Thank you for being extremely educational in every single video. I don’t think we thank you enough for all the work that you put into your videos. You are a natural teacher and very enjoyable to learn from.
Dude, thank you so much for this series. Seriously! I've been training for somewhat around 2 years now. I've also been feeling insecure and overwhelmed with the whole thing since the start. Every time I tried to inform myself in the internet it just got worse. There's just so much information and opinions and I didn't know what's right, what's wrong, what's important and what not so much. I had no idea what to do. I've just had personal trainers make plans for me every now and then and then followed them. I didn't even know whether they were really working or not, but was scared to modify them because I didn't "understand" them. And when I did modify something, I didn't know how and why to change which things, so I wasn't even sure whether the change was good or not. A few months ago I found your channel and discovered this series a little later. I think you may have changed my life! (at least a bit) These videos have been very informative and helpful to me. They were easy to follow and understand and it all made sense. You seem very informed, intelligent, humble and you have a great body. This and the fact that you're so interested in science and take your information from scientific research or back your claims up with it makes you seem very trustworthy! After watching this series I think I finally know and understand the basics. While watching I also realized that I already know more than I thought, I just wasn't sure whether my "knowledge" was right or not before. But now I feel competent and confident enough to start working out by myself, make and modify my own training routines, listen to my body and experiment without the overwhelming fear of doing something "the wrong way" (turns out I already was doing a lot of things the wrong way anyway, so I can change that now). I'm excited and motivated to try what I learned! THANK YOU!!
I totally agree about the eccentric movements because it allows you to really control the weight and allows me to have more mind muscle connection in my lifts. Love the series Jeff!
@@mikakoivisto6504 apparently the burn means nothing. All that matters is a decent tension with volume. Can kind of confirm that a pump doesn’t seem to actually do anything but who knows. Lol
@Jeff Nippard The Fundamental series are my favorite videos. Please continue more. I've attained so much new information that will improve my exercises and strength. Thank you!
I don’t comment often but I wanted to definitely thank you for this series. This distilled understanding you are teaching is perfect. Digestible and effective. I know what I am doing now going into the gym with a plan. Thank you.
BEST...PLAYLIST...EVER. Been watching you everyday before I workout mate...I'm supposed to workout 4 days a week...but I'm so pumped lately it's been 5 or 6. I know that goes counter to your advice lol...all is I'm saying is you kick ass and get us all ready to get healthy. thanks for your work mate.
Safety/Form: It is correct that proper form involves control of the resistance through the entire range of motion. However, proper form is *not* necessarily a full range of motion, and there are reasons to specifically avoid certain ranges of motion (for both safety and efficiency). Safety is really about one thing: minimizing the *force* involved. Excess force causes injury, but we don't know what that threshold is until we exceed it, which is too late. As for repetition cadence as relates to *only* increasing muscular size/strength, it doesn't really matter. Stimulus for adaptation in size/strength is based on overload, meaning placing an increased demand on the target musculature. In practice, this is a matter of performing strength training activities to a high degree of *intensity* (muscular output relative to maximum possible muscular output at a given time). When strength training activities are taken to the same level of *intensity* and controlled for equal Time Under Load (this is important!), the results are pretty much the same. The "super slow" repetitions that take 10 seconds or longer (which is really a moderate cadence, not a notably slow one) are not worse for size/strength. The studies done that come to such conclusions make the mistake of comparing cadences based on mechanical work (number of repetitions) rather than Time Under Load, but the ones that standardize on Time Under Load find no appreciable difference. The misunderstanding of mechanical work is a common one, and we'll see this lack of physics knowledge come up again. As for cadence notation, those of us who have used notations as such don't quite write it that way or with those categorizations. The four phases of a repetition are (in order used in cadence notation): lifting (concentric), transition from lifting to lowering, lowering (eccentric), and transition from lowering to lifting. Understanding these phases is important, as the proper execution of a repetition has specific considerations for all of those phases for every strength training activity. As for "specific goals," there is only one goal: to increase muscular strength. "Power" is an invalid goal, because muscles do not produce mechanical power, they produce force. There is no such thing as "explosive force", there is just force. Speed of movement is a byproduct of the force applied and the amount of mass, so someone can be "exploding" (contracting as hard as possible) with *very* slow movement. It is a common mistake for people to attempt to use mechanical work/power as metrics of muscular output. This comes from a lack of understanding of physics, which is (unfortunately) very common in the exercise industry. This is reinforced when he says "eliminate momentum." Whenever an object (mass) is in motion, it has momentum, so it cannot be eliminated. Much of what he is saying is based on the mistaken approach of assuming that the goal of strength training is to lift the weight. Nearly everyone makes this mistake, in assuming the goal is to do something to the weight with your muscles - that is *demonstration* of strength/fitness. *Development* of strength/fitness is doing something to your muscles with the weight. So what should people actually do? When I instruct people on performing repetitions, I advocate a general cadence of *no faster* than 4 seconds lifting, 4 seconds lowering, and 2 seconds in transition from lowering to lifting (this phase of a repetition has the greatest risk for injury due to the physics and physiology of that portion of the activity). It is common for people performing proper strength training to use cadences anywhere from 4-10 seconds each for lifting and lowering. These cadences don't make the training more *effective* though, but that is only one of the criteria of proper strength training. Proper strength training also aims to maximize *efficiency* and *safety* , and these criteria are where proper cadences make significant differences.
I can say he's the only person I take advice for gym coaching. It is because he is science and research based, and being a natural body builder. Thank you putting all of that! I personally have benefited a lot from his programs and guidance.
I would like to thank Jeff for taking so much efforts and giving so much time to create this fundamental series. This series has cleared almost all of my doubts.🙏🙏🙏
4 : 0 4 : 0 might be best for preventing injury. Force = mass x acceleration. So if your going slow you have less acceleration and less force on your joints. Thanks for the informative video 🙂🤙
I think that could be right, but probably even with just 2 or 3 seconds of eccentric, you are slow enough. Also, I think the concentric is not that harmful if you handled the eccentric correctly and are in an optimal position to push (or pull or whatever) so you can be faster. For example, I train in some compound movements with maximal intent on the concentric in order to develop strenght and explosiveness (lifting heavy weights with maximal intent increase power even if the weight is not actually moving fast) but my eccentric is every time at least 2 seconds in order to control it and being in a strong position. If you have like 80%RM or more on your back during a squat, getting ass to grass in just 1 second is too fast, and you're likely going to miss something. If you slow down, you have the time to think about your cues, and you'll find yourself in a strong position in the bottom; from there, you can push as hard as you can because you are tight, with the weight correctly on you feet etc.
You have to get 2 seconds contraction as a general guideline... But If you do Only Free weight exercises then 0 seconds pause is the way... Like Bench, Squat, Barbell Curls. But Supinated grip Lat pulldown, rows, Cable Pushdowns may benefit from 2 seconds contraction as the weight tension is still on to the muslces and not the joints as in most free weight exercises... Still there are exercises with free weights where there can be 2 seconds pause at contraction like Bent over fly, Lateral Raise, etc. As we have three types of strength, Concentric, Static & Eccentric... The exercises providing Static strength may be beneficial without getting stress at the joints.
Watched/listened to one of jeffs more recent videos/podcasts (can’t remember which I heard it from) he cited a paper which showed that a FAST concentric on a bench showed an increase in strength gains compared to a slower one, but with basically identical hypertrophy. Just a little tip ;)
As a complete beginner to weight training and gym, this series has really broadened my knowledge to these fundamentals and now I don't feel lost and confused. Not gonna lie, your chill vibe and body language and way of explaining really make it so much more interesting and enjoying to watch which in turn helps me take in every word that you say. Other videos I've seen they just seem to sound so aggressive and serious and loud sometimes and I end up losing some of what's being said. I'll definitely be learning a lot more since finding you senpai 🙌🙌
I love the channel. You and Steph have the best information on exercise on YT I think. I would love it if you did a video on calisthenics, what the science says about it, and who it would be for based on their fitness goals.
From study cited: Findings suggest that training at volitionally very slow durations (>10s per repetition) is inferior from a hypertrophy standpoint, although a lack of controlled studies on the topic makes it difficult to draw definitive conclusions.
Loved the Science-applied series, love the Fundamental series as well! About the bench press though, personally I like to squeeze my chest at the top when bench pressing!
@Balder van de Vijfeijken I agree, but this is only if the load is very heavy. Try to squeeze with retracted scapula, I believe you will feel it much better.
@Balder van de Vijfeijken I don't know how well developed your chest or your mind muscle connection is. But you can certainly feel the squeeze in chest even with properly retracted shoulder blades. If you're forcing your shoulder blades in without focusing on chest, you're doing excessive tricep work. A good mind muscle connection with chest does makes you feel the squeeze in chest.
This was a really helpful series... I wish I came across this earlier... Instead of talking information as small packets, I got everything and filled the gaps I had no idea existed...
This series has been amazing. I'm trying to get more serious about my lifting and this has been helpful. I'm definitely going to be purchasing your program. Thank you
Enjoy the content and the different series - would be nice to organize these into RU-vid playlist so you could link the entire playlist to expose people to older videos from the beginning.
Hey Jeff, great video as usual. Thanks for breaking down tempo. Just a few questions: 1. If tempo between 0.5 and 8 seconds is statistically insignificant for hypertrophy, why would you alter tempo at all? (apart from the fact that you'd want to control technique and train for sports specificity) For the average Joe, would it not be better to just reserve the energy you would use from slowing the tempo and just simply perform extra reps for more optimal muscle gain? 2. A lot of the time powerlifters and olympic lifters train by pausing at the bottom of their reps (most of the time due to the specificity of their sport). Has there been any research to suggest that training with pauses has any significance on strength increase? Hope to here from ya!
This is just a study that shows the same hypertrophy gains at different times. In any case, the fact that hypertrophy gains are similar is an advantage in favor of slow tempo reps. Since the possibilities of injury are reduced a lot, and that is already a reason important enough to use slow repetitions. I personally believe that the repetitions of slow time are superior in every sense, since they eliminate the moment and the inertia generated in the movement.
@@JDEG100 good point on injury risk. I feel your right about longer times when bodybuilding. but in the case of training for sport maximum force production is a skill that one must develop through practice therefore giving merit to fast contractions. if you where to train with slow times and then try to express that strength in a sport using fast contractions you would find that you would generate far less power, also while attempting to express that strength with speed you would be at a greater risk of injury in those instances due to a lack of force production practice. therefore it is in that sense safer for athletes to use fast contractions in a controlled gym setting to prepare themselves for the demands of there sport. their is no one size fits all for any weightlifting parameter.
@@davidhandley1647 With respect to the expression of power, there is not cientific evidence that show at a higher speed of movement better activation of the fast motor units. Actually what determines the type of motor unit used is the production of force required (ratio of force). We can activate and exhaust all the muscle fibers (slow, intermediate, fast) in an action where there is no movement, as long as the required force is high (isometric work). Maybe at a neural level we need a more specific adaptation to express the force quickly, anyway I dont think that translates to a specific skill required for a certain sport( better power and speed in a bench press or clean transferred in more velocity for a punch), I think in that case it is best practice a certain skill. Improving the strength of a muscle also improves the expression of power and speed, it's not necessary to do quick lifts to improve the speed of a specific sport skill, unless it is powerlifting or weightlifting. I hope you can understand me, it costs me quite the English language, but I understand your point.
@@JDEG100you’re mostly right, except that you miss one crucial feature of the studies: they’re equated for volume which is absolutely essential for science since you want to be able to effects of volume from that of the different training modalities (like rep speed), but not realistic for practical purposes. Equated for volume, doing slower reps definitely is superior since you get equal hypertrophy with a slightly lower injury risk, but doing faster reps allows you to do more volume which is a huge benefit. People make similar mistakes when they read studies that correctly show that controlled for volume, a higher training frequency doesn’t lead to increased hypertrophy and conclude that there’s no point after all to increase training frequency as long as you keep the sets in a given session below 8-10 while missing that the main benefit of increasing training frequency is allowing greater volume.
Hey Jeff, been watching your vids for quite some time now and I love them! I just wanted to point out you should consider to turn off Auto-Focus on the camera for vids like this one where you use a whiteboard in the main focus. Cheers from Norway!
Seriously Great Series. I knew these topics by watching a lot of videos. When Knowing about fitness It was much needed. Completed Full Series. Thank You
Internet is full of videos on body building but no one simplifies things as you did for a beginner. Love and Respect from India!! Plz make a video on Breathing Technique and how can we use it to train optimally.
Very interesting...personally I think a brief pause, maybe half a second, during the amortization phase at the top and bottom of most movements can dramatically lower joint and connective tissue fatigue. So I think my generic go to is something like 2 : 0.5 : 1 : 0.5
Jeff, awesome video as always but content such as this might be slightly more engaging if you included some example training clips of executing the technique in the gym. Keep up the great work!
I see pros and cons to 'enhanced eccentrics.' A possible pro would be it increases Time under Tension, but i hesitate to say pro since i'm not aware of a study yet that shows a strong correlation between time under tension (isolated from other factors) and hypertrophy. But i do believe it can help people attempting to establish a stronger mind/muscle connection, which is especially helpful with some body parts people have trouble activating, such as lats. On the negative side, this extra eccentric time is robbing you of energy that could be spent on an additional concentric rep or two, perhaps a few reps. Also, your body can handle a much larger load eccentrically than it can with concentric, so you aren't really challenging the muscle either. It could almost be considered busy work, but not the type of stress that would elicit an adaptive response . So you have to know what your goals are for a particular exercise and experiment. In most cases, i would rather have a shorter controlled tempo let me hit 11 or 12 reps, vs a longer eccentric where i can only hit 8 to 9 reps. It definitely wouldn't hurt during your last set when your energy and performance are going to be lessened anyway, and you are trying to maximize amount of work performed thru different pathways.
Please do me a favour and talk about Full body programs. I really need so much information for it. Talk about how should you structure the full body program, its pros and cons, the volume and how should you put the exercises in it. And also it would be great if you do an example of how you would do your full body training split
Excellent video. Been wondering for a while the meanings behind certain tempos and their benefits from different styles. Nice to see this lecture format.
I've only found your channel recently and am very impressed so far. I've never thought about tempo in these terms before, but I suppose that I mostly stick to 2:0:1:0. I might play around with some of your suggestions.
I've always used 4:2:4:2 (recommended to me by several personal trainers) and I think watching this video might be a real gamechanger for me...my workouts were taking so unnecessarily long and always felt really dragged. I'm excited to try a faster pace. And even more excited about the fact that it's probably better than what I was doing anyway.
Can you do a video on triphasic training please ? I heard it's great for increasing 1RM specifically. And it makes you more injury resistent because of the eccentric and isometric phase
If you ever come to Munich i would like to invite you for dinner. Thank you so so much for sharing all your great content. All the best for your future goals :)
Ive just started working out and I needed this , I’m 23 and I hadn’t worked out for 5 years cause the first time I started working out I was just 18 well I did work out for 6 months and then I had to give it up because of my long shift work and I couldn’t find the time for it till now , not that I’m so out of shape for I’m 6 ft and just 185 pounds but I’m looking for a new life style now that I have the time for it
Thank you for doing this fundamental series! I'm a beginner, and without all this info i felt very intimidated about where to start, and if i was on the riggt track.
I guess those nutrition videos are never coming, then, huh... But in all seriousness, great series. Watched a few years ago, and just gave it a quick rewatch on 1.5x speed.
I found incorporating hiit into my weight lifting regiment when I was losing 100 pounds to be as effective as two separate workouts which is what I preach to my homies on youtube!
Catbus Driver LOL no. When you're weightlifting your heart rate doesn't go high enough to be HIIT. People always neglect the first two letters in that acronym. HIGH INTESITY interval training. Sprint like you're running from a ravenous dog for 30 seconds, then walk for 30 seconds. Take a look at your heart rate, should be 140 plus, my heart rate never goes over 100 while weight lifting. If you're doing it right, you shouldn't be able to do more than 10-15 sets, 15-20 minutes max.
Hey Jeff! Awesome Video my friend, loving the whole series man. just one quick question: Why are you using auto focus when filming? Sometimes I find it quite irritating. Why don't you put a manual focus on your whiteboard, since you are standing right next to it anyhow.Thank you, greetings from Germany
Tempo is often ignored by so many people. But I find, both with clients and myself, that having a tempo in mind can be key to helping someone focus and concentrate through their reps.
Hi Jeff, first of all my compliments for a great channel. I really like your videos because they are well researched and you present everything in a very clear and pleasant style, clearly distinguishing between science-based results and your personal experience/opinion. I have watched most of your videos and have learned a lot. I have a question and that is why you never seem to mention "Time under tension". This is a popular concept I have seen a lot, but if I am not mistaking you never mention it. From the wide range of tempos and the wide range of reps in a previous video, it seems to be that the time under tension can be anywhere from 12 seconds (6 reps * 2 seconds) to 2 minutes (15 reps * 8 seconds), provided that the weight is sufficient to end up sufficiently close to failure? So is TUT a myth to be busted?
so the metanalysis stats that there‘s no difference in hypertrophy between 0.5 and 8sec but how did they consider the amount of weight they lifted and how many sets they did. otherwise it isnt really comparable. so e.g: if i have a overall time under tension for 4sec with 80kg or 40kg for 8sec how do they relate?
I feel like there should be a coefficient to the constant of which is the size of the muscle. What I mean, is you shouldn’t be doing the same up/down time for exercises like calf raises (small amount of motion) versus say flies (greater amount of motion.)
Hey Jeff! In your fundamental hypertrophy program, why are the main compound movements only thrown in once a week? Is there any reason for this? Also, do you think microloading is effective for the bench press and OHP? Keep up these amazing videos!
Tempos are everything. You have never truly worked if you have never tried a 4-1-2-1 tempo. Using tempos definitely activates the muscles and muscle mind connection bringing about growth very easily
Jeff awesome video, really helpful ! One year later have you maybe change your mind towards tempo training? just asking, because I'm watching many Poliquin (and others) followers implementing tempo training into their workout regimes.
Slow Tempo ( TUT ) → Work Load ( weight ) ↓ → Work Volume ( sets x reps x weight )↓ → Not significant Growth with submaximal weights , there is less muscle fibers recruitment especially Type II ,even with fatigue sets
