Slow and controlled on the negative and explosive on the positive is the best of both worlds it gives you time under tension and also recruits fast twitch muscle fibers.
Spot on. There is good reason why rehabilitation always use eccentrics to build up strength, mobility and range of motion through the weakpoints. However, the technique isn't just useful for rehabilitation. We are able to get more stimulus for hypertrophy with less stress on joints. If the goals are power and speed, I agree fully with your video.
Great video. Have always bee curious of this myself as I lift mainly for hypertrophy using a controlled eccentric and focusing on feeling the muscle rather than just lifting more weight as fast as I can
Another informative video! Thanks...there is no doubt that the duration of eccentric motion will have a direct effect on volume load, if not, one will struggle with the concentric motion and risk injury due to bad form specifically in a free weight scenario... As an older lifter, attempting heavy loads that used to be ok can now injury me...eccentric is a great way to still get hypertrophy without injury.
amazing videos as usual. love them. I'd love to hear more about Volume load as tons of apps will automatically track it and use it to show your progression. if I lifted 10,000 units of weight one day then 11,000 the next, that's a 10% gain, but is that even a useful statistic? Would love your thoughts
Great question. This is a debatable topic that requires nuance. In general, I don't like to use it as short-term metric because it can lead you to chase more load/reps. And this sometimes sacrifices technique, rest periods etc. Rather, it can be useful to look at long-term trends in performance, which is probably a more useful indicator of muscle growth 👍
Great video mate. I always listen to your videos when I’m at the gym, been here since very early on and it’s great to see you’re almost at 100k subs. I was wondering if you could make a video about the differences in strength improvements between someone who specific trains within the hypertrophic rep range versus someone who trains specifically between 1-6 reps. I’d also love to know whether strength training actually makes your muscles more ‘efficient’ per kilogram of muscle on someone’s body. For example, someone who only does strength training may not see as much muscle growth but they see more strength improvements and scientifically what benefits may this entail?
In short - yes, low-rep training can make you stronger per kg of bodyweight due to improvements in neural efficiency. Will definitely consider this for a future video 👍 Thanks for the support!
Maybe this has something to do with the fast and slow muscle fibers, as you may be training both types of fiber more with this system. I do try to lower the weights slower, but 4 seconds seems to be a bit to much and not really my cup of tea. Now, talking on these fast and slow muscle fibers, some say you can train both muscle fibers types by cycling your reps, 1 week 3-5 reps, 1 week 5-12 reps, 1 week 12-25 reps, maybe a video on this could be interesting . Cheers
That video was awesome, and I would like to see if there are any article comparing high volume versus low volume with high tempo in the training for muscle growth (emphasizing that both have the same duration in the training performed).
I adapted this to my training today but it made me wonder. I could do less reps, obviously. Why would 8 reps with slower movement be more effective for hypertrophy than faster movement but more reps (12)? They both fatique the muscle equally. I wonder if the researchers took this to consideration?
This is something I alluded to in the volume load section at 13:29. I don't think rep performance is necessarily predictive of how effective a training session was. I would just focus on training close to failure with strict form and a controlled eccentric tempo - and allow rep performance to drop if required 👍
I wonder if one of the reasons slower eccentric phases positively affect muscle growth is because loaded eccentric movement is such a novel stimulus to so much of the population both trained and untrained. Also I'd imagine the total force produced by the muscle in a set to failure is significantly higher with the added slow eccentric movement compared with lifters who allow the weight to drop fast and are somewhat giving their muscle a 1 second "rest" between repetitions. Perhaps this is analagous to a runner sprinting for 10 seconds and walking for 10 vs a runner who runs quite fast continously only changing his speed by a few kmph at every 10 second interval. I wonder have studies measured and compared total work output from sets with fast vs slow eccentric movement?
very interesting concept, something I haven't considered. I also haven't seen any research comparing total work output as a result of fast vs slow eccentric tempo 🤔
although the colorado experiment was widely debunked, i wonder if this brings merit to some of the theories it proposed. very slow eccentric movements on machines to bypass cardiac limitations seems to sounds plausible to maximize hypertrophy
"Very Slow" eccentrics coupled with 110% - 120% of your 1RM (known as Supramaximal Training) is often used to break through a strength plateau...not sure what benefit, if any, it has directly on muscle growth, but getting stronger at your top end often equates to increased capacity for weight lifted in the mid range/high rep region which has to have a pronounced effect on hypertrophy longer term, no?
@@FlowHighPerformance1 Not really. It just takes a bit of adjustment. Plus it's only one very slow rep of about 8 seconds. You bench within a squat/power rack slowly down to chest level pins and/or using a slingshot to get you out of the bottom. You squat down slowly to low pins on back squat. You push press more than you can strict press above your head and slowly lower to the starting point or suitably raised pins in the squat rack. Deadlift is a bit harder. Amassing weight at the top of the lift (without two eager helpers leading plates on for you) escapes me for the moment. So doing overloaded rack pulls from around the knee and lowering them in the upper portion of the lift is having to suffice.
Haven't seen any data specifically compared different time under tension durations. However, I generally look at TUT as a result of rep ranges and tempo. If you lift somewhere within the approximate 5-20 rep range and train with a controlled eccentric tempo, I think you will be meeting the minimum TUT duration (if there is such a thing) 👍
Yes, it might be over-thinking for the general public. However, I think it is at least worth understanding that you should somewhat control the eccentric 👍
Disagree with initial comment, eccentric tempo manipulation is very easy to practice and makes a meaningful difference to a goal. It requires very little thinking and has demonstrated benefits.
I feel like the point of videos like this is setting up information diffusion, and being a well-studied backdrop to anybody who questions it. So yes 90% won't watch, but the 10% that do mention to their friend "control the eccentric!" or some other reduced-form translation of the video and all of a sudden you have people following generally good practices. No need to memorize every shred of the video
