The process of building muscle is somewhat more complex and multi-faceted than just lifting heavy things up and down. It involves having an understanding of both nutrition, recovery and training principles. Unfortunately, unless you’re a strength & conditioning coach, personal trainer, or a movie star with their own team of performance guru’s it is often difficult wade through the reams of conflicting data to piece together all of the pieces of the puzzle for the complete picture. For my part, while I do not claim to be an expert in exercise physiology, unlike many people out there in the bloggersphere, I base my approach to sport & nutrition on research. As such, I’d like to use this post to give you another evidence-based piece of that puzzle that you can take and apply in your training program from TODAY.
The Concept:
The concept of Time Under Tension (TUT) is a reference to how long the muscle is under strain during a set. For example, an individual can pump out a quick 10 repetitions in approximately 15 seconds. However, there is a strength & conditioning camp that claims that by putting the muscle under a longer duration of strain – you can stimulate greater muscle growth. So what does the research say about this?
The Evidence:
It has been demonstrated, in resistance-trained young men, that lower intensity (30% of 1 rep max), higher volume (20 – 25 repetitions) resistance exercises performed until failure are equally effective in stimulating the rate of protein synthesis in the muscle as heavy intensity (90% 1RM), lower volume (5-6 repetitions) training. This result has been repeated in other studies, which have also suggested that lighter-load, high-volume training protocols may offer an equal if not better training stimulus for muscular adaptation than the traditional heavy-load, low-volume protocol. The culprits: greater time under tension, power, force and work output when the total volume of the exercise is equated. In other words, the key to muscle growth appears to be a progressive overload (increase) in the total tonnage moved during a particular bout of exercise.
The Application:
Certainly, increasing the time it takes to complete a set from 15-20 seconds to 30-40 seconds as a great way to recruit additional muscle fibres and stimulate new growth. By extending the time it takes you to complete sets, you may find yourself having to either drop the weight or decrease repetition ranges, in which case one should generally drop the weight. Another point to consider is that the body is remarkably adaptable therefore for optimal results, I suggest continuous changes to training protocols. For example:
Weeks 1 – 3: Traditional Heavy-Load, Low Volume Training (80-90% 1RM, 5-7 reps)
Weeks 4 – 6: Light-Load, High Volume Training (30% 1RM, 20 – 25 reps)
Weeks 7 – 9: Heavy-Load, Intermediate Volume Training (60-70% 1RM, 10-12 reps)
Weeks 10 – 13: Light-Load, High Intensity, Higher Volume (40-50% 1RM, 15 reps, 30 second rest intervals)
Reference:
Burd, N.A., West, D.W., Staples, A.W., Atherton, P.J., Baker, J.M., Moore, D.R., et al. (2010). Low load high volume resistance exercise stimulates muscle protein synthesis more than high load low volume resistance exercise in young men. PLoS ONE, 5(8):e12033. Doi: 10.1371.
Mohamad, N.I., Cronin, J.B., Nosaka, K.K. (2012). Difference in kinematics and kinetics between high and low velocity resistance loading equated by volume: implications for hypertrophy training. Journal of S&C Research, 26(1), 269-275.
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