SIGN IN YOUR ACCOUNT TO HAVE ACCESS TO DIFFERENT FEATURES

FORGOT YOUR PASSWORD?

FORGOT YOUR DETAILS?

AAH, WAIT, I REMEMBER NOW!

Real Results Personal Training

  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • SERVICES
  • TESTIMONIALS
  • NEWS
    • Fat Loss
    • Hypertrophy
    • General Health
    • Events
  • CONTACT US

My 2 Favourite Hypertrophy Shock Methods

My 2 favourite shock methods for Hypertrophy
Thursday, 20 April 2017 / Published in Hypertrophy

My 2 Favourite Hypertrophy Shock Methods

Shock Methods are training techniques that are used to increase the intensity of a training session. There are methods that are great for fat loss and others that are great for hypertrophy. Hypertrophy training does not require you to train your muscles to complete failure each workout as this can lead to diminishing hypertrophy results. By using Shock Methods sparingly and intelligently you can truly ramp up your hypertrophy results.

I have listed 2 of my favourite Shock Methods I like to use (myself and my personal training clients) for their hypertrophy training. My suggestion is to only use these methods 1-2 times per week as they will really tax the nervous system and will require a greater amount of recovery. I would also suggest doing these at the end of the workout once the primary heavy lifting has been completed, to ensure the risk of injury is low.

1. DROP-SETS

A Drop-Set is done by completing your normal set and then following it by dropping the weight and continuing to perform additional sets without resting. An example of this would be completing 12 reps on a Leg Extension for 70kgs, then dropping the weight to 60kgs and performing another set of a given amount of reps.

There are different ways you can perform Drop-Sets. There is the standard Drop-Set which I gave as the example above. You can also perform Drop-Sets to failure where you start at the highest weight you can and perform as many reps as possible, then continue to drop the weight by 1 plate at a time until you reach 0 and perform max reps each time you drop the weight down.

I find this works well on cable or machine exercises as the high volume of work and stress can take its toll on the joints if done with free-weight exercises. Mechanical drop-sets is another great drop-set technique where you perform an exercise at its most disadvantageous position to failure, then move into a more advantageous position to continue performing reps. A great example of this would be performing a Cable Bar Bicep Curl standing 4 steps away from the cable machine. You would perform as many reps to failure and then take 1 step towards the machine to continue performing reps – this will allow you to keep using the same weight an overload different parts of the strength curve of an exercise to achieve maximal hypertrophy.

2. VARYING TIME UNDER TENSION

Varying Time under Tension can be applied many different ways; essentially it is performed by completing your reps with varying tempos throughout the set. A way I like to do this is to perform 1 rep at an extremely slow tempo such as a 5,3,5,3 tempo, followed by 2-3 reps of a very fast tempo like a 10 x 0. You can play around with the tempo and rep parameters as you see fit but the end result will be a great hypertrophy session using this technique.

Hypertrophy training isn’t about training each set to failure and annihilating your muscles every time you step foot into the gym. There needs to be a plan in place that is designed to see you progressively overload particular training stimuli. Whether it’s increasing training volume, frequency, or intensity, but utilising an intensity technique sparingly can yield great benefits for hypertrophy, provided it is done intelligently.

Luke Carroll
Head Personal Trainer
Our philosophy, is Real Results
Personal Training Transformation Packages – Satellite Personal Training – Nutrition Services

What you can read next

Understanding Your Training Program: Tempo
The Best Nutrition Plan In The World
Eating Better But Feel Worse? 3 Reasons Why

Recent News

  • Understanding Fat Loss

    Fat loss is something many people strive for at...
  • 10 Things I Learnt From Dave O’Brien

    Recently I attended the Blood Chemistry Analysi...
  • How To Recover After Cheating On Your Diet

    So you’ve stuck to your nutrition plan re...

Categories

  • Fat Loss
  • General Health
  • Hypertrophy
  • Promotions

PAGES

  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • SERVICES
  • TESTIMONIALS
  • NEWS
  • CONTACT US
Real Results Personal Training

Let's socialise

CONTACT US

EMAIL
admin@realresultspt.com.au

PHONE
0423 348 939

Copyright © 2017 Real Results Personal Training | Website by Brand for Brands Agency.

TOP