Need some advice on shocking techniques

[Wesker]

I know that for good development it's good to shock your muscles once in a while.
I've never tried it seriously though, just for fun and interest.

I'm thinking about doing supersets, and maybe throw in a few bonus sets at the end to really push the last bit.
When you're shocking your muscles, your obviously putting them through much larger stress than normal, thus needing more time to recover.

Should you skip training the following days to recover, or what is an advised setup??

I train under a strength routine so I should do this when I hit the next plateu, right.

I don't really know how to approach it so I would really like some ideas.

[compleks]

There are so many different approaches to this that it's hard to give a straight answer.

Sometimes breaking a plateau is simply a matter of changing up your program, which could still be considered 'shocking' your muscles. Shocking doesn't necessarily have to be an extremely difficult workout. Sometimes an easy workout will do the trick.

Shocking doesn't have to be a single workout either, sometimes it can be an entire phase.

If you start to plateau, then change your routine. Think about changing the exercises, sets, reps, set format, speed etc...

[chicanerous]

Deload. If that doesn't kick start your gains, switch exercise variations or parameters.

[rock_ten]

yes, thats the key. Deload and work back up. Accumulating even more fatigue trying to "shock" your muscles, is going to get you nowhere.

I wouldn't advise switching exercises if you care about performance on the particular exercises. Doing completely different exercises may give the illusion of progress, but I wouldn't count it as that at all - you're just progressing on something else, not what you were originally training for.

The same goes for wildly different rep-ranges. Changing the rep range to some extend, and certainly volume and intensity, is probably a good way to go.