The slower your reps, the more your muscles grow

**Prince** · 01-06-2012, 12:15 PM

The slower your reps, the more your muscles grow

Research done by Nicholas Burd, a sports scientist in the Stuart Phillips stable, may well radically change the way we do strength training in the coming decade. Then again, it might not work. Nevertheless, 'muscle time under tension' looks set to become a familiar concept, and one we can't ignore.

We first reported on Burd's research in the summer of 2010. The subject then was a study in which men who had trained with just 30 percent of their maximal weight – doing 20-30 reps – had built more muscle proteins than men who had trained in the traditional way.

The researchers' theory is that weight isn't the most important factor in strength training, or at least not the only important factor. Equally important is 'muscle time under tension': the amount of time that muscles are placed under tension during weight lifting. Elite trainer Charles Poliquin has been telling that yor years. [charlespoliquin.com]

The researchers will now soon publish the results of their latest study in The Journal of Physiology, in which they subjected the left and right legs of strength athletes to two different workouts. They got the men to train one leg on a leg-extension machine, using weights at 30 percent of their 1RM. The men had to perform the movements slowly, taking 6 seconds for both the concentric and the eccentric movement. The men trained at failure and did 3 sets. [SLOW]

With the other leg the men had to perform the same number of sets, with the same weight. But they performed these movements 'normally' and therefore didn't train at failure. [CTL]

Immediately after the workout the subjects drank a shake containing 20 g whey, and another one 24 hours later.

The workout with the slow reps resulted in the highest muscle protein synthesis – the researchers saw this when they examined cells they had extracted from the leg muscles of the test subjects. This was true for both the contracting myofibrillar protein [the protein in the muscle fibres] and the mitochondrial protein [the cells' power packs]. The latter suggests that strength training with slow reps may be interesting for endurance athletes too.

The figure above shows how slow-rep strength training results in enhanced muscle protein synthesis. Electrode measurements show that the slow-rep sets induced more muscle fibres to be used in the movement.

"These results suggest that the time the muscle is under tension during exercise may be important in optimizing muscle growth", the researchers write. "This understanding enables us to better prescribe exercise to those wishing to build bigger muscles and to prevent muscle loss that occurs with aging or disease."

Perhaps we shouldn't write off the super-slow method just yet…

Source:
J Physiol. 2011 Nov 21. [Epub ahead of print].

**ThreeGigs** · 01-06-2012, 03:34 PM

Bogus research. Sorry.

One leg was **TRAINED TO FAILURE**, the other was not trained to failure.

The leg that was trained to failure grew more.

Therefore, training to failure is better than not training to failure.

Same data, different conclusion. That shouldn't be possible in a well-designed experiment.

**vancouver** · 01-06-2012, 03:44 PM

I'd like to see the same study done for 1-2 seconds concentric and 6 seconds eccentric vs. 6 seconds in both direction...

**bjg** · 01-06-2012, 04:15 PM

from experience what suits me the best is lifting relatively fast on positive and slow on negative like trying to be explosive on positive and release slowly i would say 2-3 sec positive depending on weight used then 4-6 sec negative something like that.
i have tried slow reps a while back for a long time and did not see any benefits except wasting time.
The idea is:
to 1st make the muscle call on all the muscle fibers to work
then 2nd the load should be big enough to make those fibers split and multiply.
as you start lifting a group of fibers work at a time not all the muscle and when these fibers are getting tired (not enough nutrient supply) other fibers will come to help until all the fibers of the muscle are used.
If you lift heavy for a short period like 2-3 reps lets say you will make the fibers split(break down) but not all of them not enough time to call on all the fibers, you will get stronger with low increase in size
if you lift lighter for 8 reps and fast with good acceleration is almost like doing 2-3 reps heavy same effect (almost depending on how explosive you are).
if you lift light but slow many reps you will have time to hit all the fibers but not much growth no splitting except for a beginner which is the case of the study probably.
so the muscle growth depends on two variables: Time and load.
using weights that could be lifted 7-10 reps relatively fast in positive and slow in negatives will ensure the best of both ( note you cannot lift slowly 7-10 reps if you can then you need to increase the weight).

**awhites1** · 01-06-2012, 04:51 PM

Originally Posted by Prince

Research done by Nicholas Burd, a sports scientist in the Stuart Phillips stable, may well radically change the way we do strength training in the coming decade. Then again, it might not work.

LMAO. I was like ok way to hype your story.

HUGE BREAKTHROUGH.... or not.

I'm not much of a believer in claims like this. I'm sure like any other training method it's got it's place but that's just it, as a niche of someone's workout.

**ontopthegame85** · 01-06-2012, 05:14 PM

Why fix it if it ain't broken

**pjreiff** · 01-06-2012, 08:02 PM

interesting Mike Mentzer training video on youtube.

**Ziggy1333** · 01-06-2012, 08:16 PM

Slow down fast up all the way

**CowPimp** · 01-07-2012, 07:24 AM

That's interesting, but there's some problems with the setup of this study. First of all, the second group performed sets using 30% of their 1RM not going to failure. It's not surprising that this didn't result in much. I wonder what the difference would have been supposing that this group performed a very high number of repetitions and went to failure.

The other issue is there's no comparison to more traditional loading parameters. I wonder how the effects are relative to a more traditional 3x8 @ 75% kind of scheme.

There's also no indication of the training status of the individuals. If they're beginners, this is less telling. There's already research out there indicating that as little as 40% of the 1RM can promote some of the adaptations to strength training in a novice lifter. There's also research indicating that over time, as one's training status increases, the minimum intensity threshold necessary to see adaptation increases. Therefore, training slowly and at a low intensity may produce some results in novice lifters, but become less useful with training age.

What this study does say is that it's not just total work performed that makes the muscle respond. However, that was sort of already established since studies have been done showing the importance of the eccentric phase in producing results, and other studies showing adaptation resulting from isometric movements.

Nonetheless, I would be curious to see more research done in this area using a variety of intensities, different control group parameters, and with more advanced lifters. It certainly makes it worth pursuing, I'm just not jumping to any conclusions yet.

**Powermaster** · 01-07-2012, 08:02 AM

^^^ agree. 30% of their 1RM is a joke.
None the less this is an interesting point:
"The workout with the slow reps resulted in the highest muscle protein synthesis"
Other studies have reported explosive sets increase hormonal responses.
Putting both together supports the theory that non linear periodization training is more effective for both hypertrophy and strength.

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