Burn Sets : Burn Them Muscles!

Ever wondered why is it that after a certain period of time, you tend not to have the same amount of "burn" or "pump" feeling that you usually have in your muscles compared to when you started gym? From my own observation, I do feel that "plateaus" (the point where you feel that the body is not really improving much from your current workouts) happen due to the fact that the body have adjusted itself to your current workout.

This is a worry to be honest, especially for me as it does serve as a stumbling block to most people. Imagine looking in the mirror or even looking at yourself and thinking you still look the same as the last 3 weeks.

So to avoid this, I follow a routine at the end of my workout session called Burn Out Sets!

[My starting position of the bar, with the middle finger placed on the "marker strip" of the barbell]

What this does is, after your doing your designated workout for the day, you take some time to do Burn Out Sets to really "burn" the remainder of your glycogen storage in your muscle and push your muscle to the limit in order to  maximize your muscle growth.

So for my routine, I take the particular body part that I am working out  (primary) for the day and do a particular workout on burn set.

For example: If I was in my Shoulder Day, after completing my set for the particular body part, I take one chest workout, go on lightweight and do a 10 set x 10 rep workout, with very minimal rest period in between (your target rest period should be between 15 - 20 secs per set).

[Finish position]

So it should look like this:

Burn Set Workout - Shoulder

Using a Barbell, perform Standing Barbell Shoulder Press

1st Set until 3rd Set - 10 rep (15kg)

3rd Set until 5th Set - 10 rep (12.5kg)

6th Set until 10th Set - 10 rep (10kg)

Rest time between sets - 20 secs

As you can see, I am using much lighter weights in comparison to my usual shoulder press weight because as you get to the very end, most likely you be too tired to push anymore. To fully maximize the pump from this workout, I use the FST 7 technique  , where in between every sets while resting, I either squeeze my muscles together as hard as I can for a couple of seconds or I stretch the body part area that I am working on.

Do check out the video I made to demonstrate this!

So in a nutshell, this is a great way to get the maximum results from your workouts. Try it out and tell me how it works for you!

On another note, to all the readers, I am looking out for any questions that you have on fitness. Pose them our Contact page and I'd be sure to answer them for you!