Workout Modifications That Will Kick Your Ass

I conned Tom into training me on Thursday night, which was a great ass-kicking. It's awesome to go around with someone who knows as much about fitness and training as Tom does. It also hurts. A lot. He had me do a few modifications that really made a huge difference in my weight routine (we did lower body weights).

1. Continuous Reps
   Instead of pausing at the peak of every rep (no matter what exercise), Tom had me go up to 80% of the rotation, then continue to the next one without pausing. It was an easy way to make things more challenging, without adding more weight. This is especially good for me because I am paranoid of a) dropping the weights and b) putting on so much muscle I am mistaken for Tom's short and sturdy body guard. 
2. From Machines To Free Weights
   It's simple, and it's said quite often, but moving to free form weights from machine weights makes one hell of a difference. I'm told it's because it becomes a compound exercise (which works more than one muscle group at once) and it works the stabilizer muscles and your control at the same time. I think it's because they are really heavy, and it feels like everyone is watching so you don't want to quit early.
3. Hitting A True Ten
   If you're ever feeling lazy in the gym, take someone with you to push you that extra 10%. Tom is definitely not afraid to take an exercise to failure, as evidenced by him throwing up during his run the other day.
4. Racing to a Secondary Exercise
   After completing my sets, he'd have me get off the machine as fast as possible to do a secondary exercise that works the same group. OW.