Beyond Brawn - The Insider's Encyclopedia on How to Build Muscle && Might

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. Some people only like to squat for -rep sets. Others hate high-rep squats
and never get into them hard enough and long enough to get much of them,
though they can reap lots of benefit from performing sets of five reps.

. Some people rave over very slow reps, whereas most trainees find them so
boring that they cannot deliver consistent effort over long enough to make
the very slow reps deliver growth.

. Some people are terrific natural squatters; others have poor leverages for
squatting, but can become terrific deadlifters.

. Some people respond well on a “blood and guts” single-set-to-failure-per-
exercise type of routine—if it is well cycled, with plenty of rest between ses-
sions, and if supervised by a like-minded training partner or trainer. But left
to their own devices there is no way they can deliver the intensity needed,
though they can do very well on a -×-whatever format.

. You have to be very keen on a program to commit yourself  to it. If you
apply anything less than  commitment, the results will be way under
what you could get on the program if you really applied yourself to it.

. You must not only find something that is practical for you, but something
you like doing, and can do well for long enough to earn good results.

Between-set rests
. At one extreme there is the take-as-much-time-as-you-want philosophy. As
the other there is the take-as-little-as-possible approach. e former does
not want to sacrifice the weights by hurrying through the workout, and is a
physically less uncomfortable way to train. e latter philosophy is heavily
concerned not only with the intensity of each individual exercise, but the
overall intensity of the short-duration workout. is style of training usu-
ally consists of a single work set per exercise, taken to failure. e poundages
suffer when exercises are done almost back to back, but this is supposed to
be offset by the overall metabolic stimulation for muscular growth that the
body may get if you can deliver the necessary intensity.

. Both approaches can build big and strong bodies, as can different twists in
between the two extremes. What matters most is finding an interpretation
you can do consistently and with progressive poundages. You may be able to
benefit from more than one approach.
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