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Increasing The
Effectiveness Of Muscle
Building Exercises By
Focusing On
Repetitions
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.
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.
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.
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