One thing should be consistent, no matter what your workout routine consists of; and that’s intensity. In order for optimum muscular development to be achieved, you have to train at a high intensity level. There is a fine line between maximum intensity and over training. Since constantly training at a high level can potentially lead to a over training, be sure to get proper rest and maintain a healthy diet.
1. More Sets
Obviously, the best way to increase intensity is to add more sets to your workout. Sounds pretty easy, right? Keep in mind, for every extra set you add on, you’re lengthening your overall training time.
Longer training sessions will affect how long it takes for your body to recuperate. While, it’s OK to add in a couple of sets here and there, avoid adding in too may sets.
2. Negative Emphasis
When you are lowering a weight in an exercise, lower it down very slow. As you do are doing this, count out to six. For example, if you are doing a bench press, count from one to six slowly as you begin lowering the weight down towards you.
The bar should hit your chest only when you’ve reach the number six. Even though doing this will more than likely reduce the amount of weight you’re able to use, your target muscle work harder, which means better gains. Less weight, more gains.
3. Force your Reps
With forced reps, you’re forcing your body to push out more reps with the assistance of someone there helping you, or a spotter. Remember, YOU should be working out, not your partner. They should only be there to help you complete the final rep or two of a set.
4. Drop Sets
Drop sets allow you to get a little more intensity. As you approach failure on a set, take some weight off of your bar, and continue doing the reps. Drop sets allow you to exhaust muscle fibers that may have been missed during the regular set.
5. Rep Schemes
The one thing to that remains the same in weight training is variety. Don’t let your body plateau by doing the exact same exercises, in the same order, with the same number of reps, with the same weight. For instance, if you usually use higher reps, try using lower reps.
This isn’t to say that one is better than the other, only that change is good in terms of exercising.
6. Exercise Schemes
Additionally, try mixing up your exercises. For instance, if you typically do barbell seated presses, try replacing them with dumbbell seated presses.
By continuously changing up your exercises, you can stay physically and mentally challenged. Your training program should keep your body guessing at all times!
7. Specialization
Specialization is a way to stimulate a part of your body that may need more work. If your bicep progress is falling behind your triceps, add some more bicep curls, extra sets or other intensity methods to bring those arms up to par!