Tim’s Tips are Written by Tim Rigby, M.A, NSCA-CPT
We understand the mindset of you fitness warriors who prefer to go it alone. You have a burning will to succeed in your training, and despite the benefits of having a workout partner, you’d rather keep the self-focus and fly solo. This is an honorable attitude, as fitness is very much an individual pursuit. One of the drawbacks to going it alone, however, is that it can make specialty techniques like drop sets and forced reps tough. These are highly effective protocols that can ignite great muscle stimulation, but require a partner if you want to make them the most effective.
So here’s a tip from the great Arnold himself: run the dumbbell rack. This is a variation on drop sets where you complete a set of an exercise at a certain weight, shuffle down the rack, pick up a lighter weight and continue repping. You can perform one or multiple drops, as you see fit. Using the dumbbell rack, which usually extends a long way in front of one of the walls of a gym, you can perform a myriad of exercises including shrugs, raises, curls and presses. You don’t need a partner to remove plates from any barbell, nor to adjust and re-adjust the pin of a weight stack. Running the rack is simple and effective – and keeps you in full control all by yourself.
In addition to the most apparent benefits already mentioned, running the rack will also spare you from having to notify a partner of when you’ve hit muscle exhaustion; you simply stop lifting, and if you wish to throw in the highly effective rest-pause technique at the same time, you simply watch the clock (or your stopwatch) for a fixed rest period at regular intervals between sets.