If you're looking to build muscle quickly, whether you've been training for years or are just starting out, then doing slower reps is the way to go. Workouts with slower reps cause your muscles to experience more time under tension, much more than with faster reps.
Summary: Lifting weights with a fast tempo is superior to lifting weights with a slow tempo because this leads to a larger increase in strength, which ultimately leads to more muscle gain over time. As a general rule, aim for a 1—1—1 weightlifting tempo for all of your exercises.
Better strength gains.
Muscles get bigger and stronger with increasing time under tension. The slower you perform each movement, the more time your muscles will remain contracted and under tension.
The lowering of the weight, slowly or just under control, causes muscle trauma, which in turn leads to the birth or recruitment of nascent muscle cells known as satellite cells. Bring enough of them on line, and you've reconstructed your muscles to be bigger and badder.
And although time under tension is reduced when fast reps are used, this actually doesn't seem to hinder muscle growth.” “Thus, it's clear that fast reps might be more beneficial for muscle growth.
Basically, there's minimal or no resting time during the set. Pros of doing it fast: “Fast repetitions can help you gain strength and build muscle endurance,” says Khemani. Akshar is quick to add, “Weight training at a faster pace involves a greater overall muscle engagement and build muscle endurance.”
They found that based on all of the studies currently published on lifting tempo (which to be honest is quite limited) a lifting tempo between 2 to 6 seconds per rep seems to maximize growth.
Slow Gains Foster Recovery
In the case of weightlifting, your body will build muscle and bone tissue, and you'll gradually become stronger. Small, consistent gains give the body just enough stress to grow and just enough time to recover.
Hypertrophy. If you're trying to build muscle, then normal to slow speeds are what you'll typically want to focus on.
Most people have a very high proportion of slow twitch fibers in their calves, so they're going to be particularly difficult to grow.
So what is the benefit of tempo training? By including tempo movements in your exercise routine, you'll be able to fix your positional and technique weaknesses for more consistent and well-executed lifts, while simultaneously encouraging better hypertrophy and strength gains.
Like doing cardio session, lifting weights while fasted might decrease your strength in the short run, as your body adapts to being a “fat burner.” For this reason, you may want to save your weight-lifting sessions for periods after you have eaten (in which case you can fast for two to three hours post-workout), and ...
Slow down your reps. The time your muscles spend under tension matters. That's where progress happens. Whether you're trying to build muscle mass, endurance or strength, you have to load muscles over time to induce a training effect.
If you're looking to build muscle quickly, whether you've been training for years or are just starting out, then doing slower reps is the way to go. Workouts with slower reps cause your muscles to experience more time under tension, much more than with faster reps.
Lifting heavy weights builds muscle, but constantly upping the weight exhausts the body. The nervous system must also adjust to the new fiber activation in the muscles. Lifting lighter weights with more reps gives the muscle tissue and nervous system a chance to recover while also building endurance.
Lifting for pure strength is best partnered with heavy weights. "If you're trying for strength, or your max force output, the heavier the weight, the more strength gains you'll have, along with size gains," Tuminello says. It's also super time efficient.
Hypertrophy Training
To get bigger quicker, the best rest period is 1 to 2 minutes between sets. Typical bodybuilding/hypertrophy training (moderate-heavy weight, 6-12 reps) draws energy from the ATP-PC and glycolytic system (the glycolytic system gets most of its energy from the carbs you eat).
For hypertrophy (building muscle), the sweet spot is 3 to 4 sets of 6 to 12 reps. And if your objective is muscular endurance, shoot for 2 to 3 sets of 12 to 20 reps.
Weight training for 20 to 30 minutes, 2 to 3 times a week is enough to see results. You should try to target all your major muscle groups at least twice throughout your weekly workouts. While you may not see results right away, even a single strength training session can help promote muscle growth.
You could end up putting on fat instead of muscle – Because of the change required in your diet to build muscle mass quickly, you'll need to take in more calories and many people who try to build muscles too fast have a difficult time adapting their diets to take in the increased amount of calories in a healthy way.
“Muscle mass peaks around age 40. [Then it] begins to decline due to sarcopenia,” explains Pete Rufo, a performance coach at Beast Training Academy in Chicago. “A major contributor to muscle mass decline is lack of exercise and sedentary lifestyles.
It's Never Too Late to Build Muscle
Though you might not see improvement in days, you likely will in weeks. For example, one German review found measurable increases in muscle size occur in as little as six to nine weeks of consistent strength training in adults older than 60.
1. Fast-twitch muscle fibers (type ll) Fast-twitch muscle fibers, also known as type ll muscle fibers, contract faster (hence the name) and have about a 25 to 75% greater potential for muscle growth than type l fibers.
Creatine and protein supplements are likely the most effective choices for muscle gain, but other supplements may be beneficial for certain people.
During any static hold exercise you're creating and, here's the key word, sustaining tension in the muscle(s), says Luciani. “Increasing time under tension is going to increase muscle breakdown. More muscle breakdown means more muscle growth when those muscle fibers repair,” she says.