REP SPEED. Does anyone give any though to it. IT MATTERS

zx9rjas

Hello all

I thought I waould start this thread to find out how many of us out there give thought to rep speed.

What timing do you use?

Have you never thought of timing?

What speed have you found that works best for you?

Do you differ your speed for different muscle groups.

Do you vary it?

I know there are alot of questions but I think its a valid point to discuss and seriously effects your results.

J

Dunno what's right but this works for me:
1-2 secs positive rep and 3-5 secs slow return/negative rep with slow as poss. on final failure rep.

Anonymous

i'm more like 1 sec +ve and 2 secs -ve, (i always try to do the -ve portion twice as slow as the +ve), i find going super slow like 3 secs plus really can mess my flow up, i find it best to control the weight but bang it out fast as possible! as thats how you build power

i try n' stick to that unless i'm on my last rep to failiure! in which case its like 5 secs +ve and 0.2 secs -ve! (in other words drop the weight) coz i'm so ****ed after gettin that damm last rep out!

Anonymous

tbh i did use to try and do 1 second on the psitive and 2 seconds on the negative.

on most exercises,except on squats and deadlifts, i dont really no if it worked or not really,as i didnt monitor my progress back then.

i must be doing about 1.5 on the pos and negative now,or near enough.(just a guess this is)

what about yourself j? you started this one fellar

zx9rjas

I have experimented with the reps speed after talking to a real expert (he knows his stuff)

I used to just work as quick as I can and this would have been 1+ 1-

But after talking with him he opened my eyes to the importance of it and how you can build both fast and slow twitch muscle fibres.

He taught me to control my descent as this increases your strength far greater that uncontrolled.

He stated that sudies were done that found following a 2 seconds + and a 4 seconds - gave the most hypertrophy, whereas 1 second + and 3 seconds - gave the most strength.

I tried the 4-2 for about a month and saw good gains but it did nothing for strength. I then followed the 1-3 and found my strength increase greatly and also grew alot faster.

Having read many articles and information the general concensus among pro's and experts is to follow the 1-3 pattern.

He said muscle growth comes from weight+time under load rather than pushing a weight too fast.

However for power training of 3-5 reps it is important to follow a 1-1 pattern to develop the fast twitch fibres and improve muscle power.

J

Anonymous

interesting stuff j, i might try it out

giblets

Just like to add to this..

i've been using the 1+3- for sometime now and It does work.

I initially started out at the start of october being able to curl 15kg Per arm ( i know, bit of a weed). But after 8 weeks of alternating my arm training but keeping with the 1+3- I can now curl 12 reps at 25kg and my arms have grown by 1/2" in size.

I do actually monitor what I'm doing and I was impressed by the gains I had made.

I train my arms once a week, with secondary training from my Back/Chest day.

So, with my inexperience, I would recommend people to try it. Patience is the game.

zx9rjas

It does work and you do see great results. The thing I had to get used to was as you are following a slower tempo the weight that you would normally use for a set drops slightly. The slower descent really takes it out of you and you feel the burn.

Also, I found that as you are having to concentrate on the movement it helped me focus on the muscles being worked. This was most evident on my back workouts when sometimes you use too much momentum on the pulling phase, such as lat pulldowns. I found that I could feel every muscle working on my back when pulling and getting a great squeeze.

J