does rest-pause, drop set technique really work?

[7asssa7]

If you can curl 45 kg barbell 8 times and hit failure, what is the benefit of going beyond the failure?

[Wildtim]

For most trainees even going to failure is pointless. For sufficiently advanced trainees that initial failure isn't. when they fail with 45 and can still do 35 they haven't hit complete failure. Until they are doing assisted negatives with just the bar they don't consider themselves done. Once you reach their skill level you can decide for yourself until you do criticizing advanced techniques just makes you seem like a douche.

[4Dimension]

Going beyond failure with techniques like drop sets and rest pause allows you to increase the time under tension for the muscle being targeted. Time under tension, as long as the intensity (amount of weight) is high enough, is one of the keys to muscle growth.

[jgreystoke]

Of course that stuff works. But maybe not exactly for the reason you think.

There are a couple approaches to rest pause:

1. You get to say 8 reps in decent form, but know the next rep ain't going up safely. So you take a few deep breaths, "oxygen loading" Vince Gironda used to call it, and do another few reps, say 6 before you have to stop. You can repeat the process and maybe get another say 4 reps.

So you have just done 18 reps at your 8RM in a single extended set.

Notice you are doing all the work yourself. Getting someone else to lift the weight for you, like some of the guys on the threads, won't make you stronger or bigger.

2. You know that your max squat is say 350lbs. You got that in decent form to depth recently. So you take say 90% of this, three plates(315lbs).

You then do your ten or whatever ramping sets of low rep warmups to say 285. Something like:

45 x 10
85 x 5
115 x 3
135 x 2
155 x 1
185 x 1
225 x 1
255 x 1
285 x 1

Then you do several singles at 315, with several deep breaths between, or some set time like a half minute in between. There is no talk about failure here. You get every single in decent form until you hit your total reps at 90%, say 10.

Most people who do a lot of low rep work and singles, might only get about three reps at 90%, but you have got ten reps at 90% in an extended set.

If you can curl 45 kg barbell 8 times and hit failure, what is the benefit of going beyond the failure?

If your real 8RM IS 45kg, then you can't get 45kg x 8 in a second set.

So you do something like:

45 x 8
42.5 x 8
40 x 8
37.5 x 8
35 x 8.

I do that stuff all the time, usually 5 x 10 x <1 min rest descending sets, sometimes up and down the ladder 10 x 10 is feeling my oats. It has little to do with real failure. It has a lot to do that 50 reps or 100 reps of the same exercise with sufficiently heavy weight is a lot better than 10 or 20 reps.

Heavy low rep strength work after a ton of low rep warmups to prime CNS and muscles is the business. You have longer rests between the work sets, maybe 3 mins, sometimes up to 10. The reason is to get your scheduled reps at such a high percent of your max in decent form. It is not about fatigue or endurance at all. This is about strength. But this limits the pump. So tho' there is the signal for the muscles to grow because of the heavy loading, there is not sufficient blood and nutrients available to feed the growth of the fibers most efficiently.

So if you want to be huge, you really should do high rep work after. You'll be working at necessarily lower intensity. And you'll use short rests because this about the pump, strength for reps, and hypertrophy.

Hope this helps.

[7asssa7]

Going beyond failure with techniques like drop sets and rest pause allows you to increase the time under tension for the muscle being targeted. Time under tension, as long as the intensity (amount of weight) is high enough, is one of the keys to muscle growth.

But how does one find the balance between progressive overload and such intensity techniques.