Most bodybuilders who profess to train with maximum intensity actually don't. They do train hard but mistakenly explain that because they are using heavy weights they are using the high intensity protocol. The amount of weight by itself has little to do with the intensity of effort. Intensity is dependent on the amount of effort put forth by the bodybuilder during training. Heavy weights can and do add to that effort because more effort is required to complete a set of an exercise with a heavy weight if good form is used.
I suggest using a moderate to heavy weight for most exercises with an appropriate rep range or time under tension for the particular muscle being trained. While it is best to determine through testing (the method to do this is outlined in another post on this blog and won't be repeated here) the type of muscle fiber a muscle is made up of, a range for most upper body muscles is 6-12 and 10-15 for legs. Take all sets to failure, where no more reps are possible and add some HIT variables to the set to end the set after the point of failure. Some good HIT variables to use are forced reps,negatives,omni-contraction and rest-pause. These are explained on my blog in other posts.
Use appropriate set counts to avoid over-training. Depending on the level of intensity, a good range is 1-2 for smaller muscles and 2-3 for large muscles. Train each muscle one time per week and possibly less if your recuperative powers are less than average. You will need to experiment with that to find your ideal training frequency to continue progressing.
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