Not a lot going on this week in terms of posting. I am sorry for that. I hope to make it up to you with today’s post, which will deal with lifting technique that, if followed correctly, will massively improve your gains.
Time Under Tension or TUT is one of the most important things to focus on when lifting. TUT is simply how much time the muscle
Don’t rush. This is the best part of your day.
spends under tension during the lift. There are a few things here to keep in mind. When selecting a weight you need to consider the number of reps in your set as well as your level of fatigue. Further, you have to work on being conscious about not overloading the muscle. Muscle overload sounds like something we would love right? However, it is not. The problem is, once the muscle is overloaded it looks elsewhere for support. That elsewhere is going to be your tendons and your joints.
The bicep curl is, I believe, the easiest example to use but you can apply this to every single lift, whether isolation or compound, and you ought to be mindful of it at all times. When you do a bicep curl you have one major goal and that is the breakdown of the muscle fiber in the bicep so that it repairs itself stronger and bigger than before. Your goal is not, nor ought it ever be, to curl as much as humanly possible. I cannot tell you what the maximum amount of weight I can do a supinated standing bicep curl with. The reason I can’t tell you is because the idea of finding out in the first place fills me with dread. I can tell you that if I am doing a set of 10 the most I can curl while relying 100% on my bicep is about 40 pounds.
What happens after 40 pounds on my bicep curl? Well, somewhere around the 5th or 6th rep the muscle alone isn’t enough to keep curling. Because of this the lift is supplemented but the tendons in my forearm and elbow as well as the joints. The problem is, I can’t make tendons and joints stronger through lifting, I can only break them down. So while it might look very cool for me to
The right weight, not the most weight. We are working out our muscles, not our dicks.
stand there curling a lot of weight, in the end I am only doing myself a disservice. If I were to curl an 80 pound dumbbellI would still only be curling a 40 pound dumbbell (because that is what my muscles can handle) and the other 40 pounds would be pulling on tendons and joints leading me by the nose to an injury while having zero effect on making the muscle stronger.
When you get into the gym you want to be mindful of your TUT. Keep your mind-muscle connection locked in, really feel if you are lifting with your muscles or with your tendons or joints, find the right weight, DO NOT LOCK OUT, keep that muscle under tension for as long as you can…indeed, if you can manage continuous tension through your set you should do so.
Now that we have spoken about time under tension, the question becomes how much time. This is where we get into the classic old school tempo training. This makes so much intuitive sense that it is amazing people don’t consider it more often. When you are lifting a weight you are making three distinct moves. The eccentric motion or the lowering part of the lift, the midpoint of the lift and, finally, the concentric or raising portion of the lift.
The way we notate for tempo training is three numbers (yes, I know some people use four and there is a place for that, but let’s stick to three for now). The first number is the number of seconds in the eccentric portion of the lift. The second number is the number of seconds in the midpoint of the lift and the final number is the number of seconds in the concentric part of the lift.
For each lift there are subtle variations and ways to play with tempo, but for the purposes of this post I want to start you guys with a basic tempo to get you used to tempo training. In a follow up post, we will talk about which tempo is best for which lifts and which goals.
The two tempos I want to talk about now are 303 and 301. So, as we said before, the first number is the eccentric portion of the lift the second is the midpoint and the third is the concentric. So let’s begin by using the dumbbell curl with a 303 tempo as an example. Start with the curl at the top position. The eccentric part of the curl is the lowering of it. Spend three full seconds lowering the curl. When we say three seconds we don’t mean a 3 count, but three Mississippi. Stop the curl short of the lock out position to maintain the tension on the muscle. We spend 0 seconds in the mid position and immediately go into the concentric motion of the lift, raising it back to the starting position. Here you will also spend 3 full seconds to get it to the top and that is one rep. Once at the top of the rep do not lock out. Squeeze the muscle and then go right back to the eccentric point of the lift.
The second lift I want to look at is the Barbell Squat. Arguably, the king of all lifts, the barbell squat is not something we take lightly. Using the barbell squat as an example, I want to look at the 301 lifting tempo. As in the 303 tempo we are going to do the eccentric motion of the lift over the course of three (FULL) seconds. So,
Ready for blastoff
with the weight on your traps, slowly lower yourself to the bottom position (which, if you need a reminder, is BELOW parallel) and at the bottom spend zero time before exploding upwards. So it is slow on the way down, no time at the midpoint and an explosive lift off to the top position. Like with the curls, we do not want to lock out the top of the squat here. Always leave the muscles under tension. As with squatting in general, you always want to brace your core and squeeze your glutes for maximum results (as a side note, to the best of your ability you should brace your core and squeeze your glutes all day every day).
Today’s Friday challenge will be to play with these lifts and tempos doing a superset of Squats and Barbell Curls.
Superset
5 Sets. 45 seconds rest between sets.
Barbell Squat (301 tempo) 10
X
Barbell Curls (303 tempo) 20
If you have any questions about the TUT, tempo, form or anything else please ask them below and, as is always the case on Fridays, please use the comments as an open forum. This Monday I am going to begin (hopefully) Progress Monday posts where I detail my own progress. I hope you guys will join me in the comments section. Drop your weight, height and measurements (chest, biceps, waist, quads, calves) and let’s work on keeping each other focused.
Have a great weekend and keep up the grind.