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Does It Matter How Many Reps You Do When You Work Out?

OK. You have dragged me out of lurking for this. Any momentum in the bar is initiated by the muscle contraction and is hardly indicative of a useless rep. I don't necessarily recommend maximum speed but momentum is not magic, it had to be put there.

Where I will agree with you is the stretch reflex. A muscle will store energy in the stretch for something like 4 seconds so a pause at full stretch may be beneficial.

Personally, I think the weight will dictate speed to a large degree but there is room for trying lighter weights and making cadence the main focus once in a while.
 

Im sure all the sprinters do slow controlled running to train for 100m.

Oly lifters do slow squats.

even powerlifters do speed work.
 

Agree and even the stretch reflex requires strong enough muscle to display that force. Throw 500kg on the squat bar and see how much the stretch reflex helps out. In saying that pausing is also benificial.
 

Firstly I apologize for dragging you out of lurking.
You are confusing movement with momentum, let's use the barbell curl, that's a nice simple bodybiulding movement.

If you are going to perform 10 reps, it would be a tad silly to use a weight you could only perform one rep with, you would not be able to move the bar on the second rep, unless you created momentum by using the body and not the muscle, you could lower the weight with the muscles how long would depend on the available strength of the bicep, you could do ten reps following this process I suppose, good way to fuck up your joints, but you might be lucky.
 
Bazza20 said:
Im sure all the sprinters do slow controlled running to train for 100m.

Oly lifters do slow squats.

even powerlifters do speed work.
Click to expand...

I don't know, i don't know "all the sprinters", but you are confuing training with gym work, I cannot beleive you just wrote that.

10 years ago speed work was the latest thing, it's not too common these days for obvious reasons.
 
interesting thread.

IMO, doubt whether there is much difference between rep needs in terms of numbers or speed as opening post suggests; although doing weights as fast as possible has injury risk. I prefer controlled rep, with a steady speed.

As for strength gains from speed movements, say as a sprinter or boxer relying on bounding, bodyweight exercises or punching bag explosively, excellent power and musculature can be achieved without doing any weights. Pretty obvious that speed has strong relationship with power development.
 
Cheat curls have long been used as an effective method of building power in the biceps. Same goes for rows. A little body English on the positive part of the movement to allow for a heavy negative can have it's benefits.

Just because you're using momentum doesn't mean you can't slow down the negatives and overall cadence of the rep either.
 
Sorry, I agree with Bazza. No one is doing 7 second reps unless you're doing rehab work. *Waiting for someone to post a video of them doing a 4 second negative on a deadlift for reps.*
You wouldn't be able to do half the exercises in the gym if you only did slow reps.

Timing/cadence is just another tool to use. I think the ultimate factor is time under tension. You're going to use a similar amount of energy to perform 10 reps @ 4 seconds a rep (2 pos/2 neg) vs 4 reps @ 10 seconds a rep. Both cadence styles will work the muscle in a different way. The faster your reps, the more explosive your training is. The slower the reps, you'll be more controlled and get better contraction/stretching of the muscle.

I do agree that most people should be slowing down their reps though and trying to eliminate momentum.
 
There is no way I'm confusing movement with momentum. No one had mentioned exterior forces acting on the bar prior to your reply. The discussion was about cadence and how it relates to the effectiveness of muscular contraction.

If we get into cheat techniques, I suspect that you and I might agree.

Back on this topic, I think your point is valid and I think Bazza's is equally valid. If a trainee can pop a weight out of the bottom of a movement with speed and catch it at the top, the weight is too light. The acceleration of the bar will be limited by the weight for a given level of force. The idea is obviously maximal force production so cadence is a function of weight.
 
You need to try it to understand it
Building muscle is different to just getting strong

It's always people with no muscle that discount these methods lol
 
Silverback said:
The only thing that should stay constant is the cadence of the rep.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't say "the only thing...", but rather, I would view this principle as one of many different ways of stimulating muscle growth. Or, increasing one's neuro-efficiency when the goal is to attain maximum power...performing 1 to 2 reps (with the maximum being 3).

Getting back to the cadence of the rep, I would say why not look at this (time under tension) in a slightly different way. From a personal point of view, I can not imagine myself slowing a rep down or performing it under some strict time period. I would much rather perform my time under tension through rep quantity instead of the constant cadence of the rep. A case in point here would be the high repetitions squat routines, where 20-25 rep sets are performed. Here my muscles are under constant tension due to the high rep range instead of the slowness of the way the reps are performed. My two cents...
 
I' not going to build muscle by rocking up and doing one or two reps and then leave
that would be ridonculous
 

Yes Fadi, (good to see you are back) I did state, in previous post, " if one was wanting to perform rep's 3 and below"

if one was wanting to spend longer under tension/load, that whatever protocol was used, it is the cabence of the rep that should remain the same, as opposed to the weight been thrown towards the end as fatigue sets in.

Spending time under load longer will have a greater effect on the system, in terms of health and strength.

Both people over time using the barbell curl as an example and all things being equal, they both want to curl and achieve their goal after a protracted period with an arditrary figure 10 rep's for 100kg, they both start out at 10 X 50kg and both reach that goal who is stronger?

The one who spent time doing a constant 2/*1/4 cadence?
Or the one that spent time doing a 2/2 rep cadence?

both options are progressive

* with the barbell curl, the one second contraction will not be possible due to the fact that there is no or minimal resistance so one would need to stop short of the full ROM to maintain tension.

One doesn't need to be anal about the time spent under load, you just need to be aware that it plays a significant role, and that training to be become stronger is a whole lot different to training to be better at a sport played.
 
In terms of how many reps one uses in a lifetime of workouts, I still remain firm on my opinion that a combination of rep's and sets should vary, as per my reasoning in my first post in this thread.
 
0ni said:
You need to try it to understand it
Building muscle is different to just getting strong

It's always people with no muscle that discount these methods lol
Click to expand...

I've never seen any difference Alex.

The way I see it, is a muscle must becomes bigger to facilitate strength.

How that is achieved will vary from one person to another, if you're getting bigger and stronger, then something you are doing is right (for you).

This industry is fad based, the methods are quite simple, made complex by experts.
 
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