If you’ve been a bodybuilder for decades like us, you may remember Nautilus-machine creator Arthur Jones say this about muscle-building repetitions…
When it comes to rep speed, if in doubt, go slower, never faster.
Jones recommended two to three seconds to lift a weight and four to five seconds to lower it. That was to discourage any momentum or tension release from the muscle fibers.
More recent research has verified that a slow rep speed is best for muscular-growth stimulation. But not quite as slow as Jones’ recommendation…
The best hypertrophic rep speed has been found to be lifting in one to two seconds and lowering in three. So four to five seconds per rep; however…
In the new Old Man, Young Muscle ebook, sprinkled through the workouts, are Speed Sets—each rep lasting only about 1.5 seconds—that’s the total for lifting and lowering.
Why? Faster reps seem counterintuitive to efficiently stimulating the muscle, but they can actually supercharge hypertrophy…
Muscle-training researcher Brad Schoenfeld, Ph.D., has this to say about speed reps:
Altering the style of training may affect changes in serial hypertrophy. Increases in fascicle length have been reported in athletes who replace heavy resistance training with high-speed training. These findings suggest that performing concentric actions with maximal velocity may promote the addition of sarcomeres in series even in those with considerable training experience.
That’s exciting stuff because you can get another “layer” of growth working in sets with faster reps, even if you’re advanced. And in fact, you often see advanced competitive bodybuilders using piston-like rep speeds…
As late Olympic coach Charles Poliquin said, one of the least used hypertrophic stimulators is changing rep tempo…
So, you’ll find strategically placed Speed Sets in the Old Man, Young Muscle workouts.
That’s not to suggest that you should do them on every set or throw the weight—no heaving or jerking allowed unless you want to pad your orthopedist’s bank account.
Maintain complete control, but move fast—about 1.5 seconds per rep…
And avoid speed reps on dangerous exercises, especially those that put the target muscle into full stretch, like semi-stiff-legged deadlifts or dumbbell flyes.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com
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