Here is a scene you most probably few times in the gym. If you are not a member of "big muscle club" you have watched this from the safe distance. Big guy , lets call him Joe, is pounding out an intense set of bench presses and he is just about at your limit. Boys are around, some are amazed and some just curious to see the ending of this scene. Joe clearly wants to pack on as much muscle mass as possible and nothing is going to stand in his way.
Joe is on his edge but doesn't want to stop the set so he grunts to his partner. Half of the gym has eyes on him already. Huge weight is in play and Joe is very much focused on "two more reps". Those extra two forced reps are what separates the men from the boys and will ignite crazy new muscle growth, right? Joe, sorry but you are not on fast track to your insane muscle gains. Or, do you think I'm wrong about this? Lets see.
Without deeper insight this forced reps practice may seem like very good idea. Is it really? Common misconception is that forced reps allow you to get more reps with more weight. Let us analyze most important elements of this so we can conclude on basis of proven arguments.
First of all, what is the "forced rep" at all? I can not remember any better answer from this one: - "forced rep is a rep with less total overload". Fewer overloads to your muscles are naturally caused by your partner assistance. Your partner who assists you is making the load lighter. Forced reps practice is resulting with less overload to your muscles and this can not be favorable for muscle growth because less overload equals less muscle growth stimulation.
If you want to fast gain muscle mass you should understand the golden rule of positive failure. This is the point at which you can't complete any more reps on your own. Forced reps prematurely fatigue your muscles because you end up doing one or two reps beyond positive failure with a lighter weight. Muscle fatigue decreases the amount of overload or weight you can use on your remaining sets and is another reason forced reps should be avoided.
I used forced reps for long time and only when I started with this insane gains muscle building program I was able to see huge difference in results. If you cross over your positive failure point you are just making the show out of your extra reps. I started advancing much faster when I changed this habit. You can use a bit of help but idea is to keep 100% of the overload on the intended muscle group for the entire set.
Some of you may already train like this but I see many people depend on your partners more than they realize. Taking "a little" help on the last rep is OK but you need to be careful you don't let "a little" help gradually evolve into more help then you really want.
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