One Exercise Per Muscle Group?

Today, I’d like to look at the idea of focusing on just one exercise per muscle group, compared to using a variety of exercises.

If you have never tried a workout where you do 8-10 sets of the same exercise, you will probably be in for a shock. This is a tough workout! It looks basic in nature, but is simply another tweak you can add to your routine if you are at a sticking point.

I’ll discuss how limiting your exercises down to one per muscle group can help with both increasing strength as well as muscle size.

[“There Can Be Only One!” I Had to throw in a quote from one of the best movies ever. I don’t care if Rotten Tomatoes gave Highlander 67%…this movie is awesome! The Queen Song they play while flashing back to MacLeod’s wife growing old and dying while he stays young…gives me chills every time. Brilliant stuff!]

Probably Not Something I’d Recommend Long Term

Think of this mainly as a tool to use when you want to break through a plateau. If a lot of your lifts are stuck and you can’t seem to get through this sticking point, this is the exact type of thing that will get things rolling again. Same with adding size…this will push muscles back into growth mode. My recommendation is to use this method in 4-6 week bursts.

Strength Training VS Building Muscle With One Exercise

This method works equally well for increasing strength as it does for building muscle. The main difference will be rep ranges and rest periods. If you are aiming for size, you will want to use this method to fatigue the muscles from set to set…or what I like to call “cumulative fatigue”.

If you are aiming to use this to increase strength without size, then you will aim for low reps while avoiding fatigue and failure. This will give positive feedback to your nervous system, which will result in stronger contractions (and more strength) over time.

10 Sets of 3 Reps [For Strength]

Multiple sets of 3 reps is a great way to add strength and increase density without adding a lot of size to the muscle. If you are after strength & size, simply use a weight that forces you to get closer to failure each set.

• Pick a weight you could press for roughly 5-6 reps and use that weight on all 10 sets.
• Stop at 3 reps even though you could do more.
• Rest one minute between sets, but increase the rest if you feel any sign of fatigue.
• Aim to get 3 reps for all 10 sets.

10 Sets of 10 Reps [For Size]

This is a pretty common rep and set range for size. This isn’t the best thing for strength, but will shock the heck out of a stubborn muscle group.

I tried this last week on incline dumbbell presses …It absolutely smoked my chest. I’ll tell you that story in a sec, but first here is how to do this set and rep setup.

• Pick a weight you can lift 15 times and use that weight on all 10 sets.
• Stop at 10 reps.
• Rest one minute between each set…do NOT increase the rest period no matter how fatigued the muscles are feeling.
• Aim for 10 reps on all 10 sets (gets hard at the end).

Awesome Back Exercise I Used for 10 X 10 Last Week!

[I was reading a bit about old school trainer, Vince Gironda, last week and was reminded about an exercise I’ve only read about it text. This is called the “Gironda 45 Degree Pulley Row” and it fries your back! It isolates your lats during the first part of the motion and the second part feels like a seated row. It is like a seated row that burns badly. Especially if you are doing 10 sets of 10!]

My Experience Doing Incline Dumbbell Press 10 X 10

I typically use 80-85 pound dumbbells when I am doing 5 sets of 5 on the incline dumbbell press. Last week, when I decided to give the 10 X 10 workout a shot…I figured 50 pounds would be an easy weight for my first time around.

I WAS WRONG! On the 5th set, I couldn’t get past 8 reps. On the 7th set, I couldn’t get past 6 reps. On the 8th set I was at around 5. On the last two sets I dropped the weight to 35 pounds…and it was a struggle to get 10 full reps! Nest week I will use 40 pounds dumbbells.

Figured I Would Maybe Do a Few Sets of Bench After This

The bench press is not my strong point. Anything over 225 pounds feels heavy. That being said…I was NOT prepared for how smoked my chest was after doing those 10 sets of incline dumbbell presses.

When I attempted a 135 pound warmup set, I had a hard time pressing 135 pounds 5 times. Typically I feel like I could throw that weight to the ceiling if I had to. After doing 10 sets of inclines it felt around 225 pounds! My entire chest was smoked from inclines.

You really only do need one exercise per body part when doing 10 sets of 10 reps!

A similar thing happened when I tried doing a few sets of chin ups after doing the Vince Gironda 45 Degree Pulley Row.

8 Sets of 8 Reps [Muscle Building With Fat Loss]

So Mike Westerdal, the guy who helped me put together the Visual Impact Exercise Demo Ebook, is giving away a really cool free report this week. It is Vince Gironda’s Go-To workout for simultaneous muscle fiber growth and fat loss.

[Click on the cover above to get the free 17 page ebook.]

Gironda’s Top Routine for Getting Muscles Growing Again

Vince Gironda was no less than a training legend. He used a huge portfolio of workouts and this was one of his favorites.

The big highlight here is that this particular workout takes no more than 30 minutes.

It isn’t a circuit routine, but shares some similarities to modern circuit routines. It uses 2 exercises per body part, but they are performed in a special way.

So 3 More “Plateau Busters” to Implement in Your Workouts

• Strength Plateau? Try 10 Sets of 3 Reps
• Size Plateau? Try 10 Sets of 10 Reps
• Size Plateau and a Little Chubby? 8 Sets of 8 Reps