Who doesn’t love that feeling of fullness in their muscles during a workout? Getting a pump feels good: you feel big and muscular, as though your workout has really paid off. Of course, I’m certainly not suggesting that getting a muscle pump defines the quality of a workout. Still, bodybuilders and powerlifters alike have been chasing that feeling in the gym for years—and enjoying it, too.
Probably few people build their entire workout around simply chasing a pump with high-rep sets. That wouldn’t be a particularly productive or sensible approach, either. But there’s nothing unusual about using the last set of an exercise, or even the final exercise of a workout, to get a pump. Anyone who goes to the gym knows how to do that. There are plenty of options: a high-rep set to failure with a lighter weight, supersets (tri-sets), and so on. Generally, people just use high-rep sets taken to failure. Some keep track of the weights they use for pump work and perhaps even try to progress, but most simply go by feel and take their sets to failure.
Today I’ll discuss ways to plan your progression and deliberately keep track of sets taken to failure, too. The following methods aren’t just for reaching failure or getting a pump. They’re also effective ways to increase TUT. Let me say straight away, though, that you shouldn’t build entire workouts around these progression methods alone. They work well for the final sets of an exercise or the last exercise of a workout.
To keep things straightforward, I’ll jump straight into some examples.
1. After your main working sets, try doing the final set of an exercise like this, using squats as an example:
Do 3 squats, rest for 25 seconds, do 3 squats, rest for 25 seconds, do 3 squats, rest for 25 seconds, do 3 squats, rest for 25 seconds, then do 3 squats. That’s 5 x 3, with a 25-second rest after each set of three. Next time, use the same weight but do sets of four instead of three: 5 x 4, still resting for 25 seconds after each set of four. In your third workout, use the same weight again, but now do 5 x 5, resting for 25 seconds after each set of five. So, if you started with 5 x 3 at 100 kg, by the third workout you’ll be doing 5 x 5 at 100 kg, with the rest periods unchanged at 25 seconds.
Now you can take things a step further: keep the 5 x 5 you’ve worked up to, but start shortening those 25-second rests between sets of five. In your fourth workout, then, you’ll do 5 x 5 at 100 kg, but rest for 20 seconds after each set of five. In your fifth workout, the prescription is 5 x 5 100 kg, with just 15 seconds of rest after each set of five. Keep progressing this way until, in your eighth workout, you should be able to do 25 consecutive reps at 100 kg.
I can’t tell you what weight to choose. It all depends on when you do this set, how much work you’ve done beforehand, and so on. From my own experience, I can say that the first three sets should actually feel easy and enjoyable. The fourth set gets hard and really pumps up your muscles, while the fifth and final set really burns. I recommend being conservative with your choice of weight and not overestimating your abilities.
One more thing: if you start doing this kind of extended set with rest periods in every workout, try to keep it at more or less the same point in the session each time. That means always doing it after the same exercises and the same amount of preceding work. Otherwise, your planned progression can easily fall apart.
As I said, this method is extremely effective for increasing TUT (time under tension—the length of time a muscle is under tension), and you’ll certainly get a great pump, too. My favorite exercise for this method is the standard barbell hack squat. It’s a very enjoyable experience that really gets your quads pumped.
2. You can also structure the sets described above differently. For example, you could make them shorter and even do several sets, such as 2 x (3 x 5) or even 3 x (3 x 5). Let’s use dumbbell flyes as an example, with a weight of, say, 24 kg:
I three-part set 5 + 5 + 5 – rest for 25 seconds after each set of five
II three-part set 5 + 5 + 5 – rest for 25 seconds after each set of five
III three-part set 5 + 5 + 5 – rest for 25 seconds after each set of five
You have two options: keep the weight the same and shorten the rest intervals, or try to progress by increasing the weight. With the first option, start reducing that 25-second rest in 5-second increments until you can eventually complete a set (or sets) of fifteen consecutive reps with your chosen weight, without any rests.
The second option is to keep doing 3 x 5 with 25-second rests, but increase the weight very gradually. Rest for 1 – 1.5 minutes between the three-part sets.
3. Here’s an interesting idea for finishing a leg workout or for your final set of squats. Suppose you want to add one higher-rep set after your heavy squats, or simply finish your heavy squat work with a good pump. How can you approach this systematically from workout to workout??? Suppose I’ve finished my main working sets of squats at 157.5 kg for 4 x 5 (for example), and now I want to finish with something extreme. You could try this:
Workout 1 – 60 kg – 2 minutes
Workout 2 – 70 kg – 1.45
Workout 3 – 80 kg – 1.30
Workout 4 – 90 kg – 1.15
Workout 5 – 100 kg – 1 minute
Workout 6 – 100 kg – 1.15
Workout 7 – 100 kg – 1.30
Workout 8 – 100 kg – 1.45
Workout 9 – 100 kg – 2 minutes
So…first you increase the weight and reduce the duration to a certain point. Once you reach your target weight, keep it there and start building the duration back up to where you started. The weight stays at the level you’ve reached.
4. Finally, the good old “24.” To finish your workout, or as the final pump set of an exercise, you can also do a set based on a total volume of 24 reps. Let’s use a leg workout as our example again. After finishing your main squat sets, try barbell hack squats (a machine is fine, too). For this “Grand Finale” set, use your chosen weight for 8 x 3 in the first workout, then 6 x 4 in the next, followed by 5 x 5, then 4 x 6, and finally 3 x 8 in the last workout. Keep the weight the same each time and rest for 25 seconds between mini-sets. Choose a weight that makes the first half of the sets reasonably manageable, with the effort really kicking in after the halfway point. The sets get longer from workout to workout, but the rest stays at 25 seconds. With this approach, both TUT and the pump you get from this “Grand Finale” set increase from one workout to the next.
Feel free to try these methods with different exercises you enjoy.
What’s the point of all this? Of course, you can go by feel and finish with something that shocks your muscles in the final exercise or set. Personally, though, I don’t like having to improvise on the spot every time. Occasionally, sure, but quite often I feel I need a set plan. So I look back through my training log to see how I did my last set the previous time…right, today I need to use rests this short, follow a new set-and-rep scheme, or add a little more weight again!
Author: Janar Rückenberg
Come and train! ArtGym
