A Simple (and Fun) Method for Mass

It’s no secret that 80-90% of the progress we make in the gym comes on steady progression of the core barbell exercises:  Squats, Bench Press, Press, and Deadlift.  This is true whether we are training for mass & physique, pure strength, or athletic competition.  But all of us that train these lifts on a regular basis like to add in a little variety where we can – it makes training fun and we can keep challenging ourselves in different areas over time.  By variety, I don’t mean turn your sessions into Junior High P.E. class.  But a little bit of variation at the margins of your training routine, if programmed intelligently, can not only make your sessions more fun and more challenging, but you might accidentally build some new muscle in the process!

One of the important lessons that Bro-Science has taught us, is that muscle mass is best stimulated by a combination of heavy weight/low reps with complete rest periods, and higher reps/short rest periods with lighter weights. Either stimulus on it’s own is not nearly as effective as when the two methodologies are coupled together in the same workout.  I’m sure this is backed up by actual  science as well…..however it’s also probably dis-proven by actual science (i.e. you can find a study to prove or disprove just about anything)……which is why sometimes “Bro-Science” is your best reference point!

The method that I’m going to describe in this article is based on my experiences training with some legit NPC bodybuilding competitors back in the early 2000s in College Station TX.  At the time, the internet wasn’t quite what it is today, and as a consequence more people got big and strong by watching and learning what other big and strong people did, rather than just reading about it online.  At the time, it became popular among the group I was training with to perform “challenge sets” at the end of our workouts.  I’m not sure who initiated the idea, but for several months we wound up doing a lot of these at the end of just about every workout.

I remember we first started doing these during our Back workouts, and we had a pretty simple rotation set up.  We would begin with one single heavy exercise for low reps with complete rest in between.  For example – weighted pull ups for 5 x 5.  Following the pull ups we would do our challenge sets.  For a Back workout that began with pull ups (a vertical pull), we would select a rowing exercise (horizontal pull) and combine it with deadlifts for the challenge sets.  Challenge sets are based upon the idea of reaching a total number of repetitions (usually 100-200) with just two exercises over the course of 5 sets.  Supposing the goal was 100 total repetitions we would aim for 5 sets of 20 reps.  If the goal was 150, we would do 5 sets of 30.  The first workout I ever participated in using this method utilized deadlifts and heavy full range of motion seated cable rows. After a brief warm up, I did a max rep set of deadlifts (I think I used 385) and did 12 reps.  Following the Deadlifts I immediately went and performed 8 seated cable rows – 12 + 8 = 20 total reps.  That was set number one.  After a 3 minute rest, I went back to the Deadlift and pulled another max rep set, this time I got like 9. Again, I immediately had to proceed to the seated cable row and perform 11 reps in order to acheive the 20 rep goal.  That was set 2.  This process was completed until all 5 sets were done.  I believe I ended that workout with 4 deadlifts on the last set, followed by 16 reps on the seated cable row.  It was brutal.

The following week, we would switch things around.  This time, we might switch the order and begin with a heavy rowing variant (horizontal pull) and use a vertical pull and deadlifts for our challenge sets.  The third week, we would generally start with deadlifts for heavy sets, low reps, and full rests and then combine a vertical and horizontal pulling motion.  The exercises always changed but we generally had at a Deadlift, a Row, and either Pull Ups or Pulldowns.  Some examples look like this (challenge sets in bold):

• Pull Ups 5 x 5;  Deadlifts / Seated Cable Rows 5 x 20
• One Arm DB Rows 4 x 8;  Pull Ups / Deadlifts 5 x 20
• Barbell Rows 4 x 6;  Deadlifts / Lat Pulldowns 5 x 20
• Deadlifts 3 x 3;  Pull Ups / T-Bar Rows 5 x 20
• Deadlifts 3 x 3;  Barbell Rows / V-Grip Pulldowns 5 x 30

Obviously there are endless combinations to choose from, and the more equipment the gym has, the more you can create fun pairings to use.

Eventually, we began to use this same concept with other muscle groups, although for back training it proved to be particularly effective for hypertrophy. Some examples are below:

Chest:  Combine an Incline Barbell or Dumbbell Press with Dips, after heavy flat bench presses

Shoulders:  After heavy barbell or dumbbell presses perform challenge sets by doing 8-12 strict lateral raises and finish with 8-12 machine presses

Triceps:  Begin with an isolation exercise such as lying tricep extensions or cable pressdowns and finish with dips or narrow grip push ups

Quads:  Begin with 10-20 Leg extensions and combine with 10-20 squats, hack squats, or leg presses.  THIS SUCKS!!!!!

Often times the weight on a given exercise will need to be adjusted slightly (or significantly) from set to set in order to get the desired effect.  There is no reason to do 1 Deadlift and do 19 seated cable rows or 4 Lateral raises and 16 presses.  In general, we would try to keep the first exercise above 5 (if it was a compound movement) and above 8 if it was an isolation movement.  Rest periods between challenge sets are kept short as the idea is not necessarily to fully recover.  This is not a strength protocol.  This is a mass protocol which is relation on very high volumes performed in relatively short periods of time.  Dragging out the 100 rep routine over the course of an hour is not as effective as condensing the whole thing into 15-20 minutes of focused work.

Good luck, and go grow!