The reason you’re not building muscle could be because you’ve hit a plateau. Once your body gets used to your usual training techniques, it stops growing. You need to be shocking your muscles in order for them to grow.
Advanced training techniques can help you get the most of your workouts by annihilating your muscles. Incorporating these techniques into your workouts will keep your muscles guessing with what hit them and will force your muscles into growing bigger.
1.FORCED REPS
Preformed after the point of failure, with a help of a spotter (usually,1-3 reps ). Spotter shouldn’t lift your weight, just help in a moment the weight starts to ”come back ”.
2. NEGATIVES
Using weight heavier than a lifter can lift by strict reps. With a help from a partner or equipment, person puts the weight ( or own body ) into position to continue with slow and controlled eccentrics. This technique is useful when building strength base in a certain movement, or as an additional exhaustion after hitting failure.
3. CHEATING
Including movements which aren’t part of a certain exercise’s technique , but to help provide more reps. This is declining a proper form and by using other muscles, such as heavier momentum, it’s possible to bear the weight after failure and extend the set. Here, it’s important to notice that secondary muscles shouldn’t take over the movement, but main muscles should remain dominant with a strong contraction at the end. This technique shouldn’t be abused by cheating every rep. The effect and intensity are missed if secondary muscles work more than the main.
4. REST -PAUSE
Using the weight a few reps is possible to perform with, then putting it down to repeat that again, few times. Short pauses allow ATP resynthesis so it’s possible to preform the set with heavy weight. This way the energy to keep needed intensity is kept.
5. PARTIAL REPS
Reps done only in half range of motion, upper or lower part. They’re good for balancing or manipulating the intensity to some pieces of muscles or if strength stagnates in some piece of the motion.
6.”21 STAYLE “
This technique is a combination of partial reps. First we do 7 reps in the lower part of motion, than 7 reps in the upper part and in the end, 7 reps full ROM. Since it’s supposed to be done with weight as heavy for completing 10 reps, this way we’re able to “kill the muscle” double with the same weight.
7.DROP SET
A set of decreasing the weight after failure,to preform few more reps. Reducing the weight allows keeping the proper form ( if it’s not disrupted by exhaustion,low focus and ability to react ) and controlled reps,keeping the needed tension to progress.
8. PRE-EXHAUST SET
2 sets,2 different exercises,done one by one with little or no rest. Isolation exercises is done first,then the main lift. This is done when the secondary muscles fail before the main ones,which get no optimum stimulus.