6 Advanced Training Techniques

Have you hit the plateau? Does the 12x3 no longer work?

Do you want to optimize muscle growth and make new gains?

If you have been putting in a lot of effort but not seeing the same progression as previously, your muscle growth may be stagnating.

Your body has become used to of the stress and intensity and you need to adopt a different approach to challenge it.

Advanced training techniques can break through a muscle building rut and jump start your progress again.

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I am sharing these 6 advanced training techniques that you I recommend my clients. You can incorporate these into your workout. Read on to find what they are. You can also watch this video here.

1.Drop Set: The drop set is simply just that, dropping the weights. You complete 3 sets until failure so that muscles are fatigued. After that, you drop the weights by about 40% and do another set to failure. It’s important to go to failure because the body needs to feel challenged to grow and you need to stimulate it by going beyond failure. Drop sets increase muscle mass and endurance because by continuing the exercise at a lower weight even after failure forces muscles to work even harder.

2. Rest-Pause: With this technique you perform your sets to failure and then give yourself a rest for 10 seconds before doing another set. With this additional set, you don’t do the full number of reps as with other sets but aim for at least half of that volume. The rest pause technique is another great way to take body beyond failure and to activate the reserve muscle fibers.

These fibers only come in when they absolutely need to and so with this technique you stimulate more muscles and optimize growth.

3. Superset: This is probably something you often hear about and regularly incorporate. Supersets involve merging two different exercises and counting these movements as one set. After one set, you can rest for 45 seconds to 1 minute before starting the other set. The benefit of supersets is that they allow you to get the workout done faster, stimulate more muscles and get more volume into workouts. It is best to combine exercises that work muscles from different angles. An example is to combine a barbell curl with dumbbell hammer curls.

4. Partial Reps: As the name suggests, it involves doing a rep with less than full range. It will allow muscles to go to failure and build strength. On the last set, go to failure and then start another set but lift halfway through. Instead of going through the full range of motion of an exercise (or fully extended and flexing to the joint's potential), you stop at say, a quarter, half, or three-quarters of the full rep. In this way, you keep pushing same muscles but avoid bad form.

5.?Forced Reps: With this technique you would need a spotter or training partner to assist you with the exercise. The spotter can help you lift and push through additional reps so you can go beyond the point where you would otherwise have stopped. Make sure that the spotter is not lifting it for you but just providing enough support so you can push through. Be mindful of the exercises you choose to apply this technique on. Watch the video here for some tips.?

6.?Negative Reps: With this technique, you perform the eccentric phase of the exercise. After you have done sets to failure with concentric movements, you start another set. In this set, the spotter lifts for you and you can perform only the eccentric part.

With all these advanced techniques you don’t need to be doing each of these. You can choose one and as you progress and are about to reach plateau add another technique. This will take you from where you are to where you want to be.

Remember, building muscles requires smart workouts.

With a qualified coach by your side, you can make the most of each workout and optimize results. Reach out to me for a free consultation and start your journey today.

?Train Smart. Train Safe. Train in BullMode!

Your Coach,

Christian Williams

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Christian Williams is a global body transformation coach hailing from Wales and settled in Dubai. In 2017, he founded?Christian Williams Physique Transformation?which offers in-personal and?online coaching programs. However, how his programs differ is that each nutrition and training plan is individualized to a clients' requirements instead of providing a blanket program. He compliments his programs with weekly check-ins to ensure clients are progressing in the right direction. Christian has accumulated over 16 years of experience, knowledge, and education in the fitness industry and uses it to help as many people as he can. Christian was awarded Silver PT of the Year by the prestigious Middle East Fit Awards in November 2020.

With a practical background of competing in a variety of bodybuilding competitions since 2008, he has also won titles of Mr. Wales, Mr. England, Mr. London - to name a few. Through his articles, he aims to mentor personal trainers and pass on his learnings, accumulated over the years, in order for them to become the best versions of themselves so they help their clients achieve their goals.