The “Iron Marathon” method will have your muscles crying out for mercy, but there will be none shown.

Straight out of C.T. Fletcher’s Iron Addicts Gym, this is a high rep set like no other. I’ve modified it slightly to allow for better rest breaks between bursts. In a workout, it’ll look like this:

BARBELL BENCH PRESS x1>10 (IRON MARATHO METHOD)

Here’s how to perform the Iron Marathon:

• Load the bar accordingly (x10 reps is the max set here, so use your 10 rep weight throughout).
• Perform 1 rep then rack the bar for 5 seconds.
• Perform 2 reps then rack the bar for 10 seconds.
• Perform 3 reps then rack the bar for 15 seconds.
• Perform 4 reps then rack the bar for 20 seconds.
• And so on, up to x10 reps. The combination of ever-higher reps and relatively short rest periods makes for a brutal workout. Sometimes I’ll give you an Iron Marathon which operates from x11-20 reps instead, and the rest periods will be different (will be specified in workout), and sometimes I’ll ask you to go from x1>20.