The number of times you raise and lower the resistance / weight

The number of times you repeat the prescribed number of reps

The speed or pace at which you should aim to perform the various aspects of a rep, typically broken into 4 parts:

1. The ‘eccentric’ (negative) portion of the movement, i.e; when the muscle is lengthened in the direction of resistance e.g; lowering the weight when performing a bench press

2. The ‘concentric’ (positive) portion of the movement, i.e; shortening / contracting the muscle against the force of resistance e.g; pressing the weight up during a bench press

3 & 4. The pauses taken following the completion of the concentric and eccentric portions of the rep respectively, e.g; pausing / resting at the 2 extremes, the top and bottom of a bench press.

A tempo of ‘4-3-2-1’ for example would mean:

1. Perform a 4 second eccentric
2. Rest for 3 seconds following the eccentric
3. Perform a 2 second concentric
4. Rest for 1 second following the concentric

When prescribed, for the purposes of this program an isometric hold is performed following the concentric portion of a rep (when the muscle is fully contracted) e.g: when your elbows are as far back as possible during a bent over barbell row. The goal is NOT simply to hold against the direction in which the resistance is pulling, but instead to contract / squeeze the working muscle as hard as possible throughout the duration of the isometric, while remaining in the most maximally contracted position you can achieve.

If a set prescribes a target of 10 reps, perform as follows:

After completing each full rep, perform an additional half rep – this equals 1 rep of the protocol, repeat 9 times more times.

The 1/2 rep is typically performed following the eccentric (lowering or ‘negative’) portion of the rep.

For example, using a barbell bicep curl:
1. Raise the weight
2. Lower
3. Bring up half way (to 90 degrees of elbow flexion) then lower; this = 1 rep of the protocol.

These sets comprise of 3 successive drop-sets following the completion of the final working set (unless stated otherwise) of an exercise; allow no more than 10 seconds rest between each drop (ideally zero), plus decrease in load by approximately 20% each time aiming to achieve 5 – 8 reps on each. At the end of the final full rep of the final set, end with as many partial reps as possible through to absolute failure.

Tri-sets are a sequence of 3 consecutive exercises done in immediate succession with NO rest between exercises.

Giant sets are a group of exercises for the same body-part done in immediate succession with NO rest between exercises. If the Giant set is labeled as (A) this means that you are to do this group of exerci

The goal of these sets is not to fatigue the muscle but to focus on activating your mind-muscle connection for maximal contraction. Studies have shown that activating a muscle before a workout can result in up to 30% more muscle fibres recruited during training. Choose a weight that you could lift for double the prescribed number of reps.

The goal of these sets is to emphasise initiation with the working muscle. By pausing in the lengthened position of the rep, we eliminate elastic tension in the muscle which can aid in initiating movement (which we don’t want). Think of each pause as a ‘reset’ to mentally focus on contracting the working muscle before anything else takes place. End each set 2-3 reps short of failure.