#3 Myth In BodyBuilding.. Doing Forced Reps Will Gain More Muscle
There are so many magazines out there that I read articles by pro bodybuilders talking about what a great benefit it is to do forced reps as part of your muscle building regimen and for the pro’s who are saying this that may be the case for them but because of one simple reason. That reason is anabolic steroids. Doing forced reps will cut such a deep inroad into muscles recovery ability that there’s just no way that inroad will be able to be filled in or compensate (put back what was already there), in order to over compensate (put back more than was there before), which is what we know to be muscle gain. At least not by natural means anyway. I’ve never known of a drug free bodybuilder who has ever gotten anything out of doing forced reps. In fact in each case I’ve seen where this was practiced it was actually counter-productive. It is very catabolic to the muscles of a natural bodybuilder. Anabolic steroids are very powerful chemicals that drasticaly alter the chemistry of the body by greatly enhancing nitrogen retention, protein synthesis, and also supressing the release of cortizole, a very catabolic stress hormone that breaks down muscle tissue. And no there arent any supplements out there that non hormonal that can produce the same anabolic effects that steroids can. This makes steroids sound really good however the cost of the benefits of using them wont compare to the price of the negatives one would experience from using them. On another note about forced reps, it can also be very annoying to the person being asked to help the person doing the forced reps. Yes I’m speaking from experience. I had a guy come up and ask me to help him do some forced reps on the bench press. I dont know why but I agreed. I don’t mind spoting someone but I don’t like doing their workout for them. Anyway, he had 225 lbs on the bar so he got under the weight and told me that he would do 2 reps on his own and then wanted me to assist him forcing out another 3-4 more reps. I’m thinking to myself ok who’s gonna be doing the work here? Just as I suspected he lifted off and managed to get just 1 rep on his own and while struggling he said "ok, 4 more! Help me! Basically what happened is I ended up doing a set of deadlifts while he rested his hands on the bar and went along for the ride. I wasn’t too happy either cause I had just done super heavy deadlifts the day before and my back and traps were in knots! About 10 minutes later he came over and asked be to help him do some more forced reps on the bench and this time I said "no!" He gave me a puzzled look and asked "why not?" I said " because it wont do either of us any good." I then explained to him the science behind over training and that that’s what he was doing by using forced reps and he would never see any meeningful gains by doing them. I also explained to him that he wasn’t actually the one doing the set, I was actually doing a set of dealifts with him hanging on the bar. He told me that this how the pro’s do it and he was gonna keep doing it this way and that it would work. The following week I saw him in the gym maxing out at a bench press of 205 for 1 rep. So yes, he lost 20 lbs off his bench in one week. Impressive hey? So unless you want to end up like that guy, dont do forced repetitions if your a natural bodybuilder!
June 1, 2008 at 1:30 pm
That’s very interesting. First tiem I heard anything like that. Negative about forced reps I mean. Sounds like you know what your talking about. I have usually always doen them when I have a workout partner. I think I have gained from them but maybe I was gaining more without a partner helping me do forced reps. Now you have me thinking….Being all natural Iam very interested and hoping more people will respond to this. Thanks for writing.