Building muscle in 30 minutes a day

Yesterday we talked about basic training principles and gave you a workout routine to follow that would build muscle in only 30 minutes a day every other day.

Today, we're going to discuss various methods for increasing your workout intensity.

There are many different tools you can use to boost your intensity:

• Forced reps
• Negatives
• Rest-Pause
• Supersets
• Pre-exhaust
• Drop sets
• Pyramids

There are more, of course. Plus, there are other ways to add to your exercise intensity, one of which is resting less between sets.

Feel free to look up each of those terms. The ones I want to talk about today are supersets and rest-pause.

Supersets

Supersets are two sets performed back-to-back with no rest between sets. Once you've performed your 2 sets, you can take a brief rest period (no more than a minute). There are variations of supersets, too.

The traditional use of supersets called for taking opposing muscle groups and exercising them together. For example, to build upper arm mass, you might do a set of tricep extensions followed by barbell curls.

Another variation was labeled "pre exhaust." This type of superset was devised to place maximum intensity on a major muscle group like the chest. Here's how it works: You know when you do bench presses and your triceps and/or shoulders fatigue before your pecs? Pre exhaust supersets get around that by doing a pectoral isolation exercise (like the dumbbell flye) immediately before a compound movement (the bench press).

In essence, you're isolating the pec first with the isolation exercise, then following with the compound exercise. If you do it right, your pecs will receive the bulk of the load and will fatigue first.

Pre exhaust works best with the big muscles, like the thighs, back, and chest.

One last variation of supersets that I want to touch on: It's a variant of Peripheral Heart Action and Circuit Training. The idea here is to take two muscle groups that are not near each other and doing two, three, or more sets all together. For example, you could do a overhead presses and squats in a superset. The objective is to get blood flowing throughout your entire body. Not so much for building muscle size, but it's great for building muscular and cardio endurance.

Rest-Pause

Rest-pause is a super high-intensity training principle that can build massive muscle size in little time. It is very effective at muscle hypertrophy. But it is brutally difficult on both the muscles being trained and the mind. It hurts.

Of course, there are many variations on the rest-pause theme. Originally, powerlifters would take their One Rep Max (1RM), do 1 rep, rest 10-15 seconds, and do another one for a total of 5-6 "sets."

However, we're not talking about powerlifting here are we? We're talking about building maximum muscle in little time. So we modify rest-pause to achieve that goal. Here's how:

Load the bar with a weight you can lift for 6 reps and do 10!

What?

You read that right. Do your normal 6 reps and then rest for 10 seconds. Then do as many reps as you can and rest again for 10 seconds. Keep on going until you get to 10 total reps. If you chose your weight right, you may do 6 reps, then 2 reps, then 1 rep, and finally 1 more rep. You may need help on the last one (incorporating another High-Intensity Training, or HIT, principle called "forced reps").

You can apply either of these principles in the workout laid out yesterday. I suggest you try both, but not in the same workout!

These methods are very intense and you should be very sore the day after your workout and perhaps for a few days more after that! Don't over do it.

Here's a recap of the week:

• Monday – Basic Training
  
• Tuesday – Advanced Training
• Wednesday – Basic Nutrition
• Thursday – Advanced Nutrition & Supplementation
• Friday – Importance of Recovery

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