October 2000
Issue #16

Not Just Another Training Article:
A Scientific Approach to Resistance Training
By Dave Barr

About a year and a half ago, I was approached by an overweight computer science professor asking me for a spot. I said sure and headed for the bench area. As we approached a bench already loaded with one 45lb plate on either side, I figured we’d stop, but he passed right by it. Instead, he walked over to a bar with two 45’s on either side and sat down. I was fairly surprised and wondered if he was actually going to attempt this weight. Naturally benching 225 is not big deal for you guys, but for this guy? No way! The Prof. laid on the bench, and stated that he could probably get a couple reps on his own. What happened next totally changed what I thought I knew about the limits of the human body. As I helped him off with the weight, something astonishing happened: the weight came crashing down on his chest so fast that it had seemed as though he actually pulled this weight into himself! There was no way his rib cage could have tolerated that, or so I thought. The bar bounced up a couple of inches than stopped dead. At this point I figured that his heart had also stopped dead, so I heaved the weight back on the rack. As I was trying to recover from the ordeal, and wondering if we were going to need an ambulance, he sat up and turned to look at me. All I could do was smile in recognition that I had just saved his life. He actually said to me in a disgusted tone; “I probably could have gotten that one.” I couldn’t believe it! I’m not sure if I was more shocked that he was still alive (and clearly delusional), or that he actually trained this way! The only positive aspect of this situation is that he never spoke to me again. I guess the moral of the story is don’t train like a moron.

It always amazes me when I see spotters getting more of a workout than the person doing the set. Not only do the trainers look like morons, but can they possibly think that they’re stimulating muscle growth? It would seem obvious that to train for maximum effective muscle growth, one simply has to look at the muscle cell and determine what makes it grow. It sounds simple enough, but the problem is that we still don’t know what exactly stimulates protein synthesis in muscle. It seems as though hormones, stretching, and muscle damage are all involved, but none of them alone is the stimulus for hypertrophy. Another thing we know is that tension on the muscle cells can result in hypertrophy. Unfortunately, people trying to push maximum weights in the gym most often overlook tension on the actual muscle in an attempt to get the weight up. Of course this is more of an ego trip than anything but I don’t mind. As far as I’m concerned people can train any way they want because the fewer big guys around the better. Of course if you’re reading AE, you’re likely more dedicated than most. This dedication means that you deserve to know certain important things… such as the one right way to train.

The right way to train

It no longer amazes me when I see the variety of training theories presented in every bodybuilding magazine. One that I just read had training Guru Charles Staley advocating fast weight acceleration for each rep when hypertrophy training. He further stated that most of the people he sees in the gym don’t grow, and it’s likely due to their slow weight movements! I have no idea where he trains, but I never see people train with slow reps. Just a few pages later in the same issue, training Guru Charles Poliquin advocates slower more controlled reps for muscle growth. How can both of these guys be right despite their differing opinions? The answer is simple: there’s no one right way to train. Muscle is an amazingly adaptable tissue and needs to be stimulated in a number of different ways to achieve maximum hypertrophy. This article simply examines one, often overlooked, way to train. Keep in mind that no one should neglect their other training styles, such as high volume or power training. Just a few years ago I was brainwashed by Mike Mentzer to believe that there was only one way to train. The reason was that he actually used logic to explain his thinking. At the time, no one else actually gave an explanation for their methods, they just said, “do this”. Unfortunately, Mentzer used philosophy rather than physiology to explain his thinking. I won’t make the same mistake, so let’s get to the physiology!

The evidence

Imagine that you’re a subject in one of the most fundamental exercise physiology experiments. Your job is to sit at a modified leg extension machine, and contract your quads as hard and as fast as possible from the bent knee position to a fully contracted position. The only catch is the modification made to the machine. The ankle pads, which you're pushing against, are mechanically powered and will only move up at a specific speed no matter how hard you push. For example, the experimenter can set the pads to move to the fully contracted position in 3 seconds. This means that despite contracting your quads as hard and as fast as possible against the resistance (i.e. the ankle pads), then it’s still going to take you the predetermined 3 seconds to move to the contracted position. It’s just like a normal leg extension movement, the only difference being that someone else is controlling how quickly the resistance moves. As another modification to the machine, there’s a sensor attached to the ankle pads which measures force output. In other words, the machine can tell you how hard you’re pushing.

For the first trial, the experimenter sets the machine to move to the fully contracted position in ½ of a second. Due to the speed, this would resemble a power training rep, or a rep done by the idiots that I usually see train. Remember that you’re contracting as quickly and as hard as possible and the force is being measured.

For the next trial the experimenter sets the pads to move to the fully contracted position in 3 ½ seconds, and again your force output is measured. Now think about what the force outputs would be for each of the two reps you performed. If you really imagine doing this, you can probably tell that the force from the quick rep isn’t going to be as great as the force generated on the slower rep. For the slow rep you can really dig in and contract hard, while during the quick rep you’re just trying to keep up with the moving pads. Due to the fact that fibers contract maximally or not at all (the “all or none” law of muscle contraction), more force generation means that more fibers are contracting. Since we’re trying to contract as many fibers as possible to induce hypertrophy, more force is what we want to see.

As an added benefit of slow movements while moving weights in the gym, you can take the momentum out of the equation. By moving weights fast, your fibers only work briefly to accelerate the weight, and we’ve seen that this brief contraction doesn’t even produce that much force! Thus by moving the weights slowly, the tension of the resistance stays on the target muscle for the whole rep (insuring even greater force output required) which means you get greater fiber recruitment yet again.

There’s even an argument that slower reps are safer than ballistic movements found in power training. This may have some merit since the weights are lighter, and more controlled, with slower training speeds. When you take into account things that some people do to move the weight during power training (remember my computer science professor incident?), safety becomes a big factor.

Stating the (not so) Obvious

The idiots training in my gym are a great information resource. When I train clients, I often refer them to the people around us. It gives them a visual example of what not to do. In addition to training with quicker speeds to make use of the momentum, they cheat the hell out of the weight! It may seem overly obvious to say, “don’t cheat”, but what makes this difficult is our instinct. When doing anything physical, our body instinctively tries to make things as easy as possible, which makes good form a rarity. Cheating takes the tension off the muscle which is the antithesis of the training style discussed in this article. I keep having this image of someone throwing their back into a set of biceps curls, while moving their elbows forward as the bar rises. This would be great form if biceps curls were an Olympic lifting event, but simply getting the weight up isn’t what we’re trying to do.

We can all recognize cheating when seeing someone doing heavy biceps curls, or seeing a barbell nearly cave in a ribcage during a bench, but often cheating takes on a more subtle form. Examples of such subtle cheats include pointing your toes up towards your shin (dorsiflexing) when doing hamstring curls, or letting your hands drop all the way to your sides while doing dumbbell laterals. The former example uses other muscles (the gastrocnemius) to assist in the movement, while the latter example allows the muscle to rest between reps. Another common example of resting between reps are alternating dumbbell curls. Who’s the genius who invented these? We don’t do alternating reps for any other body part, so why are the biceps an exception? If you want to rest between reps go ahead, just don’t fool yourself into thinking that you’re providing maximum stimulation for the muscle.

The Bad Side of Slow Reps

Since there is no one way to train, each type of training must have its’ good and bad points. The first bad point that you may notice when performing slower reps is that you can’t use as much weight. This is simply due to the fact that you actually have to make the muscle do the work instead of momentum. Since you’re recruiting more fibers to generate the required additional force, you’re also producing more of the metabolic by-products that cause fatigue.

Let’s face it, pushing lighter weights means that the morons in the gym won’t have as much awe for your physique, which means less idol worship. Also, when moving moderate weights you’re less likely to attract that gorgeous fitness model in your gym, which means less sex for you.

Okay seriously, as silly as the above paragraph looks in print, some people can’t shake the feeling that the above statements are true. It’s up to you to decide how you look in and out of the gym, but people don’t see how much you bench when you’re walking down the street.

Another big problem with slower reps is that they’re actually hard. You can’t let the momentum do the work for you, which means that you’ll have to do the work. Again, this is a totally ridiculous reason for not doing slow reps, but it’s sad to see the number of people in every gym that this applies to.

The main knock against slow training is that your muscles adapt to the speed of your reps. In other words, slow training makes you slow. I found out the hard way during a physiology experiment that I took part in. During this experiment, I set the lab record for force output generated with my quads, and had the ability to voluntarily recruit 98% of my fibers in those muscles (an unusually high percentage). Everything looked great until I saw how quickly my quads contracted (rate of force development). I figured I’d be beyond the normal range of contraction speed, due to my years of hard slow training. It turned out that I was actually at the extreme slow end of the normal range! I was pretty disappointed at the time but I learned a valuable lesson. Evidence is far more compelling when you see it applies directly to you, so I was more convinced than ever that rep speeds need to be changed during different phases of training. Realistically for a bodybuilder, how fast you can contract your muscles doesn’t matter too much. But for someone involved in sports, being slow can be devastating. If you need speed for any reason, slow reps should be used sparingly at non-critical times, if they’re used at all.

The Details

Although I’d hate to write specifics for how someone trains, there has to be a starting point from which to work. Adjust reps and sets as needed, but to get the maximum benefit from this training style your set should take roughly 45 seconds to complete. Charles Poliquin advocates lifting the weight in 1-4 seconds, while lowering it in 3-5 seconds. Taking the time extremes to figure out rep number gives between 5 and 11 reps in 45 seconds. In order to maximize strength while doing this type of training, rest times should be 4-5 minutes.

Conclusion

Again I have to point out that this article merely outlines one type of training that we should use, if hypertrophy is our goal. Varying training styles prevents stagnation, both physical and mental.

Although the science of bodybuilding can be limited and complicated at the best of times, there exists a fundamental body of knowledge from which we can base our training. By applying this knowledge we can excel beyond others in our sport, to achieve the anabolic extreme.

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