Four minute Muscle part-2

THE PREMISE To get started, find weights with which you can perform 15–19 reps per exercise listed in the routines found later in this chapter. Follow the workouts in order, taking one preparatory week to establish and record the weights you’ll use. Be accurate and stay within the 15–19-rep range because these are the weights you’ll work with for the six-week period. Your ultimate goal at the end of six weeks is to perform 60 reps per exercise in four minutes. The idea is to put in four minutes of total work on each move, taking a short rest period after reaching failure and then starting again. Weight selection is important because if you can’t get at least 15 reps with a given weight, you won’t even come close to 60 in six weeks, so it bears repeating that you must be precise here. TIPS & TRICKS There are two main ways to perform a 4 Minute Muscle exercise. The first way is how most people would intuitively try for 60 reps: by training to failure, resting, and then going to failure again, repeating this haphazard process until four minutes have elapsed. The primary drawback is that there are no systematic steps leading to an increase in the number of reps you can grind out. You’re simply hoping your strength endurance will improve each time. A far more intelligent strategy uses uniform rest periods between sets. For example, for the first two weeks of this program, rest for 20 seconds each time you hit failure. For the next two weeks, rest 15 seconds. For the last two weeks, take 10 seconds between sets. With rest periods that short, you’ll have an excellent chance of hitting 60 total reps. If you don’t achieve this on every exercise, don’t sweat it. We think you’ll still be pleased with your results: bigger muscles, a drastic reduction in body fat, and the ability to perform significantly more reps with your usual weights on every move in the gym.