Iron Brothers: Build More Muscle With This New Training Technique!
Eager to build a massive amount of muscle, whatever DOMS may come? Try this training technique in which your partner chooses the weights for you... 5 different times!
In moments of shock, people often say they never knew what hit them. Today, you'll be in shock, because after you try this technique in the gym, you definitely won't know what hit you! Your reward for the shocking pump, however, will be well worth the pain.
I'd like to start by noting that this is another in my series of finishing moves, which are creative ways to end a body-part workout with the mother-of-all punishments, usually combining a tough movement with an advanced training technique. Check out my Titan Triceps Set and 5 Till You Die to see what I mean!
The finishing move I have on tap today is especially brutal and worthwhile. Use it to finish your workout with a big bang, leaving you incredibly pumped—and exhausted!
Brothers In Iron
To start, you'll need a workout partner. If you currently train with one, you know how you can feed off each other's energy in the gym. You push yourself harder and try to one-up your partner so that he's forced to either keep up or out-train you. This friendly battle helps motivate you to keep pushing.
This friendly battle helps motivate you to keep pushing.
Since you need a partner, I call this finisher "Iron Brothers" or, sometimes, "BFF Sets." I've been doing this for years. It creates an insane pump and makes a great way to finish your training. You're hopefully familiar with a muscle pump, but this one will feel totally different.
How to Do It
First, you'll need an isolation (single-joint) machine, which is one that you'd probably finish your workout with anyway. Here, pin-loaded machines work best. Start off by determining what 50 percent and 70 percent of your one-rep max (1RM) are for the machine—that's the range of weight you'll be working with. The upper figure corresponds to about your 10RM, while the lower end (50 percent of 1RM) corresponds to a weight you can do for 15-20 reps.
The basis of Iron Brothers is that your partner chooses a random weight between 50-70 percent of your 1RM, and you have to do it 10 times. He picks the weight, and you have no idea where he's placing the pin. The idea is that you have no idea of the exact weight you're lifting, but you'll get a sense of it pretty fast.
Let me walk you through an example: Imagine I'm doing pec-deck flyes, as in the photos shown in this article. I get started with a weight my partner chooses, and I hit it for 10 reps. After I complete the first set, he randomly re-inserts the pin at another place in the stack, again somewhere between 50 and 70 percent of my 1RM. After banging out another 10 reps, he again chooses a weight in that 50-70 percent range. Get the idea?
I hit it for 10 reps. After I complete the first set, he randomly re-inserts the pin at another place in the stack.
To complete one set of the Iron Brothers technique, repeat this process a total of five times, so you lift 10 reps at five different weights for 50 reps total. That completes your first set! Switch places with your partner and choose the weights for his five rounds of 10 reps.
Do three full sets using this technique, each for 50 reps total, for the most massive pump you'll ever generate.
Now, you're probably arguing that you can't do that many reps with your 10-20RM. You're right, so take very, very short breaks as you need them. After five seconds, get back into place and journey on, completing each 10-rep segment before your partner again moves the pin to another random weight.
Check out this video of me performing the technique!
BFF Set
Watch The Video - 02:42
Use With Care
This super-pumper isn't meant to replace your normal workout; it's designed to be added to the end of your workout—or even at the beginning if you want to get an extreme pre-exhaust. What makes Iron Brothers unique is that it combines a big dose of muscle confusion with elements of rest-pause, dropsets, and possibly even reverse dropsets.
Let us know your training experiences with this technique in the comments section below! The only thing we can truly guarantee is that your muscles won't know what hit 'em.
