If It's Lean Muscle You Want, Slow Down!
How Slow Rep Intensity Revitalizes & Optimizes Your Workouts
Jul 26, 2009
Bodybuilders, weight lifters and fitness enthusiasts alike are all on a never ending search for greater results in regard to their daily workouts. Satisfaction is hard to come by when it comes to training with weights, cardiovascular training and optimal eating plans. As with most elements in life, resistance training takes on new challenges when normal circumstances change. Sometimes the greatest results are experienced when a slower pace is kept. There are some great ways of utilizing the slowing down process in the gym.
Accentuating the Negative Side of a Repetition
During resistance training, each repetition performed is made up of two different parts; the positive part and the negative part. The positive part of a repetition is the actual pushing or pulling of the weight, while the negative part refers to the lowering or letting go of the weight. For instance, during the performance of a pressing movement, the act of pushing or pressing the weight away from the body is the positive part of the work. The negative work is represented by the act of allowing the weight to return to its starting point by lowering it back towards the body.
Most weight trainers focus solely on the positive side of a repetition, while ignoring the negative part of a movement. The first step towards implementing slow rep training into a given routine is to concentrate on performing the negative part of a repetition in a slow, intense fashion. The careful act of accentuating the negative motion creates greater involvement of muscle fibers, causing the entire body to work at a sky high level of intensity. Negative training instills a mindset necessary for the next step of slow rep training.
Super Slow Motion Repetitions
Once the simple concept of negative training is fully grasped, an intensity hungry lifter may decide to take the principles of super slow motion reps out for a test drive. This form of resistance training takes training intensity to a completely new level. While the average, run of the mill workout highlights repetitions which last around three seconds each, a slow motion rep begins at around ten seconds. The execution of a slow rep should consist of a five second positive movement immediately followed by a five second negative motion. That's a huge difference from a traditional rep, which averages two seconds positive and one second negative.
Taking slow reps to super slow reps is as simple as it sounds. With each proceeding workout the intensity and insanity grows by increasing the length of the repetitions performed. For instance, over a period of time a ten second rep should lengthen to about twenty seconds. At the pinnacle of super slow rep training there is a principle called the one and a half rep. It consists of thirty seconds of negative motion, followed by thirty seconds of a positive movement and once again followed immediately by thirty seconds of negative motion.
The performance of negative training and super slow rep training should be used wisely. The weight used during these sessions will be dramatically lower than usual. At first the goal should be to execute one set of ten reps in extremely slow fashion, while working with approximately 60% of the weight used during traditional training sessions. Weight, reps and sets may be added with each proceeding session. The best exercises to perform in this intense style are; presses, curls, pull ups, leg extensions and pullovers.
The popularity of High Intensity Training (H.I.T.) which peaked with the great bodybuilders of the 70's and early 80's can be recaptured in books like The New High Intensity Training, by Ellington Darden.
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