Forgive me if this is a common question, but what is "M-time"?
Here’s a link that explains it in detail since the link in the thread below it is broken.
http://www.clutchfitness.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6130
Here is a discussion of it on this forum.
http://thinkmuscle.com/forum/showthread.php?18689-Max-Stim-questions
Basically, M-Time is a way of managing fatigue by doing “singles” in a programmed way. Rather than doing a standard set of day 3-4 reps with 90% of my 1RM not only greatly fatiguing my muscles but also my central nervous system especially if taken to failure, I do one rep and then rack the bar for about 5-30 seconds depending on the weight and then do another rep until I complete the set. In the case of squats today it was 20 reps. Assuming I had done that with regular sets/reps I would probably only have been able to do 3 reps each set at the most without going to failure which means 20 reps would have taken almost 7 sets. Remember I was working with 90% of my last 1RM today.
The big advantage I see using M-Time is that above about 85% of your 1RM most all of your muscle fibers are being recruited every rep. So each rep after that in the same set is just fatiguing the muscle and CNS more than is necessary to get max fiber recruitment. By pausing between reps and letting the muscle recover there is less fatigue induced allowing more reps to be done while minimizing fatigue meaning faster recovery after the workout.
Another advantage I’ve found in using M-Time is that it forces me to focus on each rep rather than trying to focus on a rep while at the same time just trying to get through the set. So I can put maximum force into each rep w/o worrying about getting the next 2-3 right away.
I also find the M-Time makes my workouts faster when they are very heavy. I can do 20 90% of 1RM Squats in 10 minutes. No way I could do 7 sets of 3 90% of 1RM Squats in only 10 minutes.
Since metabolic fatigue, or fatigue within the muscle, may also help with hypertrophy I’m combining Max-Stim (M-Time) with Myo-reps which attain maximum fiber recruitment by using lower weights for multiple reps in each set.
http://www.yewhealth.com/2010/10/11/myo-reps/
In this scheme of fiber recruitment only that last few reps of a set are recruiting all the muscle fibers. So to minimize CNS fatigue you do an “activation set” say 10 reps with your 11-12RM (stopping 1-2 reps short of failure). Rack the bar and then wait so many seconds based on your rep range. Then pick up the bar and do 3-4 more reps again stopping just short of failure. And you keep doing this until your gotten the desired number of reps. Because each pause is only long enough for the muscle to replenish it’s energy and not for the fibers to recover each additional cluster of 3-4 reps is at or near maximum fiber recruitment. So in effect you can do an activation set of say 12 reps 3 of which recruit maximum muscle fibers. Then say you do an addition +3 +3 +3 more clusters after that for a total of 12 reps that recruited maximum muscle fibers for the CNS fatigue cost of 21 reps. Doing that with regular set/reps would cost your CNS 40 reps, almost double and meaning a longer time to recover. Myo-reps also make my workout much faster.
To me combining Max-Stim (M-Time) and Myo-reps gives me a much more efficient workout with less CNS fatigue than would be possible using standard sets/reps. And using them in combination my muscles are getting both strength work and metabolic work as if I were doing regular sets/reps.
