Weider Principles
We have talked in some depth about the idea of the ‘drop set’ but now it’s time to consider some of the other methods that bodybuilders have been using for a long time to push themselves harder and that powerbuilders can also adapt.
These methods are sometimes referred to as the ‘Weider Principles’, as they were catalogued by fitness media mogul and bodybuilding legend Joe Weider.
Mechanical Drop Sets and ‘Giant Sets – Weider Principles
Weider Principles
Remember the drop set?
Now you’re going to take this concept and run with it by introducing the idea of the mechanical drop set. In the mechanical drop set, you assume you don’t have multiple weights for the same movement – or that it’s not easy to swap your weights without pausing in between sets. So what you do instead is that you move from one move onto an easier one. An example of this might be to go from one handed push ups, to push ups, to push ups on your knees.
In this scenario, you’re still using the same muscles predominantly but by switching the angle or the technique, you’re making it easier and allowing yourself to carry on.
You can then also use this concept to combine a powerlifting workout with a bodybuilding one, by switching from harder exercises to easier ones. This time, the example might be to go from a squat or a deadlift and then to move straight into a leg extension or a hamstring curl.
You’ve pre-exhausted the quads and hamstrings and then you’re focussing on them to brutally ‘finish them off’.
When you combine lots of different exercises into one big set like this, we call it a ‘giant set’. And my recommendation is that you use this strategy to also combine some of the other concepts we’ve been looking at such as the use of stretching, eccentric isometrics or overcoming isometrics.
You could start with overcoming isometrics at the beginning of the giant set for example and then move onto overcoming isometrics later on. In a later post, we’ll be looking at some more techniques like these that you can throw into the mix to really create some brutal workouts.
Now it’s really up to you which powerbuilding method you’re going to use but trying one of these will ensure that you are covering all bases and giving yourself the best chance of growth and strength gains.
Burns – Weider Principles
Burns are something absolutely brutal that you can use at the end of a drop set of any kind, or even a regular set.
The idea is that you’ve reached failure and you can’t do a single extra rep. But what you can do is half of a rep. And for that reason, you’re now going to continue pumping reps but only doing half each time. You’re now just bobbing the weight up and down on the spot, or bobbing your body up and down.
And in doing this, you’re using up every last bit of energy and really burning yourself out to nothing, tearing every last fiber! They’re called burns, because they burn.
Negatives – Weider Principles
A negative is one way of performing a negative isometric. The idea is that you’re using a weight that is too heavy to lift and so instead, you’re going to get someone to help you lift it, or lift it with your other hand, and then you’re just going to fight the resistance.
A way you can do this on the pull up bar is to jump up and then just lower yourself as slowly as you possibly can.
Muscle Confusion – Weider Principles
This is the concept that the muscles grow best when you keep throwing new challenges at them and they don’t know what to expect.
So in this case, that might mean targeting the muscle from lots of different angles, or it might mean using lots of different tempos.
At the very least, this is going to maximize the different types of muscle you’re using and maximize the different angles, thereby hitting a greater range of muscle fibers.
Speed training – Weider Principles
Speed training is not a Weider principle but rather another method that Bruce Lee used. Here, the idea is that you’re simply going to lift weights as normal, except you’re going to try and do so as quickly as you can. What this then does is to once again recruit the faster muscle twitch fibers.
Why? Because as far as your muscle and your body is concerned, this is the exact same thing as lifting more weight. To your muscle, acceleration and re-sistance both require force. There’s no differentiation and thus both types of movement engage the most fast twitch fibers. Jumping movements also do this and are referred to as ‘plyometric’ exercises
Instinctive Training – Weider Principles
The eventual goal of your lifting is to get to the point where you can use purely instinctive training. This means that you know your own body so well, that you can actually feel what works and what doesn’t and you can tell when you’re getting the pump, when you’re creating those tiny microtears and when you’re accidentally doing damage.
This is a great point to get to because it means that you can throw the rule book out the window. Now, you can increase and decrease the challenge of your workout based purely on how it feels and you can thereby provide just the right type of challenge at any given point.