Repetitions In Muscle Building Exercises

An effective way for muscle building exercises is to alternate the speed of your repetitions. Super-slow reps increase the demands on the muscle fibers by lengthening the amount of time you spend in the exercise movement. Alternating super-slow reps with the more usual rep speed provides a wider range of stimulation that the muscle must adapt to.

In their quest for gaining muscle size, most athletes focus on the amount of weight they lift and the number of sets and repetitions they do. There is, however, another variable that needs to be taken into consideration: the speed of your repetitions.

Using Negatives When Doing Muscle Building Exercises…

Athletes usually perform their repetitions with a relatively explosive movement during the concentric phase of an exercise, which is when the muscle fibers become shorter. They then return to the starting position with a slower motion. This second part of the movement, during which the muscle fibers are lengthening, is called the eccentric phase. This technique can promote significant growth, provided that it is done correctly. The rapid contractions during the concentric phase build power and speed, while the "negatives" done during the eccentric phase place a different type of demand on the muscle as it resists the fall of the weight. However, you can't rely exclusively on this technique if you want to pack on maximum size.

When athletes reduce the speed of their repetitions, they usually increase the amount of time devoted to the eccentric phase. This can cause problems, however, because eccentric movements produce greater delayed muscle soreness than concentric movements. During a negative, fewer fibers are recruited for a particular muscular effort. This increases the tension produced per fiber, resulting in relatively greater microcellular damage to each individual fiber. A marked increase in the levels of certain muscle enzymes has also been noted in the blood after eccentric exercise, confirming that damage to the fibers has taken place. Excessive amounts of eccentric movements can even reduce the level of growth hormone produced. So, prolonged negatives are definitely not the way to slow your repetition speed.

Reducing The Speed Of Your Concentric Movements When Doing Muscle Building Exercises…

When gaining muscle size, a better alternative is to reduce the speed of your concentric movement. Instead of contracting the muscle as quickly as possible, slow the motion down. Start out by taking four seconds to lift the weight, then increase this time over several weeks until you take eight or even ten seconds to fully contract the muscle. This may seem like a minor modification, but try it sometime. Keeping the target muscle under tension for a longer period significantly increases the difficulty of the movement. At a bare minimum, the number of repetitions you do will drop. And if your new rep count is less than six, you will need to temporarily lower the weight you use. But don't despair. In time, your strength will increase enough to allow you to use your old weight again. Eventually, you will be able to add more weight. The slower rep speed also reduces momentum, which allows you to train safely at a very high intensity.

These super-slow reps are a better intensity variation than the old reliance on negatives. Dr. Richard Winett, editor of Master Trainer, calls super-slow reps "the most effective intensity builder I have ever tried." You will find that this technique helps gaining muscle size while producing less delayed muscle soreness than traditional negatives. It may seem a bit odd at first to do your repetitions in slow motion, but gaining muscle size will be the welcome result.