Advanced Training

Drop sets

Performing drop sets is a great advanced training technique to add to your home workouts to really exhaust your muscles. To perform a drop set, you will begin by doing a set with a weight that allows you to complete 8-10 reps, as you normally would. Once you have done as many reps as possible with this weight, you will immediately use a slightly lighter weight and perform as many reps as possible with this weight, all with no rest. You should drop the weight by about 5-10 pounds for the second part of the set (depending on the exercise), hence the term "drop set". If you want to really push yourself, you can perform a triple drop set in which you lower the weight used a second time, pushing out as many reps as possible again with no rest. This is an intense training technique and should not be overused. I usually only perform drop sets during my last set of a specific exercise. For example, if I am doing 4 sets of bicep curls, my 4th set will be a drop set in which I lower the weight and perform more reps.

Twenty-Ones

This advanced training technique involves completing 21 reps of a given exercise in each set. The reps are divided into three parts of 7 for a total of 21. Your first 7 reps are from the starting point of the exercise to the halfway point and back to the start again. Your next 7 reps are from the halfway point of the exercise to the end point and back. Your final 7 reps are full reps. Basically, you are doing 14 half-reps at the beginning followed by 7 full reps at the end, all with no rest. The completion of the full 21 reps counts for one set. The completion of twenty-ones are popular during biceps training, often used as an alternative to standard barbell curls. This technique can be used on other exercises as well however, such as the bench press.

The 1-6 Technique

This technique involves performing 6 sets of an exercise with increasing weights. The first set, you would perform 1 rep with a pretty heavy weight. The next set, you would lower the weight for 6 reps. The third set, the weight would be increased from the weight used on the first set for 1 rep only again. After this, you would perform 6 reps with a slighty heavier weight than the one used in set 2, and so on for 6 sets. If you began set 1 of your squats with 250 pounds, this is an example of what your other sets might look like, with increasing weights used:

Pyramid Sets

Pyramid sets involve pyramiding the weight up for a given exercise, then back down again. It is best to perform about 5 sets for this technique, however fewer sets can be used as well. You would begin with a lighter weight and perform about 12 reps for your first set. The second set, you would increase the weight and perform around 8-10 reps. The third set will be your heaviest, and you would want to increase the weight so that you can only do 4-6 reps. After this, you lower the weight on your next set and do another 8-10 reps, followed by a final decrease in weight for your last set for 10-12 reps. Here is an example of this advanced training technique for the bench press: