Vary your training tempo to overcome a plateau and make gains today. How long has it been since you added weight to all of your lifts? Do you get stronger everyday you go in the weight room? If so, then you are probably already manipulating your tempo to vary the amount of time you spend completing the eccentric and concentric phase of your lifts. Here’s how it works.
Varying the amount of time your muscles spend completing a lift is one of the best ways to make gains and shock the body into adapting. For example, performing a set of 10 repetitions of the squat with 60 kg at a one-second up and a one-second down tempo is very different from the same weight and repetitions at a six-second up and a six-second down tempo. The first variation takes 20 second, while the second takes 120 seconds—big difference!
A new study in the
Journal of Physiology tells us what happens to the muscles when we manipulate time under tension at a low weight. The study compared two different tempos on muscle protein synthesis. Trained college-aged men performed two different tempos of three sets of leg extensions performed at 30 percent of the 1RM to failure. The fast lifting tempo was one-second for both the concentric and eccentric phases, and the slow tempo was six-seconds for both phases. Participants ingested 20 grams of whey protein immediately after exercise and at 24 hours of recovery.
Results showed that protein synthesis was significantly higher following the slow six-second tempo than the fast one-second tempo. Protein synthesis was measured via various mechanisms within the muscles, and it was elevated in the first six hours after training only in the slow six-second condition. It was elevated more than two-fold immediately after training and increased to almost three-fold at 24 hours after training, indicating a prolonged muscle-building effect.
Interestingly, the fast condition didn’t produce a significant increase in muscle synthesis until the 24-hour time point (there was no increase in the first six hours after exercise). At 24 hours, both the slow and fast condition had elevated protein synthesis, but the slow condition was 1.5 times the fast condition.
Researchers suggest there was a delayed response in the fast condition because the exercise bout was performed to muscle failure causing maximal fiber activation, which for some reason causes a delayed sensitizing effect on protein synthesis. This hypothesis was supported by the fact that the slow six-second condition also had greater protein synthesis at 24 hours than at 6 hours after training.
Two points need to made about training to muscle failure with tempo training. First, nutrition timing is essential to get the greatest muscle-building effect. Whey protein and additional branched-chain amino acids immediately after training and at 24 hours post-training are critical. Other time points may further elevate muscle synthesis.
Second, maximal fiber activation via various parameters is necessary. A slow tempo with a light weight, as in this study, will support protein synthesis because the lift was performed to failure. Heavy lifts should also be used as should other tempos—a ballistic tempo is critical for power athletes—to continually increase neural drive and trigger adaptation.
Read more about varying training tempo in my article,
Top Five Reasons To Vary Tempo in Your Workout.
Reference:
Burd, N., Andrews, R., et al. Muscle Time Under Tension During Resistance Exercise Stimulates Differential Muscle Protein Sub-Fractional Synthetic Responses In Men.Journal of Physiology. 2012. 590 (2), 351-362.