Forced Reps

When stuck in the rut of a training plateau, more work is not always the answer. 99% of the trainees that I see as a personal trainer when confronted with a training plateau drastically increase the workload of the program.

This results in the point of diminishing returns. More work, in terms of more sets and more reps does not equate to more gains. In fact, they end up digging the hole deeper in terms of their ability to recover from their workouts. This is why we use high-intensity techniques to really crank up the intensity and decrease the volume.

Here we have Nik. He's going to demonstrate the bench press for us. He's going to take to set the failure and I'm going to show you how forced reps can be used to really increase the intensity of your set.

We're going to begin the set, just as any set continuing towards fatigue, and then failure.

Now, as Nik starts to fatigue here, I'm going to be sure to be ready near the bar. And I'm going to help him just as much as he needs to complete the positive portion of the rep and on the downward phase, or the negative, he'll essentially be on his own. Keep going here Nik. Good. Nice slow negative.

Very good and push through it.

Great, down slow. And one more. Push through it. Good job.

In that way we are able to continue the set past failure, to really crank up the intensity and to avoid having the extra sets, reps to an already overburdened training program, in terms of volume. In this way, forced reps and other high intensity techniques can really help in taking your program out of that training rut.

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