SLOW vs FAST REPS: Which is BETTER for MUSCLE GROWTH?

In this video, Dr. Milo Wolf breaks down the research on repetition tempo for muscle building. Are slow reps better for muscle building due to time under tension? Or are fast reps just as effective? You may just find that many roads lead to Rome.

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#scienceexplained #hypertrophy #tempo
"SLOW vs FAST REPS: Which is More Effective for MUSCLE GROWTH?"

Music from Uppbeat.

[WiecznieNieNasycony]

quality of traning matters more than tempo

[legeekessayiste]

tl;dw : Tempo doesn't matter, just be close to muscle failure

[amorfati]

Easiest topic ever… just control your movements.

Helps you actually hit the target muscle and helps prevent injury by not jerking your body parts (muscles, tendons, joints) into positions it’s not ready for.

[tribunaldude]

Menno Henselman also said tempo is largely irrelevant as long as you control the eccentric (not necessarily slow) I also wish you guys would get Christian Thibaudeau on here for a discussion. While he is not a PhD (to my knowledge) he has a variety of training knowledge under his belt and tried everything under the sun (OLing, PL, Bodybuilding, ice hockey, callisthenics) with great results. Note: I am assuming there is no turf war between you guys and Thibaudeau!

[majinzanza]

For me, this is the most 'clear cut';
"just don't overthink it bro!" Lifting advice(?) Out there lol. After seeing a lot of different lifters/coaches/ people I respect and admire 'in the field',
l feel like (for me) an explosive concentric, with a mindfully controlled eccentric is the way to go.

Mindfully controlled being, that I simply just go A BIT slower than I think I need to.
Recording sets has helped me with this a lot!

[kristiangurholt]

As an up-and-coming SCIENCE BASED channel by a Doctorate of sports science, I encourage you to avoid thumbnails like these as they themselves contribute to fearmongering and misinformation in the exercise community, especially among the inexperienced. It may generate clicks, but that’s not a good metric for the reach of your expertise in and of itself. Let the authenticity, trustworthiness and overall quality of your content be what drives progress. Just my opinion.

[audiman]

Overthinking it. 1-2 sec concentric, 3 sec eccentric. Been doing this for 25 years and always grew. Keep form strict. That’s it

[samurai]

When I explode on the way out and really slow down on the concentric to failure, I am sore every time so it’s the most effective for me🔥

[Bloozguy]

I'm waiting for Eric to stand in front of his t.v.

[titanmaximum]

4 seconds is a fast rep? A biceps curl with a 1 second concentric and a 3 second eccentric doesn't seem fast. Most people in the gym that I go to don't take 4 seconds. I just question Dr. Brad calling it "fast."

[josho.]

I've been undergoing surgeries for the past year and I started very light and very slow going back in. 3x30 basically, building up to said 30.

From there it was explosive concentric and 2-4 eccentric. My strength improved as did my reps.

More control lends itself to more quality in my case.

[doseofreality]

Like all fitness/weight lifting talking points created to make fitness/ lifting weights more complicated than it really is.... the answer to this question is - it doesn't matter. All your muscle knows is stress. Whether you're slowly repping out lighter weight or pump and gunning heavy weight - if your muscle is stressed... and fatigued by the end of the set.... it works.

The only thing that truly matters is consistency. Never miss a workout should pretty much be the only goal one has. Giving max effort every workout is goal 1b. Do those 2 things - and you'll see excellent gains/results. I Guarantee it. Consistency and self discipline are really the drivers of success. Not only in lifting weights.... but life in general. It's really not complicated. People just love to overcomplicate everything because if something is perceived to be extremely convoluted it becomes an excuse as why so and so isn't getting results. "It's hard." No... it really isn't. Everyone knows what proper nutrition looks like and what "good" foods are and what "bad" foods are. They just have convinced themselves to be completely ignorant on proper nutrition.

I mean if given the option of a large 700 calorie plate consisting of chicken breast (or your lean meat of choice), large portion of veggies, and a serving of vs a 1, 000 calorie small personal pizza and asked which do you think is the meal you SHOULD eat? Everyone will say the chicken and veggies. People KNOW what they need to do. They just don't do it. Because they have 0 discipline and self control. But that's a character flaw and admitting one's self is their main problem is completely taboo these days. The individual is never at fault for their own life.... there's always something else to blame (excuse) for why they are the way they are these days. They're the "victim" of that thing. It's bullshit. You are the way you are because you choose to be the way you are. Period.

Few people actually work considerably more than 40 hours a week. But if you took a poll I guarantee you Everyone will say they are always working and are overworked and their "work-life" balance is non existent. A simple Google search though will result in article after article stating the average American actually only works 36-39 hours a week. There's 168 hours in a week. That leaves the average American 130 hours every week to pretty much do whatever. People... PRETEND they're to busy to do pretty much anything they know they should be doing.... because it's a convenient excuse to not do that thing or things. Not even 1/4 if your life is spent actually working. Math says so. People confuse their boring work life with all the time wasting bullshit they do before and after (and likely during) said work so they likely lump that into their "work" hours. Lifting weights takes like... 1 hour out of your day. 1 hour and 5-10 minutes if you warmup before your workout (which after 6 years of getting back into this lifestyle.... I think dedicated warm ups are.. pointless. Just do a light set of a compound movement and that's pretty much all you need in my experience). That's only 4-6 hours a week you need to dedicate to working out per week. Leaving you 124 hours to do whatever the rest of the week. 7 hours of sleep IMO is more than enough. So there's 49 hours. That brings you down to 75 hours out of the week to do whatever. Almost DOUBLE the time one spends ACTUALLY working on average. So the "I don't have time" is bullshit.

Again. People try to make everything in life easy more complicated than it actually is. Because they need excuses. Stick to your workout program/plan... and... just buy and eat proper food - and you WILL get incredible results. It IS that simple. Anyone who says otherwise is just your typical average, excuse laden person desperately trying to blame their life on an outside source. They don't want to be the way they are.... but *x* makes them the way they are. Excuses. If you want to truly lose weight and/or get that 6 pack and/or just eat right. The only thing preventing you from that is yourself. You are your worst enemy. Even if you work 70-80 hours a week.... you can still do whatever you want. I used to work 72-84 hours a week working in refineries, power plants, oil rigs, on pipelines, etc.... and still managed to find 5 hours a week to go lift. How? Because I actually wanted to go lift and didn't make excuses. It's that simple... just.... do it. There's no magical formula despite what anyone tries to tell... and likely... sell you. Eat like an intelligent adult - and just go workout. The working out/lifting aspect is literally the easiest part of getting in shape abs improving your health. It's literally just doing a thing. Instead of binge watching garbage TV shows and/or doom scrolling in social media.... go workout. Trust me... you're not missing out on any riveting pop culture bullshit. Most shows and movies suck ass nowadays anyways. Stop pretending you're so busy and go workout. It only takes 4-6 hours a week. If you "don't have time" for that... you just don't want to workout - so quit pretending you do then. Bottom line.... stop pretending and just accept yourself for the way you are, haha. Life is not hard. People just need it to be to be an excuse. That and people are ALWAYS fishing for sympathy. Which is nauseating. If your life is hard.... it's likely because you've made it that way. That might be an inconvenient truth one may need to hear. You're welcome. Stop making excuses for why you can't live the life you supposedly want.... and just start living that life and/or at least ACTUALLY working towards it.

[Damian.Williams]

Train with fast (explosive reps) when you get close to failure the reps naturally slow down best of both worlds 😁

[bonjoulden]

Just train every rep range, tempo, light/heavy weight, free weights/ machines. It’s all effective so just program in every aspect of hypertrophy training.

[honeybrew]

For me it depends on the muscle group. On Back I feel explosive movements better. When doing it slow it always feels like it is all arm work. In comparison explosive push movements always grind my joints, so slow and controlled feels much better.

[TiagoSilva-ubdv]

Amazing vídeo as usual. Do you see any compelling reason to do more controlled and slowed concentrics or just the the explosive “all out” approach checks all the boxes?

[chintantiwari]

Is training past failure (with myorep match sets) every so often effective for hypertrophy or is it detrimental to hypertrophy? Love the videos btw Doc!

[CarneGranada]

A good set in the gym should be like sex: you should be sufficiently tired when you're done and anything between 30-60 seconds is probably effective.

[askingwhy]

There's something like 700 relevant university programs in the United States alone that should be studying things like this. I'm absolutely shocked that the first tempo study was 2015! It's a tragedy for public health that there's no concerted effort to answer these simple, fundamental questions. Even if it turns out the answer is, "It doesn't matter."

[warrenhenning]

This is why I find the Westside Barbell's conjugate periodization program of speed work confusing. First, it seems like you're going so fast that you're you aren't getting good technique practice and secondly it's not stimulative for hypertrophy (which they are not specifically training for but could be useful as a potentiator of strength, which they are training for) because so much of it is based on stretch reflexes and using gravity. Additionally, it seems like it will increase injury risk. But the simple fact is that a lot of the Westside Barbell guys are big and strong. This is another example of how basing your lifting decisions based on the programs of genetic freaks on enough drugs to kill an elephant leads you into weird situations that makes it hard to reason about why you're doing what the program says you need to do. (To top it all off, they train for multiply equipped powerlifting but that can apparently be addressed through exercise selection and technique modifications)