Module 6: Century Club: The Magic Of 100 Reps
As I often do, I like to open things up with a question from one of your fellow Inner Circle members. Neil asked said...
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Hi Matt,
I did quite an aggressive cut last year for a transformation program with excessive amounts of exercise, I lost a large amount of weight but aggravated an old injury in the process.
Post programme and photo shoot and I've gained all the weight back and then some. Now I feel like things that would be normally reduced my weight don't work as effectively.
Any experience of so called Metabolic damage and can I overcome this problem ??
Thanks in advance.
Neil
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Really good question here. I get the "metabolic damage" question a lot.
People don't always use that term but a ton of people have that fear that somehow their metabolism is "broken" or that for some reason they are not losing weight as fast as they should.
But here's the truth: There's virtually no evidence that you can do anything to "break" or damage your metabolism. (Yes, I know there are plenty of gurus out there who will differ but I contend that most of the gurus make money by telling people exactly what they want to hear. And the thing that everyone wants to hear when it comes to losing weight is A) "It's not your fault" and B) "You should eat MORE!")
As attractive as that might sound, the bitter truth is this: A) It probably IS your fault And B) Trying to lose weight by eating more is like trying to spend your way out of debt -- ain't gonna happen.
And yet... people really do feel like for some reason they can't lose weight as easy as they used to... so what's the explanation?
The culprit is the "f" word. People "feel" like they can't lose weight. It's a clue that they are not looking at this in a scientific manner. They are not tracking calories. They are not measuring progress in the gym. They might not even be getting on the scale.
It's just a general "feeling" that losing weight is suddenly harder than it used to be so they want to chalk it up to metabolic damage. And yet - and this happens every time -- once a client gets strict about the numbers and starts actually tracking the important data points... the numbers on the scale always end up getting smaller and the pants get loser.
Again, that's not what people want to hear but I'm all about keeping it real and raw in this program so you get the straight truth.
Now, let's talk about...
The Magic of 100 Reps
Back in the golden era of bodybuilding, Arnold and company had a proven secret they would use to help them bust through any plateaus.
They would do 100 reps. Not all the time, mind you. For the most part those guys stayed in the tried and true 5-12 rep range.
But every once in a while they'd shake things up and go for 100 reps.
A while back I experimented with some 100-rep workouts and let me just say this: They work.
Here's what I found:
* You want to END your workout with a 100 rep set.
* Choose an isolation exercise. In other words, an exercise that targets one specific muscle group, not a compound exercise that targets multiple muscle groups.
* Ideally, you'd want to do the 100 rep set 3x per week, but nothing is in stone.
* I've found the 100 rep workout has a "shelf-life" of about 4 weeks. Meaning if you try this you will get awesome results when used as a change of pace workout, but it's not a great long-term strategy so only use this for 4 weeks.
The Strategy:
So essentially you're just going to pick ONE muscle group that you think needs the most help and you're going to hammer it with a ton of volume.
I felt my arms were lagging so I choose to focus on my biceps.
You're going to select an exercise that targets the lagging muscle group. I chose bicep curls. And then you're going to start with a very light weight. I chose to use an empty barbell (which weighs 45lbs).
And then you're just going to knock out as many reps as you can. Go to failure, then rest approximately 30 seconds, then continue. So you might get 40 reps on your first set, then 20, then 15, and on and on until you reach 100 reps total.
This will accomplish a few things:
* Increased mental toughness. This set will NOT be easy but it will harden your mind which will make it easier for you to stick with a training program or a diet.
* Craaaaazy pump. You will end up with the best pump of your life. Fact.
* Increased blood flow to the target area. There is some evidence that forcing a bunch of blood to lagging muscle groups can help spur growth and this exercise will definitely do that.
* Improved cardiovascular conditioning and increased growth hormone levels (high reps lead to an additional increase in growth hormone.)
So if you're looking for a borderline-insane workout program to try, tack the 100 rep set on to the end of your existing workout. As I said, I've tried it for biceps using an empty barbell and a ton of curls.
You can also do this experiment for calves. Dumbbell lateral raises would be great for lagging shoulders. I tried this routine with chin-ups but that was a bomb, would recommend shooting for 50 total reps if you try this with chins/pull-ups or dips.
Close-grip push-ups are also good if you want to bring up lagging triceps. And if you want to build rock-hard abs, you could try this with sit-ups or crunches but once you get to the point where you can do more than 40 or 50 in a row, I'd add additional resistance.
Here's a bonus report in PDF format - High Rep Training Protocol
Matt Marshall, certified personal trainer and founder of Fitness Under Oath
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