Surprise your muscles - the principle of one and a half repetitions

As you have probably already learned by heart: the key to high-quality muscle growth is a constant change in the tactics of influencing our muscles. Consistency is the worst sin for progress in training. And in order to avoid it, this very constancy, you need to continuously change the rules of the game: use previously unused exercises, vary the tempo and number of repetitions, experiment with different weights and, of course, exercise techniques.

We will study another interesting technical technique in this article. It's called the one-and-a-half repetition principle. From a theoretical point of view, there is nothing revolutionary new here, and this technique is based on the principle of partial repetitions that we have already studied. In fact, this is some variation of it...

As usual, for ease of understanding, we will carry out the entire explanation using the example of a specific, well-known exercise from the arsenal of fitness and bodybuilding. And this time the choice fell on such an exercise as the seated dumbbell press. Well, let's take a closer look at how this press is performed using the one and a half repetition principle...

1. We take the starting position: sitting on an inclined bench with the back raised to the maximum vertical position.
2. Raise the dumbbells to the starting position: with a wide grip on the chest, arms fully bent, elbows at the lowest point of the amplitude.
3. Exhaling sharply, press the dumbbells up, fully extending your arms.
4. After pausing for a couple of seconds at the top point of the amplitude, while inhaling, perform a smooth return to the starting position: the arms with dumbbells are lowered back to the chest.
   
   
   
   
5. Again, after pausing for a few seconds in this lower part of the trajectory of the projectile, simultaneously with exhalation, we perform a press, but this time not full, but partial: only half of the entire available amplitude. That is, we do not straighten our arms completely, but stop the movement of the projectile at a level just above our head.
6. After holding for a couple of seconds at this midpoint of the amplitude, while inhaling, again perform a smooth return to the starting position: the hands with the projectile are again lowered back to the chest.
7. In this case, the entire set of actions from point No. 3 to point No. 6 is considered one full repetition of the approach.
8. Perform 8-12 of these one-and-a-half repetitions in a cycle. Lower the dumbbells and the set is complete.