After the installments on damage control to enhance the hypertrophy process, the subject of Speed Sets stood out…
I mentioned that the Old Man, Young Muscle workout has two regular sets followed by one or two Speed Sets for each muscle.
Instead of lifting in one second and lowering in three, speed sets consist of piston-like 1.5-second reps.
That means the more traumatic negative stroke on every rep of a speed set is NOT emphasized, so there’s less damage.
What’s interesting is that if you watch many of the pro bodybuilders train, they all do most of their sets with a fast cadence, like speed sets…
Even Arnold to this day trains that way…
Steroids aside, the question becomes: Is the de-emphasized negative stroke one reason they can get away with excess volume?
In other words, with speed-style sets, there is less damage, so you can do more sets for each muscle—less cumulative trauma.
Some bodybuilding “experts” have called the eccentric stroke “garbage negatives,” meaning they don’t really build muscle because you are much stronger on the negative…
That means the negative stroke is much lighter to the target muscle than the positive, so you do excess damage without much stimulation from the negative.
This is still up for debate. Just something to think about as perhaps one reason the OMYM workout, while packed with muscle-building efficiency and intensity, may have allowed faster growth due to less damage from the de-emphasized negatives on speed sets.
Sculpt your perfect physique: Get the ideal exercise for each muscle, the best stretch and contracted add-on moves for ultimate mass, complete 35-minute workouts, exercise start/finish photos, and details on building muscle fast and efficiently in Old Man, Young Muscle.
And you still get The Muscle-On, Belly-Gone “Diet” ebook FREE for a limited time when you add Old Man, Young Muscle to your mass-building library. Go HERE.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman
Former Editor in Chief, Iron Man Magazine
www.X-Rep.com
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