Marty Gallagher
I have been in the progressive resistance trenches for 60 years. In my estimation the single most important factor for obtaining the bountiful physiological gifts associated with properly performed progressive resistance training is intensity. As it applies to progressive resistance training, what exactly is intensity? Intensity is how close the trainee comes to 100% of their momentary capacity. If a man can lift 100 pounds, be it for 1 rep or 100 reps, if he lifts 70 pounds, be it for 1 rep or 100 reps, he is operating at 70% of capacity. My empirical experience is that the bountiful benefits associated with proper progressive resistance training are triggered, not at 70% intensities but at 100% of capacity, or better yet, 102% of capacity.
Physiological Impossibilities
Nothing of any physiological significance happens unless the human body exerts on a herculean level. Ordinary resistance training does not reap extraordinary results. The targeted muscle or muscle group need be pushed to the cusp of current capacities in some manner. What is the physiological incentive for the body to favorably reconfigure itself (strengthen, build muscle) in response to doing what we are already capable of? To increase lean muscle mass and experience a concurrent increase in raw power, the athlete must exceed current limits.
Why would the body grow muscle and grow stronger performing at 80% of what you are capable of? At best, an 80% effort is treading water, maintaining what we have already attained. How could a sub-maximal effort create incredible results? Real results are dependent on generating exercise intensities that carry muscles up to, and then past current capacities, thereby triggering hypertrophy.
marty gallagher
We become more than what we are by doing more than what we are capable of.
Cellular Nuclear Fission
Muscle growth is initiated by continual and consistent stressing of a muscle. In response to repeated overload, in response to overwhelming stress applied on a continual basis, the body, as a defensive measure, grows new muscle, this to cope with the ongoing limit-assaulting training tactics. Submaximal stress is insufficient to cause the physiological freak-out that trigger hypertrophy.
How does a resistance-trainer ensure that they have trained hard enough to trigger hypertrophy and experience concurrent strength gains? One surefire way is to rep a poundage until you cannot perform anther rep. You have given 100%. You have done all you can do. On good days you might hit 102%, i.e., set a new personal rep and poundage record for that particular exercise using that particular technique. You have taken yourself to the limit of your capacity on that day and at that time. You have done your hypertrophic duty.
What more can you do than all you can do? 100% effort is exemplified by pushing or pulling until you are unable to push or pull another rep. 100% capacity shifts day to day, week to week, year to year; during a good week you bench press 200x10 and the next week you are stressed and must work overtime and can only manage 200x7. The following week you get a raise, met a hot new girl and bench 200x12. The goal remains to attain 100% of capacity, be it diminished, normal or enhanced.
It is not necessary to (literally) fail with a repetition to obtain the bountiful benefits You do not have to attempt a repetition that you know you are incapable of. If rep five is barely completed, no need to engage in rep six, one doomed to fail. I call this strategy of knowing how to do enough and when to quit (utter and complete) a rep - Failure Minus One.
marty gallagher
Hypertrophy is not a gradual event; hypertrophy is the cellular equivalent of a nuclear detonation.
Resistance Training Variables
Resistance training machine have frozen motor pathways. Free-weights, barbells, dumbbells, and kettlebells are instable and wobble around as you push or pull them. Free-weights require the trainee cut a motor-pathway through time and space. Muscle stabilizers must spring into action controlling a barbell or dumbbells. Free weights cause muscle-stabilizers to fire maximally as they struggle to keep the “free” (free to go astray with disastrous results) weights moving along in the proper pathway using the proper rep speed for the proscribed number of reps. Therefore, resistance machines that mimic free-weight exercise produce fewer results for the same amount of work.
Muscle, strength and power are optimized when an athlete engages in a 102% effort when 100% rested. Conversely, results will be less than optimal is the trainee trains before attaining 100% recovery. Learn more about training recovery below.
The techniques our school of strength champions were developed in pursuit of world records; world records that were successfully attained. Learn more about our signature techniques below.
Partial rep strokes yield partial results. Full range-of-motion using compound multi-joint free-weight exercises strengthens muscles over the entire rep stroke.
The negative, the eccentric portion of every rep is emphasized. The perfectly executed eccentric rep builds “coiling power.” A perfect eccentric makes an explosive concentric relatively easy.
The antidote to stagnation is instituting contrasting training strategies. Periodically the component parts of the periodized strategy need be alternated and rotated. Iron masters understand that limit lifting in different rep ranges has a differing physiological impact.
Before every set, the trainee should consciously select one of three rep speeds: purposefully slowed (grind,) normal (neither grind nor explosive) purposefully accelerated (explosive.)
Another effective training strategy is to pendulum swing from lone top sets to multiple top sets with a static poundage. Contrast is King, the surefire stagnation-buster. Learn more about injecting contrast into your training below.
These are designed to “disadvantage” a lift, i.e., make it harder. Intensity enhancers include paused reps, drop sets, forced reps, exaggerated ROM, grind speed, pulling off blocks, straps, etc.
How to Train Intensely Yet Safely
Regardless, if you are a resistance training rookie or an iron veteran, going to the cusp of our current capacities, trying to improve and exceed those capacities, while maximally productive can be dangerous and injurious. Anytime we seek to equal or exceed what we are capable of injury lies in wait. The iron elite understand that proper technique, and total and complete adherence to that technique, will keep the trainee safe. If the trainee adheres to these full ROM signature exercise techniques and if the athlete stays within the technical boundaries of that technique, the lifter can lift maximally safely and consistently. Injury occurs when the lifter strays outside the technical boundaries of a lift.
Occasionally those that operate at the outer limits will fail with a rep. They fail with integrity rather than succeed by breaking form to complete a rep. The ideal rep is the barely completed final rep of a limit-exceeding set. No need to embark on a Kamikaze suicide rep you stand no chance of completing. Gains are attained by assaulting the barriers of our current capacities. Want more chest muscle? Set a new personal record in the 5-rep touch-and-go bench press. New personal records in the core exercises using pristine techniques ensure you reap all the bountiful benefits of a proper resistance training program. Nothing less than herculean effort will suffice.
Learn more about my championship strength mentors below.
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