A colleague recently asked me what I thought about using slow-motion reps on the first set…
“Funny you should ask,” I said. “I experimented with that last year and found that the method worked well.”
That’s because, like a 20-rep set, a slo-mo set does a good job of pre-fatiguing the slow-twitch fibers so that the standard sets after kick in the fast-twitch fibers more efficiently.
You still need to keep your rests short between sets, however—around 20 seconds—if your goal is to get that efficiency-of-effort effect.
So how do you perform slo-mo reps? I like the X-centric style—that is, slow only on the eccentric, or negative.
With that style, you lift in one to two seconds and lower in six, shooting for 10 reps. That will give you at least 70 seconds of tension time on the target muscle, right about what you get with a 20-rep set.
I’ve found that the X-centric style has a somewhat different feel on the muscle than higher reps with a normal tempo—and that’s a good thing from a hypertrophy standpoint.
I usually get some noticeable soreness the next day, even with just one set. It may be that moving slowly on the negative has a unique effect on fiber activation or perhaps recruitment order.
Either way, it’s worth using every few workouts for some “change to gain.”
Simply substitute the one-second-lifting-six-seconds-lowering on the first set for a target muscle for nine reps or so. That is, use it instead of the 20-rep sets in the workouts listed in the new ebook, Old Man, Young Muscle.
X-centric is a great tweak to add some new muscle size to your physique.
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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