Beyond-Brawn-2nd-Edition

Intensifiers
HARD WORK—THE BIGGEST TEST OF TRAINING CHARACTER
9.28 ere are several intensifiers that can be employed after failure has been
reached in a set. ese include forced reps, negatives and drop sets. Forced
reps occur when someone helps you to get reps you could not do by yourself.
Negatives happen when training partners lift the weight, because it is too
heavy for you to lift on you own, and you concentrate on a slow lowering
or negative phase. For drop sets, some of the weight is stripped off the bar
immediately after you fail with the initial weight, so that you can continue
the set.
9.29 A major problem with using intensifiers like these is that you are likely to
become distracted from the priority of getting the most out of the initial set.
“Straight” sets without any intensifiers are the mainstay of effective training.
If trainees focused on getting each straight set done perfectly, they would be
better off than complicating things with additional techniques. Forced reps,
negatives or a drop set added onto an initial set that was not well done will
not make a bad or even a so-so set into a good one.
B 30
Training intensity is a means to an end, not the end in itself. Too
many people have got wrapped up in intensity per se, to the detriment
of the real bottom line. Training intensity is a fundamental
and irreplaceable component of making muscle growth and progressive
poundages a reality, but that is all.
9.30 For trainees who go to the limit on the initial set, adding the intensifiers may
be counterproductive because they are likely to produce overkill. e point
is to stimulate strength gains, not traumatize your muscles and overtrain
through training too hard. at some huge men pulverize themselves with
intensity techniques, and grow, is irrelevant for drug-free typical people.
9.31 Forced reps should be distinguished from having a training partner give you
a touch of help to get out the final rep that would otherwise not go. is
sort of assistance is important for helping to prevent injury from a rep that
gets stuck or falls out of the groove. If you are bench pressing or squatting
without safety bars or rack pins correctly set in place, which is a very risky
practice, then having a couple of alert training partners standing by to help
you through the final rep is essential.
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