Dropsets |
Try to perform your last full-weight rep until you can no longer move your performing muscles. When this happens, slowly return you weights to the floor and pick up a much lighter set of weights to continue the exercise. The light weights should be 60-70% of your usual weight, so if your previous weight was 20kg on a barbell, your drop set weight may be 13kg on a different barbell or pair of dumbbells. This should mean you achieve a double failure, firstly when you can no longer lift your normal weight and the second after using your drop sets to complete the exercise. If you do not reach failure with your drop sets then you must increase the load until you do. For best results it is essential to have your drop set weights ready as soon as you reach failure. Have a spotter hand then to you or have them lying next to your feet. Don't try to swap weight on you bar/dumbbell as you will no longer be at failure by the time you begin with the drop set weight. |
Cheat Reps |
Performing an exercise means completing each rep in its truest form. This means each rep must be taken all the way to the end in 'textbook' style, without swinging your muscles to give an artificial lift etc. Upon reaching failure however you may want to cheat your way through to the end by adopting this very technique. For example, an exercise which requires you to lift and lower a weight can be made easier by swinging. Make the descent of your weight a little faster than usual and control a 'bounce' at the bottom. This will give you extra lift as you raise the weight once more. Try to use EVERY muscle you can use to lift the weight as all you want to do is complete the exercise, and the muscles you intended to use are already at failure. Try not to make 'snap' turns with the weight or perform cheat reps too quickly as you are more likely to injure yourself while performing cheat reps. |
Forced Reps |
When you reach failure you can make the weight easier to lift by using unused muscles. In this case you can use your other hand (if performing a one handed exercise) to assist you in lifting the weight - making sure the bulk of the load is handled by the arm being exercised. Alternatively, you can get a spotter to help by lifting a little of the weight for you. This is useful if you are already using both hands to perform the exercise. In this way you can complete the last reps in their truest form but using a slightly easier to lift weight - similar to the drop set. You may wish to use this method if you only have one bar/dumbbell set and so cannot effectively perform a drop set. |
Of course you must ONLY attempt to apply these cheats after you reach
failure as they are to be used to extend the exercise and make it harder
rather than to make it easier. As you progress with your training you should
find it much easier to reach your rep limits without resorting to these methods
to complete each set. Once you can reach your rep limit without the aid of cheats,
you know the time is right to increase the weight you are using, maintaining the
the benefits you gain from the exercise.
From the above, the drop set method is better for monitoring as you can easily write down how may normal and how may drop set reps you are performing. Cheat reps and Forced reps are much harder to keep track of as you don't know exactly how much easier you are making the lift by performing them. The most important feature of all these methods is that they enable you to achieve a double failure while completing an exercise, so you must make sure this happens. You may even wish to combine methods to create a total muscle failure tactic. For example, if you intended to complete 10 tricep extensions - but could only complete 5, you could force rep another 2 using your other hand, then drop set the last 3 to complete the set, making sure your muscles is at complete failure. Sometimes, a training type may not require you to push yourself so hard and may not recommend failure tactics, so make sure you follow your training type accuratly.
