Intensity;

In every bodybuilding and powerlifting magazine you pick up has one or more references and or articles regarding the topic of intensity. There are as many opinions as there are answers on the subject and in one regard or another, most of them are correct, but at the same time the confusion raises more questions than it answers. As a beginning trainee graduates from a beginner to an inetrmediate lifter he or she will notice that the gains do not come as easily as they did in the very beginning. This is when a lot of lifters give up and when others decide to seek out the information needed to keep making those gains that came so easy at the start of their quest for a better body.
The simple answer is to lift heavier weights or shorten rest periods between sets or both, but inexperience will only get one hurt if these techniques are employed improperly. Impatience and inexperience will get most trainees hurt at some point, believe me i have learned this valuable lesson from experience! However that is only part of the simple answer, there are much more complex answers that i will hit upon in future entries but not today. Today i am just going to give you a piece of the puzzle i came to realize after reading an article from a little known trade magazine i happened to get my hands on.
Training to failure. I am sure those that have been around the iron game for a while have heard that before and you're probably saying, "What makes this so different?" You may have heard that before but how many of you have actually employed it in your training? I am not talking about negative failure such as forced reps and the like, i am talking about training to positive failure. Finishing a set only when you are physically incapable of performing another rep on your own, when the weight comes, hopefully safely, down with the knowledge that you took that set as far as you could go by yourself. This i have been employing lately in my training and it has put me in a new perspective mentally with a renewed vigor for training! If the exercise is performed with correct form till that last rep and the muscle is taken to positive failure growth must occur.
I began this style of training three weeks ago and it is not for the faint of heart, mentally of physically, but it works! I will keep you informed as to my progress and touch upon other methods of training to and past failure in future entries. Until then train hard and smart!,