Rep Progression & 1/4 Rep Methods Explained
Rep Progression Method
This is one of my personal favorite methods for some of the biggest pumps you’ll ever experience. It’s honestly so simple, yet so underutilized.
What Is It?
Rep progression method is alternating two exercises with ascending rep counts. For example, a bicep curl starts with 1 regular curl + 1 hammer curl. Then moving onto 2 regular curls + 2 hammer curls, and so on. You continue this pattern until you reach 5-6 reps for each exercise.
Why This Works?
With this method, you have the potential to hit 30+ total reps for 1 set depending on how high you scale it (5-5,6-6,7-7, etc.). It allows us to change the angles while getting very little to no rest. It confuses the muscle, pumps a ton of extra blood into the muscle, and creates quality size. You can literally alternate any two exercises for this method as well.
I love this for my online clients as it gives them the ability to get the work capacity in at a faster rate for those who may be hitting busy gyms at peak hours to get the most out of their workout and equipment while available.
1/4 Rep Method
I have these programmed with some pushdown variations in some of my workout plans and they really put a lot more blood in the triceps.
What Is It?
The 1/4 rep method is an old school technique the classic bodybuilders would use to burn out the muscle and pump more blood for size. The trick is doing your normal set of 12-20 reps and then straight into a 1/4 rep set of 12-20 reps at the bottom quarter of the pushdown for an extra burn.
Why This Works?
By continually putting more blood in the triceps around the elbow joint, your lockout strength for the bench press will greatly improve. You are hitting and reinforcing that spot to help build a strong lockout in order to support heavyweight and take your strength to another level.
You can utilize the 1/4 rep method at both the top and bottom phases of an exercise. Also, you can go high reps or low reps depending on your goal. It’s truly unique and offers some variation to your training routine.
