The Joy of Exercise

As I mentioned before, in the discussion of intensity in exercise, ground zero is this concept of positive failure, in which the last repetition you do in a set is the last one that you can possibly do without getting assistance or breaking good form. You must use a certain level of intense focus and physical effort to make sure that positive failure is truly all you can give, within the parameters given above.

Intensity, in the context of exercise, means the amount of energy that you put into the activity. When building a program for fitness, you’ll need to exercise with some degree of intensity; otherwise, no stimulation will occur. If you do a Bench-Press set and perform five disinterested reps when, with a bit of focus and energy, you could have done 20, the lack of intensity will mean that your muscle stimulation will be minimal. Exercise intensity should be adjusted according to need. If you are an absolute beginner or are just returning to exercise after a long time away, break yourself in with less-intense workouts. Nothing discourages a beginner more than starting out all gung-ho and then getting extremely sore and tired from the first few workouts. In fact, this is one of the reasons that so many men quit soon after starting. So, adjust your workout intensity accordingly. Not too much, not too little. How will you know the difference? Listen to your body (as I’ll discuss further in the Recuperation section); it has an amazing way of giving you direct feedback.

If halfhearted effort and a lack of focus lead to too little intensity, what constitutes too much? Intensity is too great when it pushes the body past its normal capacity to recover from the exercise in a reasonable amount of time. This generally happens for one of the following reasons:

1. The overall energy output is too great.
2. The duration of the workout is too long.
3. The volume of exercise is too high.
4. Too much emphasis is placed on going beyond positive failure.

In the Create Routines section, I’ll delve deeper into the duration-and-volume issue. In general, however, while exercise performance and repetitions should be slow, workout duration and volume (the number of exercises and sets) should be relatively brief. No workout should ever take longer than an hour. My own weight workouts rarely last longer than 45 minutes, because they are focused and intense. I don’t spend social time during my training. I take the absolutely briefest rest periods between sets. I get the work done and then let it go. So should you. Long workouts are only for those who don’t have anything better to do than be in the gym, and for those who don’t want to make maximum gains.

There are several techniques that are used to push an exercise beyond positive failure.Some of them are of value—if you know how and when to use them. Some of them should be avoided.

Forced repetitions: This is perhaps the most abused intensity technique in all of weight training. The idea is that another person helps you lift the weight when it gets too heavy for you to do any more reps with good form. Ideally, a training partner helps by lifting a fraction of the weight on the last rep or two of an intense set, helping the lifter to squeeze out just a bit more stimulation than he would be able to do on his own. However, this is a very misunderstood technique. It is generally abused when a man uses more weight than he can realistically handle during a set and has his partner help him on several reps—maybe even every rep of the whole set. Sometimes, training partners will try to get someone to do forced reps just to try to push the intensity. While this is usually well-intended, it is a mistake to do very many forced repetitions. They push the body past its own ability to recover from the training. As I’ll discuss in a moment, this issue of recovery is an important one to the 40+ man. Forced repetitions should be used only by the most advanced trainers and only very sparingly.

Drop sets: These work in a way quite similar to forced reps. A set is done to positive failure, and then the weight is put down. Immediately and without rest, a slightly lighter weight is picked up and the same exercise is done, again to positive failure. A second and third drop can also be added. Perfect exercise form must be maintained during a drop set since, as the muscle grows fatigued, it is easy to get sloppy and open the body up to injury. This is a very advanced technique that should only be used sparingly, since it pushes the body far past its normal recuperation abilities. If abused, it will have an effect opposite to the intended one. It will keep the body part from improving, because the muscles won’t recover.

Multiple sets (super-sets, bi-sets, tri-sets, giant sets): This is a combination of two or more exercises done with very little rest, one after the other. A super-set is a combination of two exercises, each of which is for a different body part. A super-set might have a chest exercise combined with a back exercise. A bi-set is a combination of two exercises done one right after the other for the same body part. For example, two leg exercises done consecutively with little or no rest between them is a bi-set. Their combination would be treated as one set, with any rest coming at the end of the bi-set. A tri-set is similar in structure to a biset, but it consists of three exercises for the same body part. A giant-set is four or more exercises for the same body part with little or no rest between them.

These techniques—especially in a weight-training routine—are generally used in more advanced workouts, although there will be some exceptions. They have the advantage of shortening the length of a workout because of decreased rest time, but they also push the body very hard and seriously tax the recuperative abilities.

Cheating: This is a break in perfect exercise form. It is usually done for two reasons, one bad and the other good only in a way similar to the way that forced reps can be good. The bad reason is rooted in poor exercise form. I’ve already emphasized my philosophy about not using sloppy form. For the 40+ man, poorly utilized cheating will likely lead to injuries that may sidetrack the entire program. Use exercise perfection instead. The “good” form of cheating would more accurately be called controlled cheating. It is a very advanced technique in which the lifter uses a bit (and I emphasize a bit) of body momentum to achieve a last rep or two in an intense set in order to push past positive failure. For example, a man wants to get another rep in a set of Barbell Curls, but can’t do it with perfect form, so he swings his body a bit to nudge the bar up over the edge of failure. Controlled cheating should only be used by those who know what they’re doing, and then only sparingly and under control.

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Category: Exercise, Fitness, Workout

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