NEW SETS: HOW TO MODIFY THE TRAINING 

Each day, when I'm at the Gold's Gym, somebody asks me: ¿Charles, how can I make my trainings more complicated and stimulant?' or 'How can I go from the intermediate level to the advanced one? I'm not still prepared to move professional weights, but I need something more'.

The truth is the weight does not need to be increased constantly to follow an advanced routine and making a challenge out of it. That is only a method to add intensity, but there are many other ways to change the training. Behold the topic of this month.

Many people make variations adding or subtracting sets and repetitions and including new exercises, or changing the distribution per body parts. They are all valid options, but not the only ones; combinations are almost infinite. Specifically I am talking about the sets variation.

We all have heard about the super sets and the giant sets, even about the pyramidal sets perhaps, and its use may consider a challenge you have not imagined. Besides, you can use one, several or all types during a whole session.

For instance, you are training legs. You can start with a pre-exhaustion set of extensions and then do a pyramidal set of squats in which you increase the load gradually. After that, you can do leg presses, hack squats and extensions on a giant set and finish with descendant sets of 21 repetitions for the extensions.

Although you can use this system for any training, I believe some body parts respond better than others to these special sets. Legs and arms take much advantage of them, but the major muscular groups, such as chest and back, can also give them a good use. You can improve the abdominal workout doing giant sets or sets that include many repetitions of any kind because the muscles of that zone are quickly re-oxygenated and need a short rest. The calves also have a good response since they need lots of repetitions to grow. Include all these types in each body part to see in which areas they work better. 

FIXED DESCENDANT SETS

Descendant sets imply to reduce the weight gradually but without changing the amount of repetitions and always reaching the failure.

Example: Dumbbell curls performed with the maximum load and two or four kilos are cut off when the failure is near. 

FORCED REPETITIONS

Forced repetitions workout the muscles till the failure. They are usually performed at the end of a set, but they can be very useful at any moment. You can use a maximum load with fewer repetitions or a light weight with more repetitions. You must have a partner's help to get full contractions.

Example: Do six or seven repetitions of squats with the 90% of the maximum load and ask a partner to watch and guide you. 

GIANT SETS

Giant sets consist on doing several exercises at the same time for one part of the body. Mix the exercises with a set of each one. The load should be moderate and there should be very short resting times between exercises. After a giant set, rest for two or three minutes.

Example: Do the squats, the legs presses, the extensions and the femoral curls from the hardest move to the easiest well managing the energy for all the exercises. Super sets comprise between three and five sets. 

LOADED SETS

With these sets the load is progressively increased while the amount of repetitions is the same or even lower as we add kilos. They work best on machines.

Example: A set of 33 kilos and 10 repetitions followed by one of 45 kilos and 8 repetitions and so on. This is a good system to take training to the next level throughout a gradual transition in a few weeks. 

NEGATIVES

Negative repetitions are contractions in which the muscle enlarges (eccentric movement) instead of shortening (concentric movement). For these repetitions you need a partner. They can help you in all exercises and zones, even when you do abdominal work on the ground. Focus on the descendant part rather that in the ascendant. Your partner can lift the weight for you (as in the biceps curl) so that you can focus on the negative part. Go very slowly and think about the control instead of the weight.

Example: Use the skullbrakers (triceps extensions lying down). Let your partner raise the bar in the concentric phase of each repetition and watch you as you lower it towards your face in the negative phase. 

PAUSE REPETITIONS

This method implies to stop the exercise between the starting and the final position. Stop at any point during 5 or 10 seconds (increasing the time with the practice), and then complete the motion. You can change the place for the pause, but keep it close to the middle or higher point.

Example: Do leg extensions with a pause in the middle during 10 seconds before ending the path. 

PARTIAL REPETITIONS

Partial repetitions are meant to get the opposite of what you normally look for with a complete motion. This technique is similar to the 21 repetitions (we will describe them later), but only involves a small part of the arch. You can focus either on the concentric or the eccentric part. The load tends to be moderate and the resting times between sets go from 45 seconds to one or one and a half minute.

Example: Do a set of 15 repetitions of standing calf raise in the lower part of the motion. And then another set in the higher part. 

THE PRE-EXHAUSTION

The pre-exhaustion system workouts the muscles before you do. This can sound illogic, but that's how it is. To pre-exhaust you with an intense isolating movement before starting the real training with a compound exercise forces the muscle to change. You have to do many repetitions with a light or middle load.

Example: Do dumbbell flies isolating the inner part of the chest and pre-exhausting it before moving to bench presses. 

SETS AFTER FAILURE (OF CONGESTION)

These sets, opposite to the pre-exhaustion ones, act on the muscle at the end of the training, are performed with a heavy load and few repetitions and then all the way back. Many people question the efficiency of this technique because they assure that if they have trained hard during the session, it is only useful for overtraining. I recommend you to use it after having trained the biggest muscular groups.

Example: Do a heavy set of six or eight repetitions of hack squats and, without resting, another one with light weight and 12 repetitions of leg presses. 

PYRAMID

Doing a pyramidal set means that the load or the repetitions are increased to their higher point and then they are reduced, so that if we make a scheme it would look like a pyramid. It can also be done without decreasing at the end. 

PYRAMIDAL REPETITIONS

The same loads are always used and between one and five repetitions are added on each set.

Example: The first set involves 45 kilos/10 repetitions, the second set with 45 kilos/12 repetitions, the third set with 45 kilos/15 repetitions and the fourth, 45 kilos/12 repetitions. 

PYRAMID WEIGHT

Instead of increasing the repetitions and keeping the weight constant, this last is increased and the repetitions remain constant, or even decrease.

Example: Do a first set of pulls with 45 kilos/10 repetitions, the second with 54 kilos/8 repetitions, the third with 63 kilos/6 repetitions and so on. 

VARIABLE DESCENDANT SETS

These sets exhaust the muscles and get the most out of them. I like to use them with my clients when they workout legs, back or chest (big groups) because they can use more weight and it is difficult to overtrain. They are very good when done on machines.

You will need one or two fellows to put the weights down from the sides of the machine, as it happens on the leg presses or the hack squats.

Example: The first set uses the 90% of the maximum weight, let's say 113kilos/6 repetitions, the second with 102 kilos/8 repetitions, the third one with 90 kilos/10 repetitions and the fourth with 80 kilos/12 repetitions. I sometimes tell my clients to reach the failure with each new weight. You only rest when your partner or trainer takes the weight off for the next set: this represents 5 to 10 seconds, so it is practically a super set or a giant set. 

SUPERSETS

There are different definitions. Some consider a super set as two different exercises performed together without stopping for the same body part, as squats and extensions.

Others believe that they are two or three following exercises for two or more body parts, as the biceps curls and the triceps extensions. Sessions end before you even notice. In both examples, the weight is moderate and you do not rest between individual sets until the super set is completed. In that moment, rest for two or three minutes and start again.

Example 1: Leg extensions and strides.

Example 2: Standing dumbbell curls and triceps rear kicks. 

RHYTHMED SETS

These sets are completed in a certain period of time. The negative and positive part of each repetition should have the same length and rhythm. The resting time between sets is short (1 or 2 minutes). Use moderate or light weights because they are difficult.

Example: Do the concentric part of the seated row in five seconds and the eccentric in another five. 

THE 21 REPETITIONS

This system divides the path of the exercise in three sections of which seven repetitions are completed (7 x 3). You can also do 15, ie, five repetitions for each one of the three sections (5 x 3). Each third of the exercise is continued and you can rest between sets.

Example: Do seven partial repetitions of EZ bar curls standing from the beginning to the middle point, another seven from there to the end of the motion and then another complete seven repetitions. 

You can include any of these methods in your training according to the corporal part and goals.