Strength Training Intensity Techniques That Make You Gain Muscle Mass

Bodybuilding is quite complicated in the sense that most beginners always try to go too fast without progressing but at the risk of injury, while experienced athletes constantly try to find new intensity techniques because they progress much less quickly than before.

Between these two extremes, it's still possible to gain strength and muscle, no matter what anyone says. Let's say that after a few months, or even a year of serious sports practice, most of the essential movements and exercises have been learned. The athlete, still a beginner, will already be able to master the main bodybuilding exercises that will allow him to gain muscle mass over time.

When the main bodybuilding exercises are mastered, a real challenge begins for athletes

When learning bodybuilding is well underway, setting up a good program, with several basic and isolation exercises, constitutes the first foundations of bodybuilding. Only from there can the serious stuff begin. In fact, gaining strength and muscle relies first on both basic principles of bodybuilding , that is to say the training volume and exercise intensity .

Naturally, exercise volume is the first value you'll base your exercise on. For example, performing 4 exercises per muscle group instead of three increases the exercise volume, as does performing sets of 12 repetitions instead of 8. Your coach will then determine the number of sets and repetitions your training program should include. The exercise volume value then leads to a certain neuromuscular fatigue that must be compensated for with post-exercise recovery. The average value is around three sets per exercise, more often four, but rarely just two sets.

Isolation exercises can increase training volume with a significant effect on muscle hypertrophy

Thus, a gradually higher training volume will also lead to increasingly higher neuromuscular stress, requiring greater compensation in terms of post-exercise recovery (diet, rest, etc.). There are several ways to increase the volume of exercises from one strength training . The first of these is called the pre-fatigue technique.

This simply involves performing one or two sets of an exercise with a low load on an isolation movement. For example, you might perform two sets of crossovers (face-to-face pulleys) or dumbbell flyes before performing your bench press sets. Over time, you'll add a new exercise to your training program if, for example, you perform three or four exercises per muscle group.

Intensity is a value related to the ratio of exercise to time

Exercise intensity is a slightly more difficult variable to understand. It is simply the relationship between the exercise itself (number of repetitions) and the exercise time. This notion of time can take several positive or negative values, which will result in a more or less intense exercise intensity. For example, for the negative (or reduced) value, if you take 1 minute 45 between each exercise series, the intensity will be higher if you subsequently take only one minute of rest between series. To give you an example of a positive or increased value in terms of intensity, imagine that your exercise repetitions last 4 seconds between the positive and negative phase of the movement. Then, imagine that you take 7 or 8 seconds to perform the same exercise repetition. Here too, the intensity will have increased because the time under tension will be longer.

What are some intensity techniques that increase the stress imposed by exercise?

In relation to what we have just stated, there are several exercise intensity techniques. These techniques are based on the possible variations in the time under tension of the muscles as well as the load lifted, that is to say the volume of exercise itself. In this respect, the pyramid training technique consists of gradually increasing the load of your exercise sets. For example, you will perform your first set of bench press with 45 kilos, your second set with 60 kilos, then your third set with 70 kilos.

When working with increased exercise volume, you can also use the technique of decreasing repetitions in dropset which consists of performing a given series of exercises with a certain load. At the end of the exercise, you will reduce the load and continue the exercise without taking any rest time. If you know how to continue the exercise, you will reduce the load again while continuing the exercise until the breaking point. This is then a triset . As a final option, you can also increase the volume by performing an exercise first, for example a barbell curl, then moving directly to dumbbell curls using a reduced load.

Negative repetitions and increased time under tension exhaust the nervous system

One of the most classic intensity techniques based on time under tension is negative repetitions. For example, when you lower the bar in a bench press or a Larry Scott curl, you lower it on the negative phase of the movement. To increase the stress on the muscle fibers, you will slow down the movement during this phase of the exercise. The time under tension and the intensity will then increase. The full version of this bodybuilding technique consists of slowing down the tempo on both phases of a movement, which is difficult for the nervous system to tolerate. Generally speaking, these two intensity techniques are not recommended for beginners in bodybuilding . Moreover, mastering a difficult technique like increasing time under tension already requires very solid physical condition, as well as extensive bodybuilding experience.

How to use intensity techniques in bodybuilding while avoiding exhaustion?

Obviously, your ability to increase the intensity of your strength training exercises will depend primarily on your experience and, therefore, your years of practice. The more experience you have, the more you can push the intensity of your training. Years of strength training will allow you to gradually increase your exercise volume, then your intensity. However, it will always be important to maintain a good balance between intensity and your post-exercise recovery capacity. If you push your training too far without recovering sufficiently, you risk falling into overtraining or injury. and regress by several months. This is not desirable at all and you should try to avoid it.

Increasing training intensity without sufficient recovery will put you at risk of overtraining and regression.

Sporting experience will tell you how far you can go in terms of intensity or volume of exercises without risking nervous and muscular exhaustion. However, if you exceed your personal limit of what is reasonable, you risk paying dearly and regressing significantly. It is not uncommon for strength training that is too intense or with too high an exercise volume to not result in any hypertrophy or strength gains. In this case, the muscle fibers will be repaired identically.

This is why we advise you to take all necessary measures for rest and nutrition. adapted to recover as much as possible before your next workout, especially if it is very intense. You will necessarily go through periods where you increase the intensity of your exercises , while at other times you will have to reduce your energy in order to save yourself for better recovery. After several years, you will also be able to increase the volume and intensity, until the moment when you will have to slow down. This will clearly indicate to you that you have progressed in muscular strength and endurance.

However, remember this simple rule: Intensity techniques or volume of exercises impose the same impact on your nervous and muscular systems . Increasing the volume or intensity is equally exhausting for your body. The difference between one or the other of these factors is negligible according to the results of clinical studies in sports nutrition. Both exhaust your body in the same proportions. The end result will always be the same: whether you increase one or the other of these factors, your recovery rate should increase proportionally. With time and years of experience, you will find that you will be able to increase the volume of exercises as much as the intensity…

See you soon for other articles,

YAM Nutrition