HEVT Part 2

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Do not attempt to separate development of your upper and lower chest regions by performing an incline press, unless you are most powerful in a low incline position, due to some physiological advantage that you have in this position. Further, you cannot isolate different areas of the chest. If you are genetically destined to have a superior upper chest, it will develop using the same exercises that you use for any other part of your chest. Instead, merely pick the chest exercise at which you are strongest. Then follow the First Law of Hypertrophy by performing 4 repetitions, while fully exploiting the stimulation target portion of any standard press motion. The highest-efficiency part of the press is the first 20% of the concentric (upward) portion of the lift. By lowering your repetition range to four on the first working set, you will be able to handle heavier resistance immediately.

This first working set is normally preceded by as many warm-up sets as necessary, with lower weights and two to six reps, to prepare your mind and body for this high-efficiency effort. Decrease the reps and increase the weight as the warm-up proceeds.

For my first working set, I prefer to use a Smith machine, with the bench in a flat position. The Smith allows you to attempt groundbreaking lifts with the knowledge that you can be safe with just the roll of the wrist. The Smith machine also allows for easy adoption of a variable for the subsequent two sets. You will only adhere to the first law on your first working set, as the law no longer applies after this maximum attempt, because you no longer can call upon your maximum energy to build muscle. After the first set, you must rely on other variables to make the subsequent sets as effective as the first one.

The Second Working Set

Each and every set must stand on its own, as the one set that can create the most hypertrophy at the time. Therefore, for the next working set, some significant variable must change. The second set on the Smith machine requires a reduction in bar resistance (amount of weight on the bar), the addition of bands, which are a crucial component, and an increase in reps, into the five- to eight-rep range. Bands are critical, because they increase the overall time under tension (TUT), increase resistance at the point of peak contraction, when you reach the static, uppermost portion of the movement, and assist the muscles in the negative portion of the exercise. The bands also build your explosive power in the positive portion of the repetition. That is, they force the chest muscles, in the positive phase of the repetition, to exert a substantial burst of force, in order to raise the bar, which is resisting, as a result of both weights and the constant tension of the bands. This demand upon your muscles for explosive power eventually will allow you to further increase the resistance that you are able to use when attempting your first set, following the First Law of Hypertrophy and not using bands. The advantages of using bands are critical, as I have explained. Bands stimulate efficient muscular growth due to increasing TUT. Bands also foster new explosive power, allowing you to continue to increase your strength and workload during subsequent first sets.

This second set, unlike the first set, is especially designed to exploit fully the last 20% of the positive (upward) portion of the press, before you reach the static, uppermost position, because the continual increase in resistance from the bands is the equivalent of greater resistance, during this last 20% of the positive motion, than can be attained during the first set, without bands. As you may recall, a lifter during the first set maximizes his or her power during the first 20% of the positive motion, as he or she raises the bar with as much force as possible. After the bar has begun its upward movement, less force is required to keep it in motion, until the arms are fully extended and the bar is at its highest position. This is not the case with bands. They demand both a greater explosive force, to initially raise the bar, and more sustained force, to get it to its uppermost, static position.

Example Sets One and Two

Now let us return to the specific first and second sets that I have performed, to illustrate my application of the HEVT theory, with regard to chest development. In my first working set, I lifted 385 pounds for four repetitions, meaning that at the end of each positive portion of the movement, I had raised 385 pounds to a static position. In my second set, the initial plate resistance was dropped to 315 pounds, and bands were added. With this addition of bands, the total resistance at the end of each positive portion of the movement, when the static position was reached, was the equivalent of over 450 pounds. Further, this resistance consisted of continual applied tension on the muscles, throughout the entire positive (upward) movement.



Rest Between Sets

This sequence of variables is crucial, if one is to make each working set as effective as the previous one, in terms of building muscle, not just expending energy. Further, you must rest enough between the first and second sets to give your muscles the time that they need to again attain maximum intensity (efficiency) in building muscle. There is no standard rest time between sets. Each individual must determine this, in part by trial and error. Muscle does not know how long you have rested between sets. It only knows how well it can react and perform when challenged again. You must allow for full recovery from the first working set, in order to achieve maximum performance during your second working set.

The Third Working Set

As you proceed to additional sets, it is important to remember the guiding principle of HEVT: each set must stand on its own, as being the one set that creates the most hypertrophy at the time, through the proper sequence of variables. In other words, no set is wasted, in terms of building muscle. As you move to your third set, you can continue using the Smith machine, with a reduction in bar resistance (weight), while keeping the bands in place and increasing your repetitions, prior to failure, to a six-to-ten-repetition range. The variable that will enable you to make this third set effective is the rest-pause technique. This technique involves a controlled lowering of the bar on the eccentric (negative) portion, followed by a pause for a count of two at the bottom, without resting the bar on the chest, and then followed by an explosive push upward, until you reach the static conclusion of the positive phase. At the static, uppermost position, you should take a one-count rest, and then repeat the negative motion, with another two-count rest at the end of the negative phase. These rest-pause repetitions are continued until you reach failure.

This rest-pause technique is designed to explosively stimulate as many muscle fibers as you can activate, with the added benefit of a longer continual TUT, through the use of bands. In my illustrative third set, I reduced the second set resistance of 315 pounds to 225 pounds on the bar.



It is important to note that unlike with the first set, no warm-up sets are needed as you move from set one to set two and from set two to set three. You will need to accurately adjust the amount of resistance for sets two and three, and this will become apparent after several training sessions. Further, even as you experiment with different weight workloads, you can make each set effective. If you choose less resistance than you potentially might handle, for your selected repetition range in the second or third set, slow the reps down to make the set work. If you choose too much resistance, stop the set immediately, lessen the weight load, rest, and restart the set.

The Fourth Working Set

Let us now move on to the fourth set, in the sequence of variables that I have described. To insure that each set stands on its own, as being the one set that can create the most hypertrophy, to profoundly stimulate the muscle, I now select a machine that allows for a converging or closing motion of the machine’s arms, as you perform the movement. I prefer a Hammer Strength chest press, as I am strongest with this position when using a Hammer type machine. Most gyms have Hammer Strength machines, and it is easy to attach bands to these machines. If a Hammer Strength machine is not available, any chest press machine that offers a converging motion can be used. If bands can be attached, this is very helpful.

Finishing with a converging chest press machine and bands offers one distinct advantage. This type of movement, with bands in place, forces a stronger contraction of the chest muscles, as they are squeezed together, due to the powerful torque or tension applied to the muscles as the arms of the machine converge. This squeezing of the muscles reaches its apex at the static position that concludes the positive movement. Pick a resistance that will allow you to perform six to eight smooth repetitions, always maximizing the convergence of the machine’s arms. This convergence forces a strong contraction at the static point. Your final working set for chest should take a minimum of one minute to complete. It can take longer. However, it should not take so long that you are essentially able to perform it so slowly only because you have selected too light a weight.


This set is designed to provide a longer TUT than do the previous sets. While this amount of time expended on each repetition should be extended, the reduction in resistance required to create this extended TUT should not exceed 30% of the weight that you use for normal-tempo repetitions. This is important, because too much reduction in resistance (weight) negates the benefit of the increase in TUT. In other words, power and TUT must be balanced in this fourth set.

Conclusion: HEVT for Your Chest

If you have followed this program, you now have completed a total of four working sets, preceded by several warm-up sets, to achieve maximum muscle-building efficiency in a chest workout. The incorporation of four variables, one per set, has allowed each set to stand on its own, while together they create an efficient total approach to chest training. One added benefit of this type of training is that it calls upon your physical and mental skills, as you craft each set to make it effective. It is not merely a rote program that repeats the same exercise with differing weights and repetitions, or a program that jumps from machine to machine, to create the illusion of better stimulating muscular growth. Instead, it enables you to introduce effective variables into each of the four working sets, so that each set produces the greatest hypertrophy of which your body is capable at that point in your workout.

Most workouts engender negligible amounts of muscular growth, while wasting much time and energy on exercise that is nothing more than powerful exertion. This exertion may make you feel fulfilled, but it often fails to stimulate muscular growth. If the exercises that I have described are performed properly, further chest work is not necessary or useful. No flye or isolation work can come close to this workout, in terms of penetrating the deepest muscle fibers, breaking them down, and forcing them to grow. While the application of the four variables need not use the four specific exercises that I have chosen, the principles of high efficiency variable training, if implemented using any equipment that you select, will produce similar amounts of muscular growth. Your pump will be the greatest pump that you have ever achieved on chest day!




50 years old 228 lbs. 52 years old 248 lbs.