Imagine this; you are stepping up for your last set, eyes open and focused on completing today’s workout with an exclamation point. You reach down to turn the volume up on that epic playlist you found earlier, take a sip of water, and rub your hands together before grasping the bar. This weight has stood before you in the past, a worthy adversary whom at one point fought and won a set. Now, you have claimed king of the hill the last couple of weeks and would like to continue your dominance by adding one more rep. Sounds likes some solid gains right? Following a double progression protocol (in a set rep range, say 8-12, if you can get 12 reps you are bumping up the weights with the end goal of either adding weight or reps) has been one of best techniques for gaining not only strength and size, but also keeping the body guessing. There is only one issue! In relation to becoming a better athlete (performance based) double progression misses on some major opportunities. The following are some creative techniques to reach those all important gains, but also increase conditioning and performance output.
First off, why is intensity sought after in any workout? Intensity in a workout will help an athlete push through their barriers (mental, physical, emotional.) Whether it is used to set the tone of the workout, or finish it, intensity can be one of the most important variables to an athletes progress. If you have played sports, you received a healthy dose of intensity multipliers without even being aware of it. Something as simple as your couch asking you to start out going at 75% of your top speed, and then for the last couple sets telling you to give it your 100%. The 75% vs 100% looked different, correct? The latter was more intense, more focused. As training goes, we should be giving 100% throughout the workout (maybe not during a deload week…talk about that later), and so how do we increase our intensity.
Drop Sets
HoWEtrain 