Get Rid Of The
Garbage
When it comes to
building size or strength, most people spread themselves too thin by performing
too many garbage sets/exercises. ‘Garbage’ in this case being time and energy
spent doing anything that does not maximally contribute to the end result. More
often than not, time is best spent focusing on fewer movements, those which
provide the greatest return on investment, instead of wasting time and energy
performing more sets/exercises that provide a lesser return. In fact,
performing too many sets/exercises can be counterproductive if the nervous
system is engraining motor patterns for movements that aren’t major factors in
producing results, or the body cannot recover from the excessive workload.
But doing the same
thing over and over, regardless of whether or not it provides the most return
on investment, can get boring, which is why people veer off and tack on other
exercises during a workout in the first place. There is a way however, in which
more time can be put towards the ‘money’ movements, which also happens to be a
very effective way to boost results, and this is with the ‘doublé’ method.
One And Done, Or
Twice Is Nice?
Doublé – to do
something twice, in this context means performing the same movement at two
different periods during a training session: for example, starting and ending
with the same movement. Aside from investing more time and effort into the
movements which provide the most return, as well as limiting the amount of boredom
that comes from performing a high volume of work for the same movement during
the same period of the workout, doublé’s offer a very distinct benefit in
regards to increasing strength via motor pattern development.
Divide And Conquer
Possibly the
greatest benefit to diving up the volume for the main lift is the effect it can
have on motor learning and neural efficiency. When all the scheduled sets are
performed in the same period of time, the nervous system has fewer
opportunities to learn, because it gets into a groove relatively quickly, and
therefore doesn’t need to work as hard as it would in a fatigued state.
Having to get into
the groove twice makes the nervous system work harder to maximize
intra-/inter-muscular coordination, and the more opportunities the nervous
system has to learn, the better it will become at maximizing motor unit
recruitment, thus enhancing the ability to generate maximal force.
Replacing the final
exercise with the first exercise re-exposes the neuromuscular system to the
movement to which improvement is sought, and reiterates that fact because it
always remember what was done last, and it will hold onto that motor pattern at
the expense of what was done at the beginning of the workout (which can be as
long as 45 minutes ago, or more, in some cases). By starting and finishing with
the same exercise the nervous system is reminded of all the hard work that was
done at the beginning, and teaches it to hold onto that pattern.
Not Just A One-Trick
Pony
The concept of using
the same exercise twice can also be used to pack on muscle as well. Since some
exercises simply provide more return on investment, and it’s a better use of
time to rely on those as opposed to movements that provided lesser of a return,
another way to implement the doublé method would be as part of a tri-set, or
giant set – doing so ensures that the targeted muscle is fully fatigued, which
isn’t always the case when performing compound movements, as the more muscles
involved, the more limiting factors there may be. Further exhausting the
targeted musculature after performing the main movement ensures that the
targeted muscle is the cause of failure when finishing a tri-set, or giant set
with the main movement.
Practical Example –
Strength Emphasis
Primary lift: SQUAT
A)
Squats 4-5 sets, 4-6 reps
B)
Split Squats 3-4 sets, 6-8 reps
C)
Squats 3-4 sets, 8-10 reps
Practical Example –
Size Emphasis
Primary muscle:
TRICEPS
Example #1:
Isolation, Primary, Isolation
A1) Lying Triceps
Extension 3 sets, 10-12 reps
A2) Dips (weighted
or bodyweight) 3 sets, 8-10 reps
A3) Lying Triceps
Extension 3 sets, 12-15 reps
Example #2: Primary,
Isolation, Primary
A1) Dips (weighted)
3 sets, 6-8 reps
A2) Lying Triceps Extension
3 sets, 8-10 reps
A3) Dips
(bodyweight) 10-12 reps
If you have any
questions about the doublé method, and how to effectively implement it
into your training, feel free to contact me at ben@paramounttraining.ca. I'm available for
online consulting and personalized program design, as well as one on one
training if you are located in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
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