Increase exercise intensity: add muscle, reduce body fat and improve overall health with no pills and no steroids

You’ve made the decision to get in better shape. Maybe you’ve been going to the gym for months or even years, but it seems you’ve reached a fitness plateau. How can you change that?

First, be realistic. Moving beyond a plateau requires a commitment to exercise over time, say, at least the next two to three months – and one hopes for the rest of your life. Fortunately, the high intensity methods prescribed in this article and its primary source (“High Intensity Strength Training,” by Wayne L. Westcott, PhD. And Tracy D’Arpino, B.S., LPTA) enables you to accomplish significant strength and size gains in as little as a half hour per workout session. So keeping up a good program over time should not be as difficult as you may imagine.

Second, understand that true exercise intensity is required. That means working hard. Very hard, in fact. You need to experience that feeling of muscle failure – extreme fatigue is your goal. When the workout is done, you will be tired, perhaps even experience slight muscle tremors or shakiness, and your muscles will be sore over the next day or two. Most satisfying, you’ll feel that “pump” that serious weight lifters know well.

Note that no exercise, high intensity included, need pose a risk of injury. It's important to maintain safe and proper form throughout. Intensity does not equal risk. If you're unclear on what constitutes proper form, you would be wise to hire a qualified trainer for a few sessions to learn more about smart, solid approaches to intense exercise (see also the Hub article by this writer, " How to hire a personal fitness trainer" for guidance).

Part of the good news is that anyone in generally good health, even if a lapsed exerciser, can find their own level of intense workouts.* It’s all about starting where you are and moving up to the next level – in a relatively short period of time.

Further, research clearly identifies intense, strenuous exercise as a natural means for increasing testosterone levels. For more on this, see the HubPage by this writer on exercises and foods that contribute to natural testosterone production (http://hubpages.com/hub/Natural-ways-to-increase-testosterone-levels-with-exercise-and-diet).

This article looks at two methods of exercise intensity and how it is achieved. As noted at the end, these techniques have been clinically tested and proven to be significantly productive, more so than traditional forms of strength training. Other methods exist, which will be explored in future HubPages by this writer.

Method 1: Two-level breakdown training

This method has you performing a strength-resistance exercise to fatigue, then with almost no rest, repeat the exercise with a lesser weight (10 to 20 percent lower). Both levels of the exercises are performed with a two-second lift/press and four-second drop, ideally at eight to ten quality repetitions; the last repetition should have you saying, “I can’t do any more with proper form.” Immediately – with no more than 3 seconds of rest – repeat the exercise with the lower weight; again, find muscle failure with that weight, always performing the exercise with proper form.

For example, if you are working on a chest press machine, you may be able to perform 8, 9 or 10 repetitions at 120 pounds (amounts vary by individual, of course). When you’ve completed those and found intense muscle fatigue, begin pressing 100 or 110 pounds with the same form (2 seconds up, 4 seconds down, following a consistent path of motion) until failure.

Note that because you are literally trying to fail, safety precautions dictate that you depend a bit more on machines than free weights. It’s quite possible you’ll drop a weight if you achieve muscle failure, so better that a machine guide the weight instead of a free weight land on you (your head, your sternum, your private parts, etc.). If you have a workout partner, or a personal trainer, the exercises you perform with this style of intensity can more safely involve free weights.

Method 2: Slow Movement Training

Ever notice getting the first lift or press in an exercise is hardest at the start? That’s because you have no momentum, a simple principle of physics. Once a muscle group gets something moving, the momentum makes it easier to continue lifting the weight.

Slow movement training – also called super-slow® training by its inventor Ken Hutchins – reduces the effect of momentum. Within each repetition, you work harder. (It’s also a great way to get more out of lighter weights, such as when you are working with a limited selection of weight levels, e.g., a hotel gym.)

In slow movement training, you would spend about ten seconds lifting something, and four seconds to drop it back down in a controlled movement. Alternatively, spend four seconds on the lift (also called concentric motion) and ten seconds on the drop (eccentric motion).

For example, on a quadriceps-developing leg extension machine, set the weight to 50-80 percent of your maximum weight capability (also called the repetition maximum or RM, the highest level weight you can lift at least once). Try counting ten seconds on the uplift, then four seconds down. Note that the inclination is to count too fast, so either count two for every inhalation/exhalation, or mentally say “1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3 Mississippi …” By your seventh or eighth repetition, you should achieve muscle failure. Repeat two or three times with only 30 seconds rest between sets.

In the video clip below, the method is demonstrated with the assistance of a workout partner. The assistant helps the trainee push past failure in the lift/concentric phase of the motion, continuing to experience the slow drop/eccentric motion intensity after the lift capability is depleted – taking exercise intensity to an even higher level. (Note, this trainee moves a little faster than the prescribed :04 lift, :10 drop.)

How effective is this? Research shows …

Wayne L. Westcott, Ph.D. is the Fitness Research Director at the South Shore YMCA in Quincy, Mass. There he has conducted convincing, small-scale research on various modalities of exercise, including high-intensity training. His findings on this style of training are compelling:

Breakdown training benefits both novice and experienced strength trainees: For novice trainees, maximum lift improvements over eight weeks averaged 38.8 percent more – 25 pounds versus18 pounds – compared to standard training techniques. More experienced trainees experienced 25 percent greater gains over standard techniques (15 pounds versus 12 in pounds improvement).

Slow-movement training benefits both novice and experienced strength trainees: Novice trainees who followed an eight-week slow-movement training regimen experienced 51.4 percent greater grains in pounds lifted (26.5 pounds versus 17.5 pounds) over individuals using standard training techniques. Experienced study participants were tested in two distinct groups: slow speed and slow negative speed. The latter group lifted at four seconds concentric (the lift/up part of the movement), and ten seconds eccentric (the lowering/drop portion). Here are the pounds lifted at the end of the study for each group:

• Standard: 12 pounds increase
• Slow concentric: 22 pounds increase (83 percent more)
• Slow negative: 26 pounds increase (116 percent more)

Clearly, slow movement training works. If you pursue either of these methods yourself, record your maximum lift capacity (a.k.a., RM, or repetition maximum, what you can lift/press/pull at least once with proper form), then revisit that after 6-8 weeks of high intensity training.

But even these high intensity techniques can plateau. Periodization is recommended for this as well as other forms and styles of exercise. Concentrate on this method for 6 to 12 weeks, then try something else – call me crazy, but I think we should all spend a month every year practicing yoga. Men in particular are usually surprised at the strength challenges of all that twisting and balancing, a workout with its own category of intensity.

For other modes of improving workouts – including how to exercise more and better while stuck in hotel rooms when no decent gym is available – see other articles by this Hub writer.

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*Of course, with these and any other exercise program, individuals should consult a physician to determine if they are ready to engage in increased degrees and modes of exercise.

Russ Klettke is a certified fitness trainer (ACE), speaker and author of “A Guy’s Gotta Eat, the regular guy’s guide to eating smart”(Marlowe & Co., NY 2004, with Deanna Conte, MS RD LD). The book is available where books are sold, and in more than 100 library systems in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. Klettke also works at Northwestern University/Feinberg School of Medicine as a research assistant, studying how exercise affects walking ability in individuals who have peripheral arterial disease.