1.

It laser-focuses your nervous system on a single exercise for peak efficiency

This is also known as "greasing the groove." There are no competing training stimuli here, just very specific focus. It's one of the reasons Olympic lifters only use a few lifts in their training. It's also one of the reasons they can lift such INCREDIBLE amounts of weight. Their nervous systems are finely tuned to their lifts.

And that's what'll happen to you.

2.

It gives you a LOT of practice lifting heavy weight

This helps you to perfect your form and become more efficient with your lifting technique. You'll be training your nervous system to deal with low reps and powerful movements. Your body doesn't naturally know how to do this, if you haven't trained for it.

If you train with 8-10 rep sets all the time, then try and max out, you're leaving a LOT of strength on the table just because of this.

3.

The extremely high volume of training creates an emergency situation

This forces rapid, focused adaptation by your body, in muscle, connective tissue, nervous system...everything. It HAS to build muscle in order to protect itself in order to survive.

4.

The high volume forces a tremendous amount of blood into the target muscle group

This drives nutrients into those target muscles, assisting with recovery and growth. This also develops the microcirculation in the muscles, which further increases growth and recovery potential by improving the "plumbing" of your muscles (capillary density).

Better circulation to the muscles = greater growth.

Step 1: Exercise Selection

First, select a compound exercise to work with. For mass, I would suggest either the squat or the deadlift (I like Trap Bar Deadlift for this).

 

 

Regardless of the exercise you do, you MUST ensure you have very good form when performing it. You're going to be doing a LOT of sets and any form errors will be amplified over the course of the workout.

CEO Training is best done at a time when your gym is not crowded. 

You're going to be training in a single exercise area for the entire workout. This isn't a big deal with deadlifts as you're just using a barbell...it's more of an issue with squats or bench press. That being said, for bench press, I would definitely recommend using a flat bench in the rack for safety.

Step 2: Timing Your Workout and Rest Periods

With CEO Training, I encourage you to use a stopwatch, regular watch or other form of digital timer (even a countdown app on your phone works great).

If your gym has a clock with an easily readable "second" hand, that will be fine, too.

Otherwise, you're going to have to count your 30 seconds of rest in your head, which is not as accurate (that 30 seconds rest will tend to run longer as you go through the workout and it's critical to keep it constant).

Set the timer for the TOTAL workout time, e.g. 40 minutes, then start the countdown timer.

During the workout itself, just mentally note the time when you finish the set and count the time interval from there. For example, if I finish a set and there is 16:45 left on my timer, I have until 16:15 on the timer for rest.

That rest does NOT include the time it takes to get set up for the next 3 reps...usually 3-4 seconds...so be sure to include that time in your rest periods.

Step 3: Performing the Sets

• Begin with a weight you could normally do for about 6 reps.
• Now perform just  3 REPS with that weight (even though you CAN do six). Be VERY sure to stick with 3 reps on each set - no more, no less. Your body hits a rep-range groove and will acclimate to it very quickly. This number is perfect...not so many that you can lactic acid build-up and not too few that you're overloading the nervous system by using too much weight.
  
• You will NOT go to failure on ANY of your sets. The key here is accumulating training volume, not training to failure.
  
• When you've done 3 reps, rest 30 seconds.
  
• Now do 3 more reps.
  
• Rest 30 seconds.
  
• You are going to repeat these 3 rep sets with 30 seconds of rest until you're unable to get 3 reps with that weight anymore.
  
• This could take anywhere from 2 to 10 minutes (maybe more, maybe less), depending on the exercise and the amount of weight you're using.

Here's the key...if you're on rep #2 and it feels like you would have to push hard to get that third rep, STOP THE SET!

The idea here is NOT to push yourself to the max on each set but to stop short of it and train your body based on volume. So if you're on rep 2 and you think you could get 3 but it would be a struggle, that's the end for THAT weight.

Reduce the weight and keep going.

ALWAYS keep the "do or die" rep in you.
THIS IS ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL

Because basically, if you do it, you'll die!

Step 4: Reducing The Weight

If you're doing squats or deadlifts, remove 10 lbs from each side of the bar so the weight is reduced by 20 lbs total. If you started with 315, you now have 295 on the bar.

Now just continue with the previous format, doing 3 rep sets on 30 second rest.

Drop the weight by 20 lbs (total) whenever you can't complete 3 reps during a set.

When you're using an exercise other than squats or deadlifts (bench press, for example), you can go with 10 lb total drops (5 lbs off each side), depending on how heavy your loads are.

You can also use dumbbells for this type of training, especially for bench pressing (it will be easier on your shoulders that way).

 

 

With barbell exercises, like squats or deadlifts, be sure to make use of small plates. For example, if you're starting with 315 lbs on the squat, don't put three 45 lb plates on either side...go with two 45's then finish the loadout with a pair 25's and four 10's. It'll be MUCH faster on the weight drops.

Continue in this pattern for the full time period of the workout.

If you really want to give this method a solid try, do it for 40 minutes total (no more than that...trust me). Or if you want to just give it a test run, go for 20 minutes.