Resistance training can sound daunting at first. It is reserved for elite athletes who need to push their bodies to do more. In fact, resistance training isn’t as hard or scary as it sounds. And there are many many benefits for everyone when looking at which resistance training system helps to increase intensity.
What Should You Know About Resistance Training?
Before discovering what resistance training system helps increase the intensity, you need to fully understand what resistance training is and how it can benefit you. Simply following a fad or new workout regimen you overheard in the gym won’t give you any payoff in the long run unless you know what you are doing and why you are doing it. In fact, resistance training results may actually be the opposite of what you are trying to achieve when working out.
Resistance training is an exercise in which a muscle or group is exercised against an external resistance.
Resistance training involves performing exercises where the muscles contract against an external resistance to increase muscle strength, power, hypertrophy, and endurance. Your own body weight or any other object that causes the muscles to contract can be used as external resistance. Dumbbells or your own body weight, FittBag gym backpack, and exercise tubing can also be used.
When using resistance systems to increase the intensity, the obvious gains for gym users are;
- Weight or resistance increase
- Increased reps
- Increase the total volume of your workout due to increasing the number of sets
- Reduced rest period between each set
You may already be incorporating resistance systems into your workout without realizing it. Still, from here, you can work to increase the intensity and push the capacity of what you and your body are capable of safely.
Resistance systems aren’t just for men or those looking to increase muscle. It can be beneficial for women and men to help increase stamina and define muscle to improve overall fitness levels and support workouts too.
Which resistance training system helps to increase intensity?
HIIT Training
A popular workout with many personal trainers and fitness influencers, HIIT training can be carried out at a personalized level for anyone who requires an effective and quick activity.
HIIT training or High-Intensity Interval Training requires multiple exercises in a short amount of time with brief rest periods in between. For example, most HIIT workouts are under 30 minutes or around this mark and require you to do sustained periods of exercise at your maximum intensity before stopping. So this could be 30 seconds of training, then 30 seconds of rest—45 seconds of movement and 15 seconds of rest, and so on. The beauty of HIIT is that you can adjust it to your abilities.
HIIT training is highly personalized and can be adapted to use various exercises such as lunges, planks, burpees, and more, or incorporate the use of weights and equipment if preferred.
Super Sets
When you superset two exercises, you move swiftly from one to the other without taking a break for rest between the two workouts. Typically, you will take a brief rest between sets of activities to catch your breath or get a water drink. This also allows the muscles to recover from their exertion. When doing supersets, on the other hand, you go from one set to another without taking a pause.
Supersets are a technique that allows you to do more exercises in a shorter amount of time. Instead of taking a break while your muscles are healing from one set, you execute another activity to keep your body moving. Switch back to the previous exercise to complete another set and continue in this manner until you require a break to drink or restore your strength. It is essential to focus on stamina and ability when performing supersets, as the lack of rest between sets can be taxing.
Drop Sets
A drop set is a basic technique in which you execute a set of any exercise to failure or just short of failure. You then drop some weight and continue with more repetitions with the lower weight. According to Arnold’s Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding, the drop set method was “discovered” in 1947 by Henry Atkins. It was referred to as the “multi-poundage system” by Atkins. Since then, this muscle-blasting technique has been known by various names, including breakdowns, descending sets, triple-drops, down the rack, strip sets, and the stripping technique, among others.
Negatives
In weightlifting, a negative repetition (negative rep) is the repetition of a method in which the lifter does the eccentric phase of a lift rather than the concentric phase. Instead of carefully pressing the weight up with good form, it typically aids in the concentric or lifting component of the repetition. At the same time, the lifter slowly executes the eccentric phase for 3–6 seconds, depending on the exercise. Subjects’ physical strength and power are increased by using negative reps, which is referred to as hypertrophy training in the industry.
Studies have demonstrated that negative repetitions, also known as the “eccentric training phase,” produce a significant amount of force on the muscle at a lower energy cost than regular concentric training, which consumes 4–5 times the amount of energy. This demonstrates why this training is more effective and poses less of a risk to participants recovering from an injury or who have a limited exercise tolerance.
Takeaways from using resistance to increase intensity.
While anyone can and should include resistance training in other exercises routines, knowing how to safely execute the various systems will allow for fewer injuries and maximum impact. As with any weight lifting, having someone spot for you when using heavier than usual weights can give you more control and precision with your lifts which is vital to improve technique and increase intensity.
If heavy lifting or more intense exercises scare you, start slowly and work up gradually to the more intensive systems at a pace that works for you. Remember to make sure the gains from each resistance system are in line with your fitness goals so as not to undo your work so far.