HighIntensity.net View Mike Mentzer Bodybuilding Topic

Hi guys,

I have been kicking around the thought of doing some type of advanced techniques lately, during my layoff because of being sick. I haven′t been able to think of a "consistent" way of doing things, in which I could be happy. Everything I considered either involved more volume than I was wanting, too much overlap, etc.

Then, this morning, it happened… An idea bounced in my head that I had never thought of before!

I kept thinking about pre-exhaustion, and it′s benefits of eliminating the weakest link. I was never happy with the increase in volume, and maybe not hitting some of the "weakest" links enough in the compound exercise, because maybe the larger muscle would fail before those. Finally, I thought of a "reverse" pre-exhaustion, where the intensity is as high as possible for ALL the muscle groups, including the weakest links with hardly no extra volume!

Instead of doing the isolation movement, as a standard set BEFORE the compound movement in a superset, I thought:

"Why not do the compound movement straight out until failure, then IMMEDIATELY do an isolation movement that targets the largest muscle group with 1 static hold rep?"!!!

This would allow the weakest links to fail, along with hit the largest muscle groups pretty hard, then crank up the intensity on the largest muscle group as high as possible without involving the weakest links anymore because of a static hold in the fully contracted position!

Here is what I have FINALLY decided on, for myself:

Workout 1
————
1) Machine Pulldowns
2) Machine Dips – post-exhausted with static hold of Pec Deck.

Workout 2
————
1) Leg Extensions
2) Leg Curls
3) Seated Calf Raises

Workout 3
————
1) Machine Bench Presses
2) Machine Rows – post-exhausted with static hold of Pullover.

Workout 4
————
1) Standing Calf Raises
2) Squats

Boom!!!!!!!

I′m FINALLY content with that routine (for now) nailing ALL muscle groups as much as possible, eliminating weakest links from making largest muscle fail, and keeping volume extremely low!

I coined the phrase "post-exhausted", meaning the largest muscle will fail AFTER the compound exercise because weakest links are bypassed by use of isolation in static contraction position where largest muscle is flexed as much as possible.

Darrell

Hey Darrell!

Your program looks cool! I like the static hold as a post exhaust, that′s a cool way to do it!

(Man, I hate to be the barer of bad new, LOL, but I have an old book by Robert Kennedy talking about "post exhaust" sets. :-O) BUT, he never mentioned using static holds, so that part is all YOU 🙂

I think you should try this, I bet it would be great!

My old and best normal hit routine, that really did kick the size up quick was using something like that, but not done right after each other like yours. The intensity didn′t go high like yours but was like this…

Sunday
Bench
Pec Dec
Laterals
Lying tricep

Tuesday
Squats
Leg ext
Leg Curls
Calves

Thursday
Rows
Straight arm pulldown
Shrugs
Curls

Kinda of a post type thing, it worked great until overtraining set in after a month 🙂

Keep up the good idea′s!

Az

Analyzer,

Hahaha, yeah it′s hard to come up with a COMPLETELY new way of doing things! It′s funny how sometimes something so logical just can′t be thought of, and then all of the sudden it just pops in your head!

Yeah, I′m going to be really careful about overtraining, that′s why I kept volume low, and only 1 static hold per workout. Notice I′m only doing a static for chest 1 time and a static for lats the other time.

My lats and chest haven′t been gaining size like my other body parts, and I′m thinking this will make that happen, because they will HAVE to fail!

Thanks for the encouragement!

Darrell

it sounds like a good idea tough,,, i think that is why we have those advanced techniques, to mix them up… i think the important thing is the volume issue, and i am also thinking that we are up in this problem (so fast into the consolidation routine) because of advancing in strenght so fast…

JS

I′ve used static holds at the end of a set periodically for several years; however, I perform that technique with the compound movement.