A Guide to Intensity Techniques

by Zach Trowbridge on February 24, 2025

While the vast majority of your training should be comprised of standard-issue straight sets (a single set performed at or near failure, followed by a rest period), there can be value in the intelligent use of different intensity techniques that go beyond what a straight set will allow. Many of these have shown up in various Mountain Dog programs over the years, and a few of them have multiple definitions floating around on the internet that may be different from the way that John defined them, so I’ll try to make notes throughout if there are multiple definitions of a particular term.

Superset

A superset is two or more exercises paired together and performed consecutively, typically with little to no rest. These could be for the same muscle group, for opposite muscle groups (for example, pairing a biceps exercise with a triceps exercise), or even completely unrelated muscle groups (for example, doing sets of calf raises in between sets of wide grip pullups).

When the same muscle group is used, often the intention is to provide a benefit that performing each exercise one at a time wouldn’t provide. For example:

Pre-exhaustion – using an isolation exercise before a compound exercise; this might be used if a muscle group that’s not the primary muscle is failing on the compound exercise before the intended muscle can be worked fully – for example, performing a dumbbell fly before an incline press so that the chest fails on the press before the triceps or front delts do.

Post-exhaustion – continuing to add stress to a target muscle without stressing supporting muscles – this might be done by performing a dumbbell fly immediately after an incline press so that the chest can continue to be loaded without taxing the triceps or front delts.

While the above usually involve using one compound and one isolation exercise, you could also apply the same concepts using free weights and machines – for example, another post-exhaustion technique could be following up a barbell incline press with a Hammer Strength incline press as the machine will provide some external stability and reduce the load on stabilizers such as the rotator cuff muscles.

Not all supersets need to be performed without rest – in the case of training opposing muscle groups, you may find value in performing one movement, taking a shorter rest, then performing the other movement before resting again.

A1. Incline barbell press – perform 6-8 reps, then rest 60-90 seconds
A2. Bentover barbell row – perform 6-8 reps, then rest 60-90 seconds

The advantage here is that if both movements were performed back to back, the barbell row may suffer because the limiting factor might be cardiovascular or neurological fatigue, not the strength of the back muscles. By adding a longer rest period it allows for some recovery time while still making for a more efficient workout – in the above example, each exercise still gets 2-3 minutes of rest before being completed again while taking less time than performing all sets of one exercise, then moving on to the next exercise. This works great for heavier lifts such as barbell presses, rows, pullups, squats, and deadlifts that may generate a lot of fatigue.

Tri-Set

A tri-set is simply a superset with a third exercise added – most often these are used with three movements for the same muscle group, but could be done as part of a full-body workout or using three different muscle groups. For example, as part of a push workout (chest, shoulders, triceps), the following tri-set could be used to increase workout density:

A1. Machine fly – perform 12 reps, then move immediately to
A2. Machine rear lateral raise – perform 15 reps, then move immediately to
A3. Rope pressdown – perform 12 reps, then rest 60-90 seconds before starting the tri-set again

You’ll notice that the above are all isolation exercises – choosing an exercise like a close grip bench press for the triceps exercise would involve the chest and delts to a degree, and may be limited by the fatigue already present in those muscles.

Giant Set

A giant set is four or more movements, again paired in succession. Most often, this would involve four movements from the same muscle group, or a mix of movements from opposing muscle groups. This is a favorite of bodybuilders such as Milos Sarcev, who is known to create combinations of as many as 6-8 exercises for the same muscle group.

Drop Set

A drop set allows you to take a particular set beyond the point of failure by reducing the load one or more times and continuing to push each drop to failure. This is often done as the final set of an exercise – attempting to do multiple sets in this fashion for the same exercise will typically reduce how much weight can be used on subsequent sets, which becomes what is typically referred to as “junk volume” – reps that have little or no carryover to muscle growth but simply add to the recovery demands of a workout.

The number of drops can vary, but typically work best by doing 1-3 drops depending on the exercise. The amount of weight reduced on each drop is typically somewhere in the 20-50% range – the more drops you are doing, the smaller the percentage each drop should be.

For example:
120lbs x12
100lbs x8
80lbs x8
65lbs x8

There is a point where it no longer makes sense to continue doing drops – in the above example, if another drop was done, it would likely need to be with around 50-55lbs, which is less than 50% of the original weight. At that rate, the weight is too light to have any positive effect on hypertrophy, and failure would likely be due to cardiovascular fatigue or inability to tolerate the lactic acid being produced.

Rest-Pause Sets

In Mountain Dog programs, you would see rest-pause used as a synonym for deadstop. For example, a lying leg curl might prescribe rest-pause where you lower, let the weight come to a full stop on the stack, then fire it back up again.

The more traditional version of rest-pause is similar to a drop set in that it takes a set beyond failure – however, in this case, added rest breaks are used instead of decreasing the original weight – typically around 10-20 seconds, but if reps are particularly low (under 5 reps) it could stretch up to 30 seconds.

Just like the drop set, this is best used only on the last set of an exercise.
For example, on a lying leg curl, you might hit a set of 10, rest for 10-20 seconds, get 3 more, rest another 10-20 seconds, and then get 2 more.

Cluster Sets

Since there are a variety of different ways to use cluster sets, depending on whether the goal is strength, power, or hypertrophy, and since John did an incredibly thorough video on this technique, I’m just going to link it here:

Partial Reps

This one is pretty straightforward – partial reps are just reps performed with an incomplete range of motion. Many times these are used as a way to extend a set past failure – for example, on a leg extension or leg curl, once failure has been reached with full range of motion, partial reps are added on to continue the set.

Partials could be added to either the top or bottom of an exercise, and where they go will depend on what’s practical. For example, if you failed on a leg extension and can no longer lock out the exercise, partial reps would be added to the bottom part of the range of motion. After all, if you can’t lock out a full rep anymore, trying to do partials from the top would be pointless.

However, if you took something like a leg press or hack squat and tried to add partials, adding them to the bottom, which is going to be the weakest part of the exercise, will more than likely result in you getting stapled to the bottom of the machine. Partials would be better applied to the top of an exercise like that.

However, in the above example, there’s always a risk that your legs could completely give out coming down into a partial, which becomes a safety issue as well. So most movements that benefit from partials are ones where you can do them in the bottom part of the range, with no risk of injury if you fail:

Barbell or dumbbell curl
Lying or seated leg curl
Leg extension
Standing or seated calf raise
Lateral raise
Rear lateral raise
Machine or cable fly (I’m not a huge fan of partials on dumbbell flyes as they’re a little more dangerous to fail on than a machine or cable version)

Partial reps can also be their own exercise – you really only see this with variations of raises for shoulders, especially in MD programs. Using a heavier-than-usual weight on lateral raises or rear lateral raises and doing very high reps (30-60) is a staple in John’s programs, and has the potential to help blow up the delts on someone who has been struggling with getting them to respond.

Isometric Holds

Like partials, these are typically done to extend the set a little more, and are usually used in the same range of motion. The exercises I listed above as good partial rep exercises are also the same ones that benefit from using isometrics. After the last full range rep, simply come up as far as possible and hold that position, usually for something between 10-30 seconds.

Combining Intensity Techniques

It’s not uncommon to see combinations of intensity techniques in the same workout, or in some cases, in the same set. For example, here are two of John’s most well-known exercises that blend multiple methods into one set:

The Rear Delt Destroyer set – combining partial reps and drop sets

The Bulgarian Split Squat Drop Set of Death – combining drop sets and iso holds

If you’re currently using only straight sets and want to add a little bit of extra intensity to your training, grab something from this list and work it into your next workout!

Zach is the co-owner and head strength coach of All Strength Training, a personal training center specializing in busy professionals located in Chicago, IL. He is also a competitive physique athlete, having earned his pro card in the WBFF in 2016, and currently competes in the NPC classic physique division.

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