There’s 
no doubt that progressive overload is the hallmark of resistance training. There comes a point however, where one can’t keep adding more and more weight as strength does not have an endless ceiling.
Additionally, if you listen to many older bodybuilders, including three-time Mr. Olympia Frank Zane, you often hear a common theme. That is upon reflection, they probably would have been better served in the long run had they not pounded their joints with so much constant heavy training in their younger years.
Frank specifically said that while that early heavy training did give him mass, that he would do things differently if given the chance to do it all over again. This is because of the ongoing price he has had to pay for past injuries!
The shoulder joints in particular are subjected to a lot of trauma since they are synergists in most upper body exercises. The cumulative effect of that trauma often comes back to haunt one in their later years. This not only can manifest as chronic pain but it will inevitably limit one’s ability to train as well!
There are different strategies one can use to help reduce the overall stress on one’s joints. To begin with, cycling one’s training intensity is definitely beneficial all around. Additionally it is vitally important to learn to really listen to the signals one’s body is sending them. That is, learning to recognize the difference between musculoskeletal stress and distress and stopping immediately to avoid injury!
Another excellent strategy is to incorporate techniques that elicit a high ‘intensity of effort’ while reducing the actual ‘intensity of loading.’ Four specific intensity techniques that I have found extremely useful are Pre-exhaust, Post-exhaust, and Compound Supersets as well as Tri-sets. I will cover the first two techniques in this article and the following techniques in part two.
These various combinations significantly tax the muscles while reducing the stress to the joints themselves. For many folks, the hardest thing will be leaving their ego at the door since they’ll inevitably need to use much less weight than they are used to!
While the techniques discussed below will use less direct force due to the reduced loading, metabolic stress is significantly augmented due to the longer time under tension. These techniques will also fatigue a larger number of muscle fibers in the target muscles.
Additional benefit can be added by stressing the eccentric (i.e. negative) portion of each rep. Eccentric loading has shown to elicit a higher degree of muscle damage. I personally have found that using these techniques produce pretty significant DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). Muscle damage is one of the mechanisms related to muscle growth along with mechanical tension and metabolic stress (see Schoenfeld, B “Mechanisms of Muscle Hypertrophy and their Application to Resistance Training” JSCR 2010 Oct, 24).
That being said, “too much muscle damage is not a good thing as it can impede your ability to train effectively, plus you can exceed your ability to properly repair the tissue within a given period of time” (Shoenfeld, B Human Kinetics ‘Max Muscle Plan’ Webinar).
As a side note, these techniques are also extremely advantageous if you ever have to train in a gym with a limited selection of equipment (ex. hotel gym).
I have shown a small sample below of how these techniques can be implemented. You can come up with endless combinations of exercises and variations by utilizing different modalities such as free weights, machines, cables, and resistance tubing. You can also experiment with various repetition performance patterns such as Bilateral, Alternating, Unilateral as well as different tempos.
I typically use a Light-Heavy pyramid approach, 12/10/8 reps for larger muscle groups, and 15/12/10 reps for smaller muscle groups. Resistance is increased with each set. While one can use any repetition range they prefer, I’d recommend not going below 6 reps per exercise to minimize the stress on the joints. You will generally want to use more resistance for the compound movements compared to the isolation movements regardless of where it is placed in the technique being employed.
Also please note that you are actually doubling or tripling the actual amount of repetitions just listed depending on if you are doing supersets or tri-sets. So for example the first pre-exhaust superset for chest would consist of 12 reps of Flyes immediately followed by 12 reps of Chest Presses for a total of 24 total reps.
SUPERSET TECHNIQUES:
(Note: Move as quickly as possible between exercises!)
PRE-EXHAUST: These feature an isolation (i.e. ‘single joint’) movement followed immediately by a compound (i.e. ‘multi-joint’) movement:
CHEST: Chest Flye/Chest Press
LATS: Stiff- Arm Pulldown/Wide Grip Pulldown
SHOULDERS: Lateral Raises/Shoulder Press
LEGS: Leg Extensions/Leg Press
POST-EXHAUST (aka “Post-Activation”): These feature a compound movement followed immediately by an isolation movement:
UPPER CHEST: Incline Press/Incline Flye
LATS: Wide Grip Pulldown/ Stiff- Arm Pulldown
SHOULDERS: Shoulder Press/Lateral Raise
LEGS: Squat/Leg Extensions
In part two, I’ll discuss the additional techniques mentioned above as well as other ways to help you utilize a high intensity of effort while minimizing stress to your joints.
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