When I first started training back in 1994, I did sequences of many, many exercises, and many, many reps.
That’s how a lot of people train because they have been convinced to split their body up into parts: chest and triceps, back and biceps, legs and shoulders. Even people new to exercise quickly pick up on this idea.
The conventional wisdom is that you shouldn’t work the same muscle group two days in a row. Why? I’m not sure, but it probably has something to do with people confused about what really generates strength—the muscle or the mind.
The power lies in the mind. Look at Bruce Lee who knocked people down with a one inch punch. He had well-coordinated nervous system force.
One of the ways to develop this force is to train big exercises and do few reps. By training big exercises, especially technically complex exercises, you learn to coordinate your strength and you get stronger.
One such big exercise is the bent press. The bent press is a technically complex lift that allows you to handle quite a bit of weight.
While exercises like this are highly beneficial, there is a learning curve so you can’t jump right into them. Perhaps that is what prevents so many from learning. But having patience to learn something new is an admirable skill in itself.
Check out the video:
Did you enjoy this article? Please subscribe to the Working Man Fitness feed to receive all the updates!
