PRINCIPLES OF WEIGHT TRAINING
The level of intensity is a major question when it comes to serious training, and a topic on which everyone has a theory. Some go with the "30 or 45-Second" rules, others wait a full minute or more, while still others simply train instinctively. But how much time should elapse between sets, and should one permit more time for heavier lifts? The great Franco Columbo summed up both questions in the simplest of answers, "As long as it takes to catch your breath."
There are however, numerous far less intuitive techniques that are routinely adhered to by premiere athletes. These specific guidelines encompass a variety of uniformed methods, are most often referred to as 'Weider Principles'. They are so named for Joe Weider who helped launch the fitness era, and is considered the grandfather of modern bodybuilding. This section will explain eleven of the most popular Weider principles of bodybuilding, and since they are not meant for use at every stage of training, each is followed in parentheses by a letter “B”, “I”, or “A” and stand for beginner, intermediate, and advanced training levels respectively.
Muscle Priority Training (I & A) - Training your most underdeveloped muscles first, so as to subject it to the maximum possible effort. If you have a weak body-part you want to improve, train it first in your workout, before you begin to fatigue.
Pyramiding (B, I, & A) - When using multiple sets for a given exercise, doing your first set with less weight for more reps, gradually increasing the weight and decreasing the reps over the remainder of your sets. This allows you to gradually warm up a muscle group, preparing it for the resistance to come in the next set.
Muscle Confusion Principle (I & A) - Muscles accommodate to a specific type of stress ("habituate" or "plateau") when you continually apply the same stress to your muscles over time. One must constantly vary exercises, sets, reps and weight to avoid accommodation and sustain growth and change.
Pre-Exhaustion Training (A) - Pre-fatiguing a larger muscle with an isolated, single-joint movement so it can be even more exhausted by the compound movements to follow. When you do an exercise like the bench press that works not only the chest, but also smaller muscles, one of the smaller muscles might fail before your chest is fully exhausted. By doing a chest isolation exercise beforehand, you can fatigue your chest before bench pressing to chest failure.
Supersets (I & A) - Working opposing muscle groups in back-to-back fashion, taking as little rest as possible in between sets. Alternating sets between opposing muscle groups such as biceps & triceps, and chest & back greatly increases intensity. When you train one muscle group, the other is recovering (sometimes even being stretched) as you complete the set. With two muscles or muscle groups being worked, more nourishing oxygenated blood is pumped into the area.
Tri-Sets (A) - Doing three sets in a row for the same body-part with as little rest as possible in between sets. Three exercises in a row more thoroughly exhausts the muscle. This training technique is so demanding that it should only be done on occasion, and is more often used by bodybuilders in their pre-contest training. It is not optimal for muscle building.
Set System Training (B, I, & A) - Simply doing more than one set for each exercise. This is the opposite of high-intensity training that involves performing one set per exercise. Often, the first couple of sets aren't enough to fatigue your muscle.
Giant Sets (A) - Doing 4-6 exercises for the same body-part with little rest between sets. Giant sets are used to create overwhelming stimulation to a body part and totally exhausts the muscles involved. This technique should only be used occasionally as your body needs time to recover from this level of effort. This type of training is used more for muscular endurance and calorie burning than for putting on mass.
Instinctive Training (A) - This involves experimenting with your workouts and paying attention to how your body reacts to certain types of training. The fundamentals of bodybuilding training are the same for everyone, but individual uniqueness still exists. Thus, fine tuning becomes more important, the further along one gets in training. Whatever you are accustomed to is going to feel best, but you have to figure out what actually produces the best results and adjust accordingly.
Compound Sets (I & A) - Alternating two exercises for the same muscle group, taking as little rest as possible between each set. Each same body part exercise fatigues the muscle involved in slightly different ways (often working separate muscle heads), so doing two exercises in a row with little rest in between achieves a deeper level of stimulation and muscle pump.
Staggered Sets (I & A) - Training smaller, slower developing body parts like calves or forearms in between sets for major body parts. Arnold Schwarzenegger relied on this principle early in his career to develop his calves. He would do a set for chest, back or shoulders, followed by a set of calf raises while his major muscle group was recovering for the next set. He'd then alternate sets for the working body part and calves. His calves got plenty of time to recover between sets and by the end of his workout; he would have subjected them to as many as 15-20 total sets of various calf raises.
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Originally Posted by Potentiam
