Working Out: Fast or Slow Reps?
- Thread starter Michaelm2
- Start date
Personally I say slow. Especially during the eccentric portion of the lift. Also when doing fast reps, its easy to allow gravity and momentum to do alot of the work instead of you.
Fast concentric will cause more muscle activation since you need to produce more force (to accellerate the weight) and thus more MUs have to be activated or more MUs have to increase their fireing rate.
If you want to get more time under tension I'd slow down the eccentric and do the concentric portion fast. Unless you use very little weight, the concentric portion shouldn't get so fast that you lose control. Maybe on the top of a bench press if your lockout is much stronger than your strength off the stomach, though.
If you want to get more time under tension I'd slow down the eccentric and do the concentric portion fast. Unless you use very little weight, the concentric portion shouldn't get so fast that you lose control. Maybe on the top of a bench press if your lockout is much stronger than your strength off the stomach, though.
http://training.fitness.com/weight-training/slow-reps-fast-reps-both-27511.html
Thats a link to the same question i asked back in the day
When i had little knowledge
It will answer your questions.
Thats a link to the same question i asked back in the day
When i had little knowledge
It will answer your questions.
karky what you are saying is correct but can be confusing to newbies.
if he is using enough weight ie 80 to 85% usually 5 to 8 reps then all fibres are recruited anyway,its only when using lighter weights that performing the exercise quicker (or to faliure) is needed to recruit all fibres.
all you are doing by slowing the exercise down is adding more TUT this would also mean you use less weight,and as load is the primary reason for hypertrophy then your defeating the object,if you want to ad TUT which is also a factor in hypertrophy just add another rep or set.
dont know about you but i couldnt be arsed counting that out with a heavy load on my back,especially as there is no need.
dont overcomplicate things just lift the fecking weights
karky what you are saying is correct but can be confusing to newbies.
if he is using enough weight ie 80 to 85% usually 5 to 8 reps then all fibres are recruited anyway,its only when using lighter weights that performing the exercise quicker (or to faliure) is needed to recruit all fibres.
all you are doing by slowing the exercise down is adding more TUT this would also mean you use less weight,and as load is the primary reason for hypertrophy then your defeating the object,if you want to ad TUT which is also a factor in hypertrophy just add another rep or set.
dont know about you but i couldnt be arsed counting that out with a heavy load on my back,especially as there is no need.
dont overcomplicate things just lift the fecking weights
It was merely an example of the tempo nothing complicated about it (for those of us who can count obviously) :cool3:
As usual, Buzz, you are correct, I should have been more specific:
by increased muscle activation I don't just mean MUs but also MU fireing rate.. I guess I should have stated, since they don't really both go into the term I used. My bad More fireing rate basically means more tension (at least during accelleration, which is a large part of most lifts since there isn't a lot of length in the human body) since the muscle contracts harder. I also think that by challenging the MU fireing rate you can teach yourself to fire faster in the future.. but I'm not 100% sure on that.
by increased muscle activation I don't just mean MUs but also MU fireing rate.. I guess I should have stated, since they don't really both go into the term I used. My bad
More fireing rate basically means more tension (at least during accelleration, which is a large part of most lifts since there isn't a lot of length in the human body) since the muscle contracts harder. I also think that by challenging the MU fireing rate you can teach yourself to fire faster in the future.. but I'm not 100% sure on that.