I would be curious to know if you make any incremental headway, either in strength or size, using this method over time. If you continue with it, please keep us apprised.
I don't know that I'm the best test subject but I do plan on doing this with biceps and hamstrings for the next 8 weeks and see what happens. No particular reason for these two other than they're easy to isolate.
How many iterations of the myo reps for each of the muscle groups each workout? And is it just one exercise for each of the two muscle groups you mentioned?
I had to do a little experimenting to find the proper weight and reps. The suggestion was to find something between 12 and 20 reps with the last rep just about failure. I found that a weight I could do 20 reps with was too light for the next 5 sets of 5. I wanted the 4th and 5th sets to be brutal, with the last set failing at 3-5 reps. For biceps I found 60 lbs. with a EZ bar doing the trick. So I did 16 reps with 16 being the last decent rep. Did not set the bar down, waited 15 seconds and did five solid reps. Wait 15 more seconds, do 5 more. Repeat for five sets. If you have the right weight that last set should be fire all the way through. I did this as the last movement of my routine. I don't know placing it first, middle or last makes a difference. I'll just stay consistent with what I've chosen. I will do this twice per week. Did the same thing for hamstrings on leg day with a seated hamstring machine.
Okay, so 5 myo sets after the initial, full set. I guess the only question is whether that much high-end stimulation is called for. So do let us know how you fare in due course. One final question, though. For comparative purposes when we consider the results at the end of the experiment, how many regular sets of those exercises were you doing before you went myo? For my part, I may give a try to a single iteration of this myo rep thing for 3 of my exercises, which I consider to be the most important in my routine, following the principal set. Specifically, I refer to pistol squats, pull-ups, and dips. But it’s just a rest pause as I see it, which is something that I occasionally dabbled with in the past. Maybe it’ll be different this time. You and Baron make a good tag team.
I bounced around with biceps and never really stuck to one thing with them, it was always a add in exercise for me. That said I would typically do 3 sets of 12 with one thing or another, dumbbell, Barbell, EZ bar, sometimes using cables. I always figured my arms were getting plenty of work with other movements. Hamstrings I used to do Romanian deadlift, but for the past year or so it's most been on a seated machine. For that I had been using a standard 5x5 after a two set warmup.
I did my workout earlier this week with the a myo-reps set (rest-pause?) added to three of the exercises, as I noted in my earlier post. As in the past, I don't mind adding a bit of emphasis to what I consider to be the most important of my exercises in e routine. I've been working out whole body twice a week now for some months and find that my sleep has become more fractured (again) and, not surprisingly, I'm more tired during the day. And so, I will once again revert to 3 workouts every 2 weeks (M-F-W). Therefore, my workouts will be spaced an average of 4.7 days apart rather than 3.5 days. I always go all out on every set, but adding the myo-reps/rest-pause work will make me feel a bit less guilty about the added recovery time.
Did myo for biceps today. Myo hamstrings on Monday. I must say adding that into a leg day had me doing the Frankenstein walk on the way out.
Oh, I have a story to tell about that. Don't go for a long walk after drinking a blend of beets and beet leaf. It was traumatizing and no amount of willpower could overcome the natural flow of things. The horror. Thankfully it was late evening. Nothing below the waste was salvageable. Even the shoes had to go.