My top 5 INTENSITY TECHNIQUES that will take your training to the next level

What are intensity techniques

Intensity techniques allow you to go beyond failure in order to work the muscle harder, providing extra stimulus which in return will force an adaptation of the muscle.
Intensity techniques are not for everybody, if your new starting out in the gym the stimulus from a regular set to failure will be enough to force an adaptation but for the intermediate or advanced gym goer looking to take their workouts to the next level these can be a real game changer!

These should not be used on every set, intensity techniques are a great tool to use for one set to take that muscle group past failure and fully exhaust the muscle. Once the muscle is fully exhausted move on to another exercise or body part.

My Top 5 Intensity Techniques

1. Partials 

   You can do partials with just about any exercise. Complete a full set of an exercise with full range of movement to failure then instead of re racking the weight work in a shorter range of motion to failure as well.
   For example on bicep curls you would lift the weight for full range of motion to failure, then 1/3 of the way up until you reach failure in this shortened range of motion to.
   This is a great tool to increase the stimulus and work passed failure on any given exercise, this works extremely well with isolation movements.

2. Rest Pause 

   This is a very simple but VERY effective technique .
   You take a set to failure, re-rack the weight, rest 20 to 30 seconds and then do another set to failure. This is a great intensity technique to take a set past failure but it causes a lot of neural fatigue due to you taking a set to failure twice in a short space of time. Use this intensity technique wisely as its one you’ll only want to use once or twice each workout.
   The key to this technique is making sure you take each phase to failure, missing out on failure and leaving reps in reserve on either will leave you without the benefits that this technique brings you in working past failure and forcing an adaptation

3. Loaded Stretching 

   This is a great intensity technique that I hardly ever see being used in gyms but one I frequently use to intensify my workouts.
   You’ll want to add this intensity technique in once you’ve finished of working a particular body part, so use this as after the last exercise you complete on any given body part.
   You will need to hold the stretch position of an exercise with a relative load, that can be a barbell, dumbbell or even your own bodyweight. For example take take a chest fly into the stretch position with dumbbells on a bench, use a lighter load than you would use to complete a set and hold it in the stretch position for anywhere between 30 seconds to 1 minute. Make sure with this your not using to much load and that your feeling the stretch in the muscle your trying to work!
   This is a great intensity technique to promote hypertrophy(Muscle Growth) and has been proven to have many benefits which makes this a great intensifier for any workout with any body part!

4. Dead-stop technique 

   A dead-stop is where you lift through the concentric(Lifting) range of motion, then on the eccentric(Lowering) range of motion bring that movement movement back to a dead-stop either by resting it on the rack or floor for a full second or two taking all tension off the target muscle then repeating this process with every rep.
   Everyone will have seen someone bounce a weight off a rack or off their chest once lifting, this technique is beneficial for that very reason. It removes the stretch reflex which allows you to lift the weight with the target muscle & place more of a stimulus through the designated area which will force a bigger adaptation of the muscle.

5. Nos Set (Neurological Overload Set)This an intense intensity technique that’s only for the brave!
   Start out with a weight that you fail with for 8 reps. Then use the weight and lift with a 1 second up (Explosive) 4 seconds down tempo for each rep, once you’ve failed on the 8^th rep decrease the weight by 20% and use the same method again. Keep using this method of 20% drop with the same tempo for another 2 drops (3 Drops in total). This is great finisher to end a workout with to add some metabolic stress upon a muscle group to further stimulate a muscle past failure.

Summary

Intensity techniques are a great tool to use for lagging body parts,or to increase the intensity within your workouts & can be a very beneficial tool to increase the intensity without simply adding more volume through sets & reps to your workouts.