Gym motivation for a wet Monday

Just because it's wet doesn't mean you can sit on your ass all day doing nothing!

Here is a favorite clip of mine and some big units that need no introduction!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsSC2vx7zFQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Increasing training intensity

Increasing your training load is crucial for continual growth and development of your muscles. You see a lot of idiots out there thinking 4 sets of bench every second day for the next 6 months will make them have a chest like Arnold. Unfortunately your body gets accustomed to the stresses placed on it very quickly hence the need for an increased training intensity. You can achieve this in a number of ways; decreasing rest periods, adding a compound set, including partial reps, the list is endless.

I'm going to be focusing on my personal favorite, negative reps.

Whenever you loft a weight using the contractile force of your muscles you perform a positive movement; when you lower the weight, extending the working muscle, you perform negative movements. Negative reps will actually put more stress on the tendons and supportive structures than on the muscles themselves. This is beneficial particularly for people in contact sports because you want tendon strength to increase along with muscle strength. To get the full benefit of negative reps in your normal workouts, always lower the weights slowly and under control rather than letting them drop. I would suggest going down on a 4 or 5 count. To work harder at negatives, first try cheating the weight up if you don't have a training partner then lower it slowly and deliberately. Your muscles can lower a weight that they could not actually lift in the first place. At the end of a set, when your muscles are very tired, you can have your training partner give you a little assistance lifting the weight and then do strict negatives on your way down.