essential
when you feel that you have pretty good muscularity but
you really want to add thickness and definition to all parts
of the muscle.
Forced reps – Forced reps, like
negatives, are a way to completely tire out your muscle
fibers. Its probably a good idea to save these for the last
exercise of a muscle. You need a partner to do forced reps,
but the rest is cake. Perform your set as you normally would,
but when you can’t go on have your partner start to
assist you. Keep performing reps with your partner’s
assistance until the partner is lifting all of the weight.
Make sure than your partner is providing enough support
where you are lifting the most weight you can while the
weight is still moving. So if the weight is going too fast
you know the partner is helping too much and if the weight
is too slow the partner is not helping enough (or you need
to push harder).
Super Sets - Last but not least we come
to super sets. Like giant sets, super sets are a group of
exercises performed without rest in between them. However,
super sets will work two separate muscle groups. When you
perform a super set choose two muscles that oppose each
other. A good example is a super set using biceps and triceps,
which are opposing muscle groups. Two or three exercises
is standard, so either one exercise for each muscle or two
for one muscle and one for the other. A common super set
for the biceps and triceps would be as follows: first, skull
10 reps of skull crushers followed by bicep curls (most
people can use the same bar they used for the skull crushers)
and finished with triceps pushdowns on a machine. Do this
with no rest between sets, and 2-3 minutes of rest after
the super set.
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