Driven Part 2 Maximum Progress as an Intermediate Bodybuilder

So you won't be training chest and arms every Monday like all those guys in tank tops fighting over the bench or who gets to do some sloppy form barbell curls in the power rack. With this new schedule, each bodypart is trained seven times in a 31-day period.

You probably notice that with this new bodypart split, we are training each bodypart every 4-5 days. This differs dramatically from some of the pro bodybuilders that divide the body into 5-6 sections and train each segment once a week (chest on Monday, quads on Tuesday, etc...).

A study by respected researcher Brad Schoenfeld compared once to two times a week training frequencies of muscle groups.4 “Frequencies of training twice a week promote superior hypertrophic outcomes to once a week,” says Schoenfeld's study. “It can therefore be inferred that the major muscle groups should be trained at least twice a week to maximize muscle growth.” Also, it is mentioned, “whether training a muscle group three times per week is superior to a twice-per-week protocol remains to be determined.”

Even if we separate body parts distinctly into separate training sessions, they get brought into play as synergistic or support muscles to assist when training other body parts (especially in compound exercises). The biceps tend to assist when doing rows, chins or other back exercises. The triceps help in shoulder and chest pressing movements.

You'll find that we often do not list specific exercises in the program to follow. This allows you to personalize your program based on what equipment you have available and which movements you prefer. Do not change your choices regularly. Use the same exercise for at least five training sessions before changing it. You need to improve the reps and poundages capable and that will not happen if you continually change exercises. Focus on improvement, not “muscle confusion.”

As you can see with these workouts, we have a basic low-rep strength exercise towards the beginning of the session (some 1-6 rep power sets for legs, chest and back, with 6-10 reps on most other exercises). Increasing your strength in this exercise should be your primary goal for each workout. This is followed by a basic 8-12 rep range driving hypertrophy through either compound or isolation exercises. We also include some fairly high-reps (10-15 or more) for our finishing pump-based movements. Stay with this Phase 1 program for eighteen weeks (about four-and-a-half months).

THREE HARDCORE INTENSIFICATION TECHNIQUES

“It takes variation to force your body to keep responding to workouts,” says female bodybuilding legend Bev Francis 5, “and even more importantly, it keeps you fresh and stimulated mentally.” Our variation in the Intermediate Driven Program includes some hardcore training techniques that will be mixed into the program. To kick this off, we will include cheat reps, forced reps, and drop sets.

These are hardcore training programs for an intermediate lifter, even without adding intensification techniques. Only include these in sessions where you feel good, energetic and driven to bump it up a notch. Add these intensification techniques to NO MORE THAN ONE set per workout. We do not add these to our low-rep compound movements. The heavy squats, chest presses and back rows do not require added intensity. Those strength-building movements are incorporating heavy weight and pushed hard in strict form, and that is plenty to drive growth. These will be added more to the final higher-rep (8-12 or 10-15) exercises.

Cheat Reps. Cheat reps are the most overused movement in the gym. Those that do not value strict form cheat up their weights on most reps and reduce their progress just because they think they might impress other people. The truth is, experienced lifters are not impressed by how much weight you sloppily lift, they are impressed by how much effort you put into strict form to get every fiber in the targeted muscle group to exert a strong contraction.

For cheat reps, there are just a couple of exercises that we will work them in...bicep curls and lateral raises (with dumbbell or cables) are the two that come to mind. This involves a slight
movement in the shoulder during a curl (a 5-10% arch in the spine and lifting of the elbows) to help you finish that rep that was stalling on the way up, but then lower very strictly and slowly, emphasize the negative portion of the curl. Finish the rep that was only making it a third of the way up and then perform a second cheat rep. The trick is cheating as little as possible to finish and feel the lowering.

In the side laterals, there may be a slight squeeze by the trapezius or assist by the front delts. While those are two things you want to eliminate for 98% of your lateral raise reps, when using them to finish the upward rotation, follow with a PERFECT slow lowering of the resistance.

Forced Reps. Forced reps are a superior option to cheat reps, but require a training partner or spotter. A forced rep refers to being able to complete a rep in strict form when your muscles were unable to do so on their own, thanks to a very minor assistance from someone. On an incline barbell press, you may have stalled on the eleventh repetition, but your spotter (who just had a couple of fingers from each hand resting underneath the bar) lifted just 10-15 pounds, reducing the poundage near your weak point (which might be a couple inches when you are just over halfway to lockout). Once again, this is just for the last two reps. We are not going to include these on our heavy low-rep sets, but just our higher rep movements.

Drop Sets. The third intensification technique is drop sets. Imagine you are doing an incline press on a machine for 14 reps with 100 pounds. It is your final set of a high-rep exercise for
pectorals. On this particular machine, you would not currently be able to complete a fifteenth rep with that weight. But what if you started out with 120 pounds on there, and only got ten
reps until failure, immediately dropped the pin in the weight stack to 100 pounds, and got three more reps (with no rest), dropped the pin down to 80 pounds, and got three more...was that a superior manner to hit some added muscle fibers? Hell yes, it is!

Drop sets are a great intensification strategy, but must be used minimally. Doing this on a heavy compound leg exercise (like squats, leg presses, belt squats) is intense, and you may need to take a nap after you get home from the gym because it can take a lot out of you.

Drop sets are very useful (and less crushing of your recuperative system) for dumbbell side laterals. Mr. Olympia Larry Scott would go “down the rack.” For instance, let's say that you find 20-pound dumbbells are your 8-12 rep poundage. We start out with 25-pound dumbbells and do as many perfectly strict reps as possible (maybe just 6-7). Then you immediately switch to the 20-pound weights and get as many reps as possible. Then you step down to the 15-pound dumbbells, and get as many reps as possible. You should have gotten a great pump from this exercise and Larry Scott built amazing cannonball delts on his once narrow shoulder structure. You can also try this drop set technique on dumbbell shrugs, upright rows, calf presses, leg extensions, leg curls, overhead presses, and many other exercises. Keep in mind, just use one of these intensification techniques per workout.