A Unique Strength Building System
by David Gentle
For the bodybuilder, strength is a means to an end. He simply needs to
employ very heavy poundages in his training in order to develop his
muscularity to a maximum. Anyone content with exercising in a slap-dash
manner with light weights will never reach his full potential development.
If a trainee wishes to get the best results out or his training then he must
really fight with the weights, forcing out the last few reps. He must learn
how to keep adding weights whenever possible, so as to make the workouts
progressive. You MUST learn to use respectable poundages in your workouts.
If two bodybuilders of around the same bodyweight trained together on the
same exercise, one using say 50 kilos and one using 100 kilos, you can bet
your life that the bloke using the heaviest weight has the best build. So
your object is to find a way to develop this extra strength to enable you to
use heavier weights for utmost development. To do this, a progressive
strength increasing system must be followed to the letter.
The normal reps used in most bodybuilding movements are around eight to twenty. Whilst it is true that for a while, especially beginners, weights can be added fairly often and thus make progression, it can be a very slow process. We want quicker results. For strength, low reps are proven to be of more value. Unfortunately low reps don’t normally appear to be the best for muscular increase, and that was our original target. So the answer is a unique way of getting the best of both worlds. Follow it closely.
Let us suppose that you wish to increase your poundage on the popular bodybuilding exercise. The bench press and we will say to make it easy to understand, that you are handling 50 kilos for ten repetitions. Your target is to use 70 kilos for ten reps (just an example remember, use the appropriate weights to suit your own case).
First Workout
Load the bar up to your maximum for ten reps and perform 3 sets of 10 reps.
Second Workout
Add 2 kilos to the bar, perform as many reps as possible with this new weight. The extra weight will probably make you drop a couple of reps, anyway the target you must set in this workout is 4 sets of 8 reps, always of course doing your own maximum.
Third Workout
Again add another 2 kilos to the bar, again tying to do as many reps as possible. This time aim for 5 sets of 6 reps. Fourth workout Add yet another 2 kilos and do 7 sets of 4 reps. After you have gradually decreased, the number of reps down to three or four, you then start again at 3 sets of 10 reps, but this time with a difference. This time you start you 10 reps with 52 kilos. This means a 2 kilo increase has been observed. Providing you have trained correctly on the system, you will be quite capable of doing this. The whole procedure is then repeated adding 2 kilos each time you cut down the reps until you are on the low reps again.
With our example, the next start at ten reps would be of course 3 sets of 10 reps with 54 kilos and so on until you reach your target. The following chart should make it clear:
Order of Poundage of Poundage Reps Sets
- 50 kilos 10 reps 3 sets
- 52 kilos 8 reps 4 sets
- 54 kilos 6 reps 5 sets
- 56 kilos 4 reps 7 sets
You would then commence again:
- 52 kilos 10 reps 3 sets
- 54 kilos 8 reps 4 sets
- 56 kilos 6 reps 5 sets
- 58 kilos 4 reps 7 sets
And so on, until you have reached the sought after poundage for ten repetitions.
Although you will not always feel as strong some nights as on others, you must try to squeeze out the required number of reps as near as possible to the scheduled. One dropped rep now and again will not hurt but try not to make it a habit. When you are on the low rep days to prevent injuries it is advisable to do a few light repetitions as a warm-up.
You cannot of course carry on doing this schedule indefinitely and at a later date an increase of 1 kilo or even half a kilo will be enough for added resistance. Finally do not attempt to do this system of strength training with more than one exercise at a time, as one exercise is enough to take all of your concentration. If you tackle this idea with a positive approach then you cannot fail to make progress, why not give it a try?
A Unique Strength System © Copyright by David Gentle All Rights Reserved