Fact 1: The muscles adapt quickly, which can slow growth. Fact 2: The key muscle fibers for mass are the dual-component 2As, which have both power and endurance capacities.
Those two facts are the reason low-rep, basic workouts produce slow-to-no results for most trainees. A better basic-training solution is to take two compound exercises for each muscle group and work one for power and the other for endurance, or density. Then at your next workout flip-flop the order for a mass-building variation. Here’s a great example for chest:
Workout 1
Bench presses
(add weight on each successive set) 3 x 9, 7, 5
Incline presses
(drop set) 1 x 12(7)
Workout 2
Incline presses
(add weight on each successive set) 3 x 9, 7, 5
Bench presses
(drop set) 1 x 12(7)
So you train the first exercise for power with the pyramid technique, and you do the second exercise for density with a drop set—two back-to-back progressively lighter sets. Then you reverse the order the next time you train that bodypart. If you really want to shake things up, you can use dumbbells on the drop-set, density exercise—that means you don’t have to fumble around with taking plates off a bar; you simply pick up a lighter set of dumbbells immediately after your first set and keep repping.
You can do that for any muscle group. For example, your lat routine could be undergrip rows and wide-grip pulldowns. Your shoulder routine could be overhead presses and dumbbell upright rows. Your quad routine could be squats and leg presses.
New-order power density can help you build more muscle immensity with relatively short bodypart workouts that keep you blasting with the big, basic mass exercises.
source:www.ironmanmagazine.com
