I've always been a fan of high intensity training. While I prescribe more volume on a main lift, both to strengthen proper movement patterns, and to get more time under tension at maximal or near maximal weights.
With assistance lifts (exercises that directly help weaknesses in the main lift) nothing beats a good ol' quick ass whooping. If the same amount of work can get done in under 2 minutes that would normally take up to 5, why are you still taking the long road?
There are times where more volume and longer work periods are important, but for the regular Joe or Jane looking to get lean, build muscle, and become more athletic, it's not the best option. Consider the fact that everyone claims they don't have enough time, and probably have the workout attention span that rivals Stewart from Mad TV, sometimes you have to kill it and move on.
The Hit and Run technique. Get in get out and hope her dad doesn't see you jumping out the back window...Er...I mean finish off your training as quickly as possible so that you have more time in the day to do what you need to do.
So how do you add intensity techniques to your workout while decreasing your time at the gym? It's easy....actually it hurts, burns, and leaves you breathless like a shot of Habanero sauce sniffed up your nose. There is nothing easy about it, but it WILL get you results and get you out of the gym faster than you thought possible.
The following are just a couple ways to add intensity to your training:
Rest-Pause Technique
This one is simple and effective! This shouldn't be done with high risk exerises such squats, good mornings, deadlifts, or olympic lifts.
How it's done:
One extended set broken up with short rest periods. Grab a weight and push out as many reps as possible (if you are looking to increase your metabolism you'll probably want a weight that allows for 15-20 reps on the first set, for strength 3-6 reps, for size 8-12 reps). Cranked out as many reps as possible, and I mean AS MANY! The key is to go all out! Save your wimpy shit for another day.
Once you've pushed out your last set, rack the weight and rest, breathing deeply for 10-20 seconds. You're not done! pick up the weight again and push out as many reps as possible once more! this time the reps will be significantly lower. Repeat this one or two more times and you're done! Do only one set of this and you'll probably want to do a couple warm-up sets with lighter weight before you start.
Mechanical Drop-sets
This one is a nice alternative to conventional drop sets (doing as many reps as you can with a given weight, then lowering the weight and doing more reps). With conventional drop sets you are progressively lowering the weight, yes it burns, but you aren't recruiting that many extra muscle fibers. It's great for getting a good pump, and increasing endurance but is not quite as effective for adding size and strength.
Mechanical drop sets bypass this and allow you to do more work at the SAME weight thus recruiting more muscle.
How it's done:
Start with the hardest version of an exercise. Do as many reps as possible (similar to the same rep schemes as the rest-pause technique), as you reach a totally fatigued state, switch to a slightly easier version of the exercise and continue to bust out a couple more reps, finally dropping to another easier version, barely squeezing out a couple more reps. It won't be easy and you'll look just like you do when you're trying to get the very last drop out of your toothpaste tube.
As you get more fatigued, the exercise drops to a mechanically stronger movement, allowing for more work to be done.
This one is a little harder to understand so i'll give you a couple of examples:
-Dumbbell bench press: Start with an incline dumbbell bench press, drop to a low incline press, and finally to a flat bench press
-Pull ups: Start with a medium wide grip pull up (palms facing away from you), go to a regular grip pull up, and finally perform regular grip chin-ups
