Here’s an interesting training protocol for breaking through a plateau.

Set #1
Warm-up set. You will be using 60% of your maximum poundage. Complete the reps in a slow, controlled fashion. Six reps is the goal. Rest: 4 minutes after set.

Set #2
Warm-up set. You will be using 60% of your maximum poundage. Complete the reps in a slow, controlled fashion. Six reps is the goal. Rest: 3 minutes after set.

Set #3
Warm-up set. You will be using 60% of your maximum poundage. Complete the reps in a slow, controlled fashion. Six reps is the goal. Rest: 2 minutes after set.

Set #4
You are now fully warmed up. Add 10% to the bar, and do whatever it takes to move the bar for 5 repetitions. Rest between sets may be increased to 3 minutes.

Set #5
Add 5% to the bar, and work to complete at least four repetitions. If at any point, you find you are unable to complete four repetitions, have your spotter help you to complete the set, then reduce the weight by 5%. Once you have to reduce, you can still increase resistance by adding ½ or 1 pound plates to either side of the bar. You may not be able to bench press an additional ten pounds, but 1 or 2 pounds shouldn’t affect your productivity much.

Set #6
Add another 5% to the bar, and complete four repetitions. Rest ONLY one minute between sets.

Set #7
Complete at least four repetitions with the same amount of weight. Rest ONLY one minute between sets.

Set #8
Complete at least four repetitions with the same amount of weight. Rest ONLY one minute between sets.

Set #9
Significantly reduce the weight – remove as much as 40% from the bar, and rep out. Complete 12 to 20 repetitions. Your fast twitch muscle fibers should be thoroughly torched right now from the slow and heavy repetitions. Switching it up allows the blood to move from these fibers to the other areas of the muscle group which haven’t yet been effectively stimulated – the slow-twitch muscle fibers. These muscle fibers are only stimulated on sets from repetition #12 onward. Wait 3 minutes after this set before tackling set #10.

Set #10
This is a cool down set. Reduce the weight by another 10 or 20 percent, and use slow, controlled repetitions. This will be your tenth set, and you should be thoroughly exhausted by this point. Both your slow- and fast-twitch muscle fibers have just endured ten straight sets of a mass-building compound movement in under thirty minutes. It’s hard to find a more intense workout that this one!

The use of a spotter is required, for both counting and safety purposes. You’re not going to be in the best frame of mind to keep track of ten sets, reps, and poundage – your only focus will be keeping the bar moving and maintaining focus. Your spotter should employ the use of a stopwatch between sets to correctly time the rest period. After all, part of the effectiveness of Ten-Set Magic comes from the controlled rest periods. Also, all data should be recorded: the number of reps completed, the rest times, and the weights used. It is only by tracking performance that improvements can be measured.

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