The Optimal Lifting Tempo for Strength and Muscle Growth

IN TODAY’S ISSUE
💨 Optimal Tempo for Strength and Hypertrophy?

Welcome to a new week! Another opportunity to charge those brain cells and apply more knowledge to your training, nutrition and recovery!

Today I want to cover repetition tempo and if there is an agreed optimal speed at which we should lift and lower a weight to maximize strength and hypertrophy adaptations?

The Layout

• 💪 Understanding How Tempo's are Prescribed

• 🤔 Why The Eccentric Is Just As Important As The Concentric

• 🤓 What The Science States The Optimal Tempo Is

• ✍️ Key Takeaways & Practical Applications

THE BRIEF
💪 Understanding How Tempo’s Are Prescribed

Every lift or body weight movement you perform will have a concentric phase and eccentric phase. Concentric is when the muscle contracts and shortens to lift the weight, and eccentric is when the muscle is lengthening to lower the weight.

You may have come across program calling for “Tempo” and it will look something like this → (3-1-1-0). Now to understand this let’s imagine this was written next to your programmed Bench Press. The movement starts with the lowering phase (un-rack it then begin the eccentric phase). The 3-1-1-0 would read as 3 second eccentric, 1 second pause at the bottom, 1 second concentric and 0 rest at the top.

The eccentric portion of the lift is always written first when prescribed, followed by the bottom (pause at the bottom of a squat or dead hang on a pull-up bar), followed by the concentric, followed by the pause at the top. Eccentric, Pause (bottom),Concentric, Pause (Top).

If this was prescribed for a pull-up, the movement starts with the concentric phase but would be still read as → 3 second eccentric, 1 second pause at the bottom, 1 second concentric, 0 second pause at the top, you would start with the 3rd number, then 4th, 1st, 2nd.

WORTH MENTIONING…
🤔 Why The Eccentric Is Just As Important As The Concentric

Well, a systematic review and meta analysis by (Schoenfeld et al., 2017) published in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research looked at a total of 15 different studies. The results of the review showed a percentage change in muscle growth of 10% vs 6.8% in favor of eccentric actions. Authors state the importance of “including both eccentric and concentric actions for a hypertrophy focused program”.

I’m focusing on the eccentric here as most people skip this bit, just dropping to the bottom of a Squat or bouncing the bar off the chest in a Bench Press, with no active control of the bar or weight. So here are the three main benefits 👇

• Decreased Risk of Injury

• Movement Standardization - Replicate the same movement pattern week after week to improve and progressively overload.

• Increased Hypertrophy & Strength Gains

NERD STUFF
🤓 What The Science States The Optimal Tempo Is

So how long should each portion of the lift be?

We have some studies to draw educated conclusions from, one study by (Shibata et al., 2018) published in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, used two different squat program to compare the effects of different eccentric times on muscle size and a 1RM squat. The study lasted 6 weeks and squatting was performed twice per week, for 3 sets at 75% till failure. One group performed a 4s eccentric while the other a 2s eccentric. The results showed that the 1RM squat increased more in the 2s eccentric group and muscle size was similar between the groups.

A study published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology by (Schuenke et al., 2012) compared “super slow” (10s concentric and 4s eccentric for 6-10RM @ 40-60%1RM) vs faster reps (1-2s concentric and eccentric for 6-10RM @80-85%1RM) vs faster reps / higher rep range (1-2s concentric & eccentric for 20-30RM @ 40-60% 1RM) for muscle hypertrophy responses. The study was 6 weeks long involving 34 untrained woman using the Squat, Leg Press and Leg Extension. The Results? The faster rep (normal speed) group training at 80-85% of their 1RM saw the greatest gains. The study did find that the “Super Slow” group saw better results versus the faster rep / higher rep range group when training at the same resistance (weight) levels.

A systematic review and meta analysis by (Schoenfeld et al., 2015) involved a total of 8 studies, found that a lifting tempo per complete rep of 2-6s to be optimal for muscle growth. With 2s being slightly more favorable than 6s and anything over 6s to be suboptimal.

What about strength? A study by (González-Badillo et al., 2014) took 20 subjects on a 6 week program training Bench Press 3x per week. They were split into two groups, Max Velocity (as fast as possible concentric action) or Half Velocity. The Results? Both groups improved strength, however the Max Velocity group saw significantly greater gains in all measured outcomes.

SHORT CUT ANSWERS
✍️ Key Takeaways & Practical Applications

• The eccentric portion of the lift should be actively controlled to decrease risk of injury and movement standardization.

• The eccentric portion of the lift can build just as much muscle as the concentric.

• 2-6s tempo per rep is optimal for muscle growth, with 2s being slightly favored. Over 6s is suboptimal for muscle growth.

• From simply actively controlling the bar or weight against gravity, the eccentric portion of the lift will roughly equate to 2s.

• For strength, lifting with maximal intended velocity (as fast as you can) on the concentric is optimal.

✅ To optimize Strength and Hypertrophy gains, lift the weight as fast as you can in the concentric phase. Heavy weights closer to your 1RM might still move slowly taking upto ~3s, the point is to lift it “as fast as you can“ and actively control the weight in the eccentric phase, taking 1-2s to complete it. This written out could be (2,0,X,0) but in reality it could actually be (2,0,2,0). Although you want to move the weight as fast as possible, at heavier loads close to your 1RM or as you fatigue it could take 1-2s. This tempo prescription ties in with the studies cited above.

❌ Although it’s been shown you want to use a controlled eccentric on your lifts, increasing your time in eccentric phase too much could will result in performing fewer repetitions with lower force requirements which may reduce the positive effects from controlling the eccentric.

🏠 Training at home with limited equipment? From the study by (Schuenke et al., 2012), we know normal rep speed at higher intensities is the best bang for your buck. However it did show the super slow group outperformed the higher rep range at normal speed. From all the data and from my experience I would suggest next time your doing push-ups or whatever movement you can with limited equipment available to keep the concentric phase fast and eccentric phase slower ~ 4s. Obviously my point above about the trade off for load and reps vs tempo does not apply to you with the lack of equipment / weight available.