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What is the Most Effective Set/Rep Numbers to Gain Muscle?

Man this shit gets too deep today. :confused:

I really miss the days when the BB conversations were limited to "its chest and bi's bro, cos the bi's are fresh, no, no, no bro, chest and tri'd cos you get an even sicker pump"

Simple, easy, not too many variables to think about, take me back to the 80s.
 
But what about the "strength base"? Won't that suffer?

What is more important, more time or more tension (ie weight)? It's a compromise somewhere
 
What is understood by time under tension? Some bodybuilders think that TUT means slowing the speed of the set to some magical number of seconds, extending the time it takes to complete it, would result in better and optimum results for muscle growth. I’m here to tell you that that is not so! It may be one of many ways of training but,. It’s not some magic bullet that would solve all of your muscle pursuit endeavours. Time to clarify…

I said it before, the ultimate way to build muscles would be to utilise the benefits of the gradual progressive overload method (GPO). Time under tension can be achieved in more ways than one and does not have to be restricted to a particular way one performs his set. Time under tension can come in the shape of adding one more rep to your set. It can come in the shape of adding one more set to your overall exercise. Increasing your squat frequency from (say) twice a week to three times a week increases time under tension for all those muscles involved. Furthermore, a giant set would (in my book) be classified as one hell of an increase in time under tension…without having to bog yourself down with counting the seconds or timing your set!

PS: Consider and ponder on what occurs when we utilise the principle of decreasing the time it takes to complete the same given set. The answer? More stress on the muscle fibres involved, leading to further adaptation etc... Mmmm, so here we are decreasing the time under tension, yet increasing the intensity...how is that possible!!



Fadi.
 
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White_Lie said:
But what about the "strength base"? Won't that suffer?

What is more important, more time or more tension (ie weight)? It's a compromise somewhere
Click to expand...

sorry, i just re-read this and misunderstood.

We all respond differently to exercise, mostly because of twitch fibre combinations, to add to the complexity, muscles in certain multi joint exercises vary in the ratio % of twitch fibers, some will need to spend more time under tension to stimulate growth, the by product of growth is strength.

and one reason to mix up the rep ranges over time.

progression is key, measuring progression accurately, means one must maintain rep cadence, the rule of thumb to ensure minimum momentum is; 2seconds positive, pause for 1 second, negative for 4 seconds, in the last few reps of the set you are moving the weight as fast as possible, so, at the beginning of the set your fresh strength is 100%, and even though you could push that weight extremely fast, you purposely move at that cadence.

whether you go to total positive muscular fatigue or leave one in the tank is up to you! progression is key, so is controlled movement so you can accurately measure progression.
 
motion-laws2-240x180.gif
…and more acceleration = a need for more muscle fibre activation, leading to bigger muscles. No one here is saying throw caution to the wind when it comes to using body momentum. Speed couched in full body momentum would defeat the purpose we’re aiming to achieve, and that is maximum muscle fiber activation.

So the concentric part of the lift ought to take advantage of full speed ahead (minus momentum).

Okay so is there anything good about slowing the rep down? In my opinion there is a time and place for everything. Imagine yourself in a gym where you’re suddenly faced with having to use much less weight on a particular exercise than you normally would. Let us take the leg press for an example here. You can perform your entire reps super slowly and in a continuous flow of motion…. even taking advantage of one of the methods I’ve mentioned on this forum before, which is the static method.

Consider a static plank position, where time replaces the addition of weight for maximizing intensity. So yes, there is a time and place for everything…



Fadi.
 
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Fuck sake
It's not difficult and doesn't need to be explained with formulae
Time under tension is simply volume. Nothing more nothing less. You can do more reps, go heavier, do it slower or whatever but at the end of the day the only thing that changes is the amount of time the muscle is under tension voluntarily contracting maximally. Most people will never get to the point where they need to worry about how they increase volume so don't worry about it. Just do it in small increments so work capacity has a chance to increase or do whatever dumb retarded shit you think would be fun at the time
 
GVT vs. TUT ! Surely There Must Be A Distinction Or Somebody Is Really Insulting Our Intelligence,....Not To Mention Wasting Our Time!!



Fadi.
 
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