The majority of people I see in the gym stick to very traditional weight training routine.   They focus on a 2 second acceleration phase and a 4 second deceleration phase (the time it takes to move a weight up and down).   Most sports journals report that this as being the best way to train.   Let’s keep in mind that the study groups in these reports are usually athletes.  Athlete’s need to train in a more ballistic style. Ballistic training, also called power training, was first used among elite athletes who were looking for a method to develop explosiveness, or type of training that focused on high acceleration & speed.  They are not usually focused on muscle hypertrophy (increasing lean body mass or muscle size)or weight loss.            

          With this in mind if you are not focused on sports specific training and are only interested in building mass, gaining strength and burning fat then I recommend concentrating on your form, coordination and control by using a slow motion tempo.   This style of training should take a total of 10-12 seconds per rep using a 4-5 sec up and down tempo.  This principle will cause the muscle to fatigue much quicker then the traditional style.   As a result the intensity level of your 1RM will decrease.   This means that in order to complete a set of 8 reps using a slow tempo you may have to decrease the amount of resistance you are used to.                

          You may be thinking that this doesn’t make sense.  How can I grow and gain strength if I am using less weight.  Shouldn’t I overload the muscle?  In my opinion when you slow down and focus on the primary muscle groups involved, you will put less tension on secondary muscles and momentum, in return this puts more load on the specific muscle been trained.              

          In most cases weight training recrutes more fast twitch motor units.   These fast twitch muscle fibers have a greater potential for muscle hypertrophy by increasing the rate of protein synthesis.  To increase the rate of protein synthesis you have to increase the entry rate of amino acids into the cells.  To do so, you need to change the intensity and duration of the tension applied to the muscle.   This is what slow-motion, controlled weight training does, as it increases the duration of tension applied to the muscle.  Over time, this will increase the metabolic stress placed upon it, and as a result the capacity of the muscle will adapt and grow. The end result will be the muscles' ability to deal with stresses placed upon it time after time.             

          Now to cover the increased intensity part, work each set to exhaustion and then repeat with next exercise providing no rest time in between sets.   It is the same as training in intervals.  In the end you have kept the working muscle under constant tension and load.              

          As with any training principle remember to allow the body proper recovery time and use training periodization as a means to change the stimuli used.

 


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    Jessica Kerley is a former National Physique Figure Competitor, certified Holistic Health Coach Practitioner, Certified Raw Food Chef, NESTA certified sports nutrition specialist and personal trainer.   She enjoys coaching and training her clients using a unique bio-individuality approach and believes that peak health is achievable only when one has healthy relationships, a fulfilling career, regular physical activity,a spiritual practice and a diet abundant in raw organic fruits and vegetables.   

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