Optimum Rep Speed For Maximum Gains

Welcome to one of the oldest issues in the world of bodybuilding: how fast should you lift for optimal muscle growth? There have been different answers to this question over the last two decades from various experts and scientists and that has made the matter even more complicated and confusing that it actually is. In this article we’ll try to shed some new light upon this debate and ultimately help you achieve better results by adequately adjusting your rep tempo.

Slow or Fast?

Rep tempo or lifting speed is basically the rate at which you perform reps in a given set. Some personal trainers will tell you that the best way to lift is explosively, thereby maximizing fiber recruitment and triggering greater growth, while others claim that lifting in a slow and controlled manner, especially on the eccentric portion of the movement, will create greater muscle tension and lead to greater hypertrophy. And then there are those who swear that frequently varying the speed is the key lifting technique for optimal gains.

So Which of These Opinions is the Closest to the Truth?

For starters, it’s a fact that a slow rep tempo will reduce the amount of weight you can handle and you’ll end up performing less work than you would with a high-velocity movement. But still, it’s also true that time under tension tends to be significantly greater at slower velocities and muscles get stimulated for a longer period of time. Therefore, manipulating the tempo will produce important differences in muscle adaptation, based on its effects on the correlation between volume and time under tension.

But most recently, a meta-analysis on the subject, involving data from eight controlled trials that compared the effects of different training tempos on muscle hypertrophy, showed that there are no significant differences in hypertrophy between lifting with a rep tempo of half a second and eight seconds, in terms of training to the point of muscular failure. It seems that the specific benefits of both slow (greater volume) and fast velocity (greater time under tension) training get evened out and in the end both tempos produce similar results.

However, there seems to be a threshold beyond which slowing down the lifting speed has negative influence on hypertrophy – when reps last for 10 seconds or longer, the amount of weight you can lift is dramatically reduced, resulting with an equally reduced muscle activation. And this inability to recruit the full spectrum of muscle fibers is ultimately detrimental to both strength and size gains, so it’s safe to say that super-slow lifting is not the best idea for maximizing your growth.

Concentric vs. Eccentric Tempo

The previously discussed findings inspected the effects of different total rep durations but left out the influence of varying the tempo on the concentric and eccentric portions of the lift. Unfortunately, only a small number of studies have tried to determine optimal concentric and eccentric tempos for muscle growth. One of them, that explored hypertrophic adaptations between different concentric and eccentric tempos under traditional training methods, split 28 women with previous training experience into two groups: one performed lower body exercises with two-second duration of the concentric portion and a six-second duration of the eccentric portion of the movement, while the second group trained on the reverse way – with a six-second duration of the concentric and two-second duration of the eccentric portion. That being said, the load and total time under tension were equal for both groups.

The results showed a similar hypertrophy of type I fibers between the groups after nine weeks of training, but the group who performed slower on the concentric part had greater increases in type II fiber than the group who performed slower on the eccentric part. However, these results cannot be made into definitive conclusions, given the many methodological flaws and practical limitations of the study.

Take Home Message

The limited number of studies and their lack of in-depth analysis of the issue make it almost impossible for us to draw objective conclusions about which lifting tempo promotes better muscle growth. In reality, lifters use a wide range of lifting speeds to stimulate optimal hypertrophy and the results vary greatly from one individual to the other. Still, there are a few things we can say for sure:

• Taking more than three seconds on the concentric portion of the movement reduces the effectiveness of the exercise in terms of muscle activation.
• Eccentric portions should be performed in a way that enables sufficient muscular tension, meaning that you shouldn’t let the forces of gravity do the work. Controlled doesn’t necessarily mean super slow.
• If you want to increase time under tension, it’s best to use slow tempo on the eccentrics and perform the concentrics explosively.
• If you want to keep on building muscle at a relatively steady rate, you could benefit from varying the rep tempo every 4-6 weeks in order to recruit different muscle fiber types.

Essentially, manipulating with rep tempo can definitively help you maximize the effectiveness of your workouts, but until science provides us with more definitive answers, you will need to find out what works best for you, based on the basic rules we’ve uncovered in this article, and keep pushing yourself beyond your limits. Good luck!

7 Ways To Simplify Exercise (So You'll Actually Do It!)

Exercise can be very beneficial for you. While you may focus on exercise primarily as a way for you to manage your weight, there are numerous other reasons you should exercise. When you exercise, it boosts your immune system keeping you healthier, improves your mood and helps you to sleep better. These are just a few of the many benefits exercise can provide for you.

If you are busy and have a lot on your plate here are 7 ways to get some exercise into your schedule:

1. Create extra opportunities to walk. Walking is one of the easiest and most beneficial types of exercise. And often times we don’t take advantage of opportunities to walk more throughout the day. Here are a couple of ways to get in some additional walking. When you are at your kids sporting events, walk around the perimeter of the gym, soccer field, or school. When you are getting on the train or going grocery shopping, park further away then you need to. Those extra steps will add up.

2. Invest in a fitness tool. There are numerous fitness apps and devices which can help you track your steps, sleep, and activity. If you don’t want to invest in a personal trainer, these tools can help you track your fitness activities, manage your sleep more effectively, and send subtle reminders when you are inactive for too long. Some of these include Fitbit, Jawbone, Misfit Ray, Garmin as well as other products. Do your research and find one which help you manage your fitness regimen.

3. Take the stairs. In many buildings, there are generally stairways. Take advantage of the stairs to help you get in more exercise. Taking the steps as opposed to the elevator is a way to add some extra activity into your day, get your heart rate going, and boost your energy.

4. Use your cell phone differently. When you use your phone, get a headset or Bluetooth. This will give you the ability to move around, stand up or walk while you are on the phone. This again gives you a chance to be active versus sedentary. Movement equals exercise.

5. Just stretch. Stretching helps with digestion, strengthening and flexibility. If you are in a job where you have long hours of sitting, try to take at least 5-10 minutes each hour to get up and stretch. Stretch your arms over your head. Bend over and touch your toes. Squat down as far as you can. All of these small movements keep your body looser and more limber.

6. Do the easy push-up. If you are unable to do a regular or modified push-up, here is an easier way to do a push-up. This exercise is a great way to work both your chest and your arms. Place your palms on the edge of a table and make sure your elbows are straightened. Bend your body until you are in a downward position. Your elbows will also be at a 90 degree angle. Bend your body until your chest touches the table. You can even do this while you are preparing a meal. Try to do 1- 2 sets of 10 repetitions of this exercise.

7. Combine cardio and boost your heart rate at the same time with jumping jacks. Try to do 5-10 minutes of jumping jacks. This is a great exercise which works all part of your body and is fun as well. Jumping jacks also can help you burn lots of calories in a short period of time.

Exercise doesn’t have to be hard. Taking time to incorporate exercise as a part of your daily activity can help you have many health and mental benefits. If you exercise regularly, you will realize that these little things will add up and keep you on track to remain healthier for the long term.

How Fast or Slow Should I Run?

When you first start exercising, you want to work hard enough that you’re boosting your fitness, strength, and endurance but not so fast that you get hurt. (Doing too much too soon is a very common cause of injury.)

But how do you know how fast or slow to go? Follow these tips:

Measure minutes, not miles. Don’t worry about your pace or miles covered when you’re just starting out. The first step is to focus on building overall fitness—and to make exercise a habit. The main health benefits, from lower risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and hypertension, result from the time you consistently spend elevating your heart rate. It doesn’t matter how many miles you cover while you’re out.

Make it brisk. If you’re walking, your cadence should feel quick. You should be able to hold a conversation. If you can sing, you’re likely going too slow. If you are huffing and puffing, you’re going too fast.

Start slow. No matter how far or how long you plan to go, start out slowly to warm up and gradually raise your heart rate. That will make the workout feel easier sooner. You want to go into the workout with the idea that you’ll finish strong. If you finish feeling gassed, you’re going to be demoralized and it’s going to be that much more difficult to get out for your next workout. One of the most common mistakes newer runners make is going out too fast.

Tune in to your body. Once you hit a pace that feels comfortable, tune in to how your body feels. How hard are you breathing? How quickly are your legs turning over? How do your leg muscles feel? Getting a sense of how your comfortable pace feels will help you lock into it on every run.

Run relaxed. When you first start out, it’s common to clench up muscles that aren’t involved in running. And that can sap the strength you need for a good workout. So when the going gets tough, do a body scan: Unknit your brow, unclench your jaw, keep your hands relaxed (imagine holding a piece of paper between your thumb and pointer finger), and don’t forget to breathe. You’ll be amazed at how much easier the workout feels!

Want To Burn Body Fat? Do These 6 Exercises

If you want to burn body fat fast, you need to be doing strength training exercises. The more muscle you have, the more fat you can burn though regular activities. This type of exercise is often avoided by women because they worry that it will make them look bulky.

But strength training, sometimes called resistance training, doesn't have to bulk up your body. It tones your body and helps to build and firm up your muscles. You'll appear thinner and reduce body fat at the same time. Here are 6 types of training exercises that burn fat fast and won't bulk you up.

1. Circuit Training

This is a popular exercise class at gyms and fitness centers. It involves doing a set of exercises for a specific period of time, then moving onto another one without resting. It's a good way to burn fat using both cardio exercise and strength training.

2. Isometric Weight Training

This is where you use weights by holding them at specific angles for a short period. This kind of training can be done without weights. For example, doing planks.

3. High Volume Exercising

This kind of exercise routine results in long, lean muscles. It involves exercising one muscle group per week. This gives the muscle groups sufficient time to recover allowing for the best and most efficient building of strength without bulking you up.

4. Body Weight Training

Using your own body to provide resistance during exercise will build your strength and muscles which will also burn fat off your body. The great thing about body weight training is that you can mix it with cardio for increased results.

5. Cardio Plus Strength Training Combined

You can generally exercise for half the time by combining strength and cardio exercise in creative ways and burn more calories. This can seriously blast fat away. Also, you can burn fat by doing the exercises separately. The strength training builds muscle, which burns more fat, and the cardio burns fat.

6. Core Exercises

Doing core training exercises will help your body become a fat burning furnace. The better shape your core is in, the better your fitness level will be and the more fat you'll burn.

Burning fat through strength training exercises is a two-pronged tactic. You'll need to combine strength training with some sort of cardiovascular exercise for it to be the most effective and to avoid having bulky muscles.

Improve Shoulder Size and Strength With This 4 Week Protocol

Having a pair of strong and symmetrical shoulders is crucial in building a balanced V-shaped torso, as they create the illusion that your waist line is narrower. Strong and developed shoulders will also help you in performing other exercises, because they are involved in almost every compound movement aimed at upper body development.

The deltoids consist of three heads (front, medial and rear head), and if you want to avoid their underdevelopment you need to pay ample attention to all three of them. Underdeveloped shoulders do not only reflect negatively on the overall aesthetics of your physique. As they are involved in many of your upper body exercises (the bench press for example), weak shoulders can also hinder the development of your chest and back muscles.

In this article we’re providing you with a four week program that will help you fix or avoid the problem with weak shoulders The program has been created by combining the powerlifting and bodybuilding workout techniques and relies on progressive overload.

Anatomy of the deltoids

As we’ve already mentioned, the delts have three heads. Each of these heads performs a different function and can be hit with different exercises.

For example, the side delts are involved in abduction of the shoulders i.e. in side raising of your arms. We are going to work the lateral head with lateral raises and wide grip upright rows.

The rear delts are involved in lateral movement away from the midline of the body in a horizontal plane; moving the upper arm away from the chest with the elbows out to the sides. This is also known as transverse abduction of the shoulders. There are several exercises that hit this head. The incline rear lateral rise, cable face-pull are just some of them.

The front delts move your arms straight in front of you and over your head. This head is best hit with the front rise, the overhead press and upright rows.

The Four Week Shoulder Protocol

Muscle size and strength are a result of several processes. They are determined by the loads you are using, metabolic stress and microtrauma of the muscle fibers.

Squats, deadlifst, bench press and overhead press exercises in this workout protocol utilizes different number of sets and reps in the exercises for every week. All the other exercises are performed with the same number of sets and reps, but are done using drop sets, giant sets and rest-pause training.  Use straight bar when performing bench presses, squats or deadlifts.

DAY 1

Barbell Bench Press: 3 sets x 12 reps

Seated Dumbbell Overhead Press: 3 sets x 15–20 reps

Pullup*: 4 sets x 8–10 reps

Dumbbell Shrug: 3 sets x 20 reps

Face-pull: 3 sets x 20 reps

Triceps Pushdown**: 3 sets, 20 reps

Wide-grip Pushup***: 1 set, 100 reps

* Finish the set by holding your chin over the bar on the last rep. Try holding as long as possible.

** Perform the pushdown either with overhand or underhand grip.

*** The pushups should be performed by placing your hands on dumbbells wider than shoulder. Execute them using the rest-pause protocol, with rest periods of no longer than 20 seconds.

 DAY 2

Barbell Squat: 4 sets x 8 reps

Barbell or Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift: 3 sets x 8–12 reps

Walking Lunge: 3 sets x 8 reps for each leg

***Wide-grip Barbell Shrug: 3 sets x 20 reps

***Rear Lateral Raise: 3 sets x 10-12 reps

***Lat Pulldown*: 4 sets x 15–20 reps

Barbell Curl**: 1 sets, 100 reps

* The lateral pulldown can be performed either with overhand or underhand grip.

** Use a bar with no weight. Execute them using the rest-pause protocol, with rest periods of no longer than 20 seconds.

***Do these exercises as a triset with minimal rest between them

DAY 3 – REST

DAY 4

Barbell Overhead Press: 5 sets x 5 reps

Wide-grip Pushup*: 3 sets x 20 reps

Seated Dumbbell Rear Lateral Raise: 3 sets x 10 reps***

Seated Dumbbell Internal/External Rotation: 3 sets x 10 reps***

Seated Dumbbell Lateral Raise: 3 sets x 10 reps***

Seated Dumbbell Front Raise: 3 sets x 10 reps***

Seated Row **: 6 sets x 2–20 reps

* Place hand on dumbbells when performing this exercise.

** Reduce the weight by 10 to 20 pounds after the first set and perform the last set by increasing the weight by 60 pounds.

***The four seated dumbbell exercises are performed as a giant set with as little rest as possible between each exercise.

DAY 5

Deadlift: 6 sets x 3 reps

Barbell Romanian Deadlift: 3 sets x 20 reps

Leg Curl: 3 sets x 20 reps

triset with Dumbbell Shrug: 3 sets, 20 reps and Pullup*: 4 sets x 5 reps

Back Extension (weighted): 3 sets x 12–20 reps

Lying Incline Dumbbell Rear Lateral**: 1 set  x 50 reps

* Perform the pullups with three to five seconds on the negative portion, followed by pulling uu as quickly as you can.

** Lie with your face down and use dumbbells that do not exceeded 30 pounds. Execute them using the rest-pause protocol, with rest periods of no longer than 20 seconds.

REDUCE THE PAIN

The delt workout can be really exhausting. We provide you with several pieces of advice on reducing the pain.

GOOD WARM UP

Warm up your chest, lats, upper back and triceps by performing a 30 seconds foam rolling for each of these muscles or muscle groups. Have in mind that the whole point of the warm up is to improve blood flow in your muscles preparing them for the real challenge. Avoid exhausting them in this stage.

Dumbbell Overhead Press: 1–2 sets x 10 reps

Dumbbell Lateral Raise: 1–2 sets x 10 reps

Dumbbell Front Raise: 1–2 sets x 10 reps

Dumbbell Bentover Lateral Raise: 1–2 sets x 10 reps

Cable Face-pull with External Rotation: 1 set x 20 reps

Pushup: 1–2 sets x 10 reps

IMPROVE YOUR BACK STRENGTH

A stronger back allows you to go heavier on the press. Performing the pullups, lat pulldowns and rows with increased volume will translate in better form and improved shoulder health.

ALTER THE ANGLE

You can reduce the pain of performing the seated dumbbell press by changing the angle – using high incline instead of 90 degrees angle. This change of angle also allows using greater loads, providing real workout for the delts.

PERFORM DUMBBELL PRESSES WITH NEUTRAL GRIP

Using a barbell forces you to place your wrists, elbow and shoulders in a fixed position. Using dumbbells instead will allow you to add minor variations of your press. By performing the press with neutral grip, you eliminate the pain that sets in your tendon with an overhand grip.