Skip to main content

High Set Singles for Massive Strength and Size Gains


High-Set Singles for Massive Strength and Size Gains
     Probably the most popular form of low-rep training among many "old-time" bodybuilders, high-set singles are highly effective at making a muscle neurally stronger.
     I believe that one of the best ways to incorporate high-set singles is with a method made popular by the great Doug Hepburn.  It works something like this: On your lift of the day, start off with a weight in which you absolutely know that you can get at least three singles.  (Remember, it's better to start off too light than too heavy.)  Make sure you warm up sufficiently for the lift using very low reps.  After about a five minute rest after warm-ups, go directly into the singles.  Perform a single, rest five minutes, and then perform another single.  If you manage to get eight singles, then stop the lift and add two and a half to five pounds at your next workout and start all over again.
     If your goal is simply to be stronger, then stop the workout at this point.  If you're after muscle mass to go along with the strength, then rest five minutes and perform three to four sets of three to five reps, with minimal rest in between these sets.
     Below is an example workout that you could use that incorporates this approach to training.
Day One: Chest, Arms
Bench Press- 3 to 8 sets of 1 repetition, followed by 3 sets of 3 reps.  Utilize the method described above.
Incline Dumbbell Press- 5 sets of 3 reps.
Barbell Curls- 3 to 8 sets of 1 repetition.  Utilize the same technique as with the bench presses but eliminate the triples.
Close-grip Rack Lockouts- 3 to 8 sets of 1 repetition.  This exercise will give you even more tricep involvement than regular close-grip benches, plus it takes the chest out of the movement so that you don't end up overtraining your pecs.
Day Two: Off
Day Three: Legs
Squats- 3 to 8 sets of 1 rep.  Perform these the same as the first workout.  Do not substitute another exercise for regular squats; they can't be beat as an overall mass-booster.  Also, don't sell yourself short by doing a partial or parrallel squat.  Go rock-bottom for the best benefits.
Front Squats- 5 sets of 3 reps.  In order to get maximum quadricep involvement into the workout, use these instead of the regular squats for your follow-up triples.
Day Four: Back, Shoulders
Weighted Wide-Grip Chins- 3 to 8 sets of 1 rep, followed by 3 sets of 3 reps.
Close-grip Bent-over Rows- 5 sets of 3 reps.  Use an underhand grip on these in order to get more lat recruitment (as opposed to mid-back) from the exercise.
Standing Military Press- 3 to 8 sets of 1 rep.
Day Five: Off
Day Six: Repeat
     After four to five weeks of the above workout, if you want to try something new, then use the same workout, but stick more to an approach to high set singles made popular by Brooks Kubrik.  Kubrik's method works something like this:  Drop the poundages you are using by about 10% (from what you used with Hepburn's approach) and try performing 15 to 20 singles on all of the major exercises.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Rule of 3

     It’s important to program your workouts.   For many lifters, this can seem daunting—though it shouldn’t be—because they’re accustomed to just “working out.”   Programming your workouts, however, doesn’t have to be complicated.   In fact, it can be quite simple.      I like to recommend easy-to-follow routines where the title of the program pretty much explains the workouts contained within.   My 30-Rep Program is an example.   With it, you do 30 reps total for the entire session.   Sure, you must still understand the program’s parameters—as you ought to with all good routines—but once you do, it’s easy to follow and easy to program.      Another good example is the 3-to-5 workout .   The title of program basically gives away the whole thing.   You train 3 to 5 days each week.   You utilize 3 to 5 exercises at each session.   You do 3 to 5 sets of 3 to 5 reps on eac...

Marvin Eder’s Mass-Building Methods

  The Many and Varied Mass-Building Methods of Power Bodybuilding’s G.O.A.T. Eder as he appeared in my article "Full Body Workouts" for IronMan  magazine.      In many ways, the essay you are now reading is the one that has had the “longest time coming.”  I have no clue why it has taken me this long to write an article specifically on Marvin Eder, especially considering the fact that I have long considered him the greatest bodybuilder cum strength athlete of all friggin’ time .  In fact, over 20 years ago, I wrote this in the pages of IronMan magazine: In my opinion, the greatest all-around bodybuilder, powerlifter and strength athlete ever to walk the planet, Eder had 19-inch arms at a bodyweight of 198. He could bench 510, squat 550 for 10 reps and do a barbell press with 365. He was reported to have achieved the amazing feat of cranking out 1,000 dips in only 17 minutes. Imagine doing a dip a second for 17 minutes. As Gene Mozee once put ...

Get Big, Strong, and Ripped—One Goal at a Time

       Stop trying to do so many things at one time.   Really.   Just stop.   If you want to achieve a goal— any goal, but we’ll stick with size and strength here—then you need to focus on that one goal.   Duh, right?   Pretty obvious.   But, as I’ve written in other essays, the obvious sure does seem to get overlooked by the vast majority of our lifting population.   So, obvious though it may be, let me repeat. Focus on one goal at a time .      I started thinking about all this, and the cognitive wheels began turning in my mind to write an essay on it, when I read these words from Dan John in an article of his on the same topic.   He wrote: One of the most overlooked aspects of muscle-building programs is a four-letter word: STOP. Stop playing basketball. Stop jogging. Stop doing cardio. I swear, if I get one more email like this, I will do something rash: “Hey, Dan: I’m interested in doing High...