Time under tension how slow?

R

rzieba

New Member
How slow should I be doing my lifts? For example barbell curl. How many seconds up and how many down? Does this change what results I can achieve with HST? Thanks.
 
Personally, I don't think it matters that much. People say to concentrate on the eccentric, but I think all you really need to worry about is making sure that you are lowering the weight, not just letting it drop. A natural rep tempo seems to work fine for me.
 
mmmm...... I think there was a discussion on how TUT is important to begin with 15s and 10s for metabolic fatigue, but as you get into the 5s they are less important because of the greater load itself. So... I think the effects on gains are marginal as long as you are able to achieve the goals for each section of HST ie: high reps section for burn to prime joints, low rep incremented load to cause hypertrophy, and etc.

pzhang
 
My opinion is that the tempo isn't as important as some may think. The slower the tempo, the less reps you can get (or the less weight you can use). The opposite is also true (naturally). Eventually, the total TUL is about the same either way, unless you use less weight in order to emphasize TUL (not recommended).

Some time ago I experimented with a HIT-type program, which advised 8-12 reps and a 2/4 tempo for each rep. Not much difference really. You could get a good burn of course, but that's it. And the weight of course was much lower than my "natural" 8RM.

So, after spending much time thinking about this, I've come to the conclusion that you should do your reps as slow as needed so as not to hurt yourself. As long as you are injury free, you are fine. Just keep incrementing and do not worry too much about this.
 
Spend as long as you can in the eccentric without compromising load, and don't go so fast thru the eccentric that it compromises form....period.
 
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