Muscles can be overloaded through increasing intensity, resistance, repetitions, sets, or speed of action. Overload techniques include blitzing by working muscles from different angles, forced repetitions with a partner's assistance, pyramid routines starting light and increasing weight, compound sets with minimal rest between exercises of antagonist muscles, burn out sets progressively reducing weight until failure, and breathing sets pausing to take deep breaths between reps.

1. Overload Techniques
 Muscles will strengthen only if it has been forced to work
beyond its limits
 Muscles can be overloaded by:
 The Intensity – decreasing rest periods
 The Resistance – Lifting more weight
 The number of repetitions
 Number of Sets
 Speed of muscular action

2. Overload Techniques
Overload techniques specific to strength training include:
• Blitzing
• Forced repetitions
• Pyramid Training
• Compound training
• Burn out sets
• Breathing sets

3. Blitzing
 Practice of working a muscle or muscle group with different
exercises from different angles in one training day
 This strengthens and builds the muscle groups around the
main muscle which is being worked
 Example: Doing Dumbbell Fly’s, then doing lateral Incline
Shoulder raises working both the deltoid and subscapularis
muscle

4. Forced repetitions
 Exercises in which a partner assists
 Best used where the muscle is the weakest
 Partner gently supports the weakest point
 Basically when the person performing the exercise is
physically unable to lift anymore without using incorrect
technique, a training partner or ‘spotter’ will come and
assist in the lifting of the weight up to 3 times more.

5. Pyramid Routines
 Pyramid routines use sets at different levels, at the different weight
levels, doing the same training exercise but at different reps.
 Start with a lighter weight at 12 reps, then a medium weight at 6
reps and a heavier weight at 1 reps to form a pyramid.
 Then once finished, you work your way back down from 1 reps of
heavier weights, to 6 reps at a medium weight and 12 reps at a
lighter weight.
 Extremely effective at building muscle as it works the muscles to
exhaustion causing greater blood flow into the muscle as more
oxygen is moving to the muscle.
 By allowing you to train at different levels those routines really
stress the muscles well.

6. Compound Training
 Involves combining exercises of the same muscle group and
the antagonist muscle group with minimal or no rest in
between exercises.
 These include

Super sets

Tri sets

7. Cheating
 Should only be performed by
experienced weight trainers. This
technique involves using muscles other
than the muscle group being trained to
help initiate the movement or work past
the weakest point of the muscle. For eg
using back muscles when doing bicep
curls.

8. Supersets
 Work out using agonist and then antagonist muscles
alternatively
 This can be done by doing a different exercises with the
same muscle group.
 No rests in between sets
 Example: Doing bicep curls, then immediately after
changing to tricep pull downs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ9uPGgPZO0&feature=related

9. Tri - sets
 Same principles as a super set except doing 3 exercises of
the same muscle.
 This over exhausts the muscle tearing and expanding the
muscle fibres which then fill with blood making the muscle
group larger.
 Example: Doing a set of incline leg press, followed by a set of
leg press, then a set of squats without rest in between, to
exhaust the quadriceps and triceps.
 This is mainly used for the experienced trainers as it can lead to
severe muscle damage if not conditioned before hand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seJ_lO711to

10. Burn out sets
 Working the body until completely fatigued
 It is basically doing supersets but dropping the weight each
set until no more can be done.
 This is completely exhausting the muscles to their physical
limit and is effective but requires long rest periods.
 Example: Doing bench press sets starting at 30 kgs and working
it down until just the bar is left. (by this time if done correctly
the bar should feel as heavy as the first set)

11. Breathing sets
 These sets are completed by pausing for 3 seconds at the
top of the exercise and take 3 deep breaths then perform
the next rep.
 The deep breaths allow for more reps to be completed at a
heavier weight than what could have been completed in a
basic workout due to the extra oxygen flowing through the
muscles.
 Example: Doing a 20 squat routine, 10 squats basic workout
then 10 squats using the breathing technique. The first 10
squats should almost fatigue the muscles and the final 10 will
have to be forced by the person to work through.