Today is the first of the…
Mind Hacks Series – Mind Hacks For Brand New Muscle Gains’
…that will promote BETTER workout performance and help generate NEW muscle gains.
By ‘Mind Hack’ I simply mean some sort of psychological trick you play on yourself to help POWER you through incredible workouts.
So without further ado, here’s Tip #1
The Mindset of ‘1 More Rep’
You know by now that THT requires you to reach muscular failure in every set. However, you COULD be ‘failing’ before you should, thereby missing out on potential gains!
About a year ago while watching Jeff Willet’s training DVD’s (one of the best purchases I ever made), I noticed that on a lot of sets he seems to reach failure, then manages another rep! What’s going on here??
I noticed what he was doing was taking a longer break between the second last and last rep. This very short break allowed FULL completion of another rep.
Here’s an example….
- You’re performing Barbell Bicep Curls.
- You’re raising the bar up and down without any pauses
- You’re on ‘Rep 9’ and you just KNOW it’s your last
- When you complete the negative part of the rep, you let the bar ‘hang’ and take the tension off your arms
- Take a deep breath (1-2 seconds only)
- You lift again and complete an ‘EXTRA’ rep!
Now, after watching Jeff, I experimented with this myself and would estimate that I can complete another rep about 30% of the time (depending on the exercise). That’s huge in terms of gains!
If a supplement could do this, the majority of the bodybuilding world would buy it! However, you can have it FREE with proper use of your own mind!
This may seem more like a physical hack than a mind one but trust me, it takes the mental BELIEF that you CAN squeeze out another rep in order to do it. Let’s face it, at the end of a set you just want to drop that bar and rest.
You need this ‘CAN DO’ attitude of mind to get you through it.
Please note: You don’t want to rest too long; this rep has to be part of the same set – a 1-2 second pause MAX works well here.
I actually find it useful to mentally say, “One More Rep!” during this slight pause. I can see and feel myself completing that rep – try this out yourself.
Now just allow maximum recuperation as per the THT guidelines and do it again next set too.
CAUTION: If you work out alone you may want to skip this tip for squats and bench press. Better safe than….eh….dead, right?
Tomorrow’s Tip: Music – Does Science Actually PROVE That Music Will Help You Get More Reps??
‘Til Next Time Hackers….
Your Buddy
Mark
Mind Hack #2 – Use Music For More Muscle & Strength!
Mind Hack #3 – The ARNOLD Secret!
Mind Hack #4, #5, #6 – Thinking 1 Rep Ahead | The 1-Set Only Mindset | There’s A Crowd Watching!
Great post, love the logo. I’m excited about this series!
…and good music undoubtedly helps you get more reps.
I started doing something like this a couple of months back, sort of just naturally, and it really does work a lot of the time. Good tip.
That’s a great tip. Most people lack intensity in their training. And this adds even more intensity to an already focused workout. I guess this is how some people manage to make a lot of progress FAST.
your mind reaches failure before your muscles. when your last rep gets tough, you must get tougher!! push one more baby!!!!!! thanx mark.
yup, totally works – i’ve been doing this for eons – what really helps is to talk to yourself in your head and say things like, “come on, wuss, it’s one rep, just one…” 😉
Mark,
You should use the “one more rep” picture you have above to make awesome workout shirts.
@Alex. Looks cool, right? Pity I didn’t create the image so I can’t take credit for it or make t-shirts with it.