Long-Term Fitness
Make one program do the work of many
by Jonathan Fass, C.S.C.S.
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Workout Extender #3:
Rest or Rest Less
You can alter the effect of your workout tremendously in a matter of seconds. In fact, you can change the entire goal of any program simply by adjusting the length of your rest periods. Longer rests are needed when your sets are heavy, as your muscles must be almost fully recovered in order to lift a heavy load for successive sets. Greater muscular endurance comes from keeping rests to a minimum, which forces your muscles to adapt to longer work bouts with less recovery. In the middle lies the key to muscle gain and fat loss: short-to-moderate rest periods that elicit the greatest release of the body's testosterone and growth hormone.
While fat-loss training can be organized in many different ways, one particularly effective method is circuit training, in which you perform one set each of several exercises back-to-back with little or no rest in between. In this case, the lack of full rest keeps your metabolism stoked, so you burn calories at an accelerated rate. Circuit training also saves time, moving you through your workout much more quickly than performing straight sets.
Workout Extender #4:
Change Your Tempo
It's easy to race through a set. If the weight is heavy, you get psyched and want to punch it through the roof on each rep. If the weight is light, you get into a groove and "pump out" your reps like you're dancing to a club beat. While both methods do allow you to move the weight from point A to point B, neither fully stimulates your muscles, because you're using momentum. To promote the most muscle and strength, you need to keep tension on the working muscles and ensure that as many muscle fibers as possible are recruited.
Studies have shown that sets lasting between 40 and 70 seconds are best for achieving muscle growth. Shorter sets imply heavier weights, so those are best for pure strength. Longer sets, naturally, would benefit endurance goals. In general, the portion of the lift in which your muscles shorten (usually the "up" part, such as pushing the barbell off your chest on a bench press, or raising the barbell on a curl) should be done fast to maximize the activation of your strongest muscle fibers. The portion of the lift in which your muscles stretch (the "down" part) should be done more slowly, as the muscle is actually stronger in this phase than in the upward one. But exercise scientists have discovered that regimenting a rep further can enhance muscle activation even more.
The technique is called "tempo," and it's usually represented as a three-digit number. The first digit is the number of seconds you should take to perform the lowering portion of the lift. The middle digit is how long you should pause in that bottom position (when the muscles are under the most tension), and the third digit indicates how long you should take to lift the weight to the "up" position. Occasionally, you'll see tempos with an "X" in place of a digit, which means you should perform that portion of the lift with explosive speed. Furthermore, a "0" means to move immediately to the instructions of the next digit. So, for example, a tempo of 311 on a bench press would mean to take three seconds to lower the bar to your chest, one second to hold it there, and another second to press it back up. Tempo may sound tedious, but it's a great way to keep your form in check, especially when you're performing a number of reps (when your form is most susceptible to falling apart).
Workout Extender #5:
Switch Exercises
Whether you're just bored by the lifts you've been doing or you've plateaued with them, swapping out the main exercises in your routine for similar moves can be an excellent solution. Many times, a plateau is the result of an overused movement pattern-in other words, your nervous system has recruited the same muscles in the same way for so long that it can't do it any better. For example, if you've been doing the squat for ages, try switching to the front squat for a few weeks. This variation hits essentially the same muscles, but in a slightly different way - just enough to get your nerves to recruit muscle fibers a little differently and get you growing again.
Other times, stagnation is the result of a weak point in your range of motion, which, once addressed, will send your poundages soaring. For instance, if you've gotten your deadlift up to 350 pounds but can't budge 360 off the floor, you might benefit from deadlifts done on a platform for a few weeks. Stand on a box and use a moderate weight for a few explosive reps-that will build the pulling power you need to overcome inertia in the opening seconds of your deadlift. Afterward, you'll be able to get 360 with no problem.
You can also rearrange the order in which you perform exercises. For example, if your upper-body days pair bench-press and row movements, but they start with benching, spend the next few weeks doing the rows first in the pair so that they get the priority.
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