Fitness Tip of the Week #3
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Welcome Back everyone for Fitness tip of the Week #3. After our first 2 tips of the week being about warm-ups I wanted to switch gears and go with a tip for those of you doing strength training.
I want to give all you lifters a great tip to try that will really benefit your lifting routines if you begin to make it a habit. Some of you may already be doing this which is great. Try making each repetition last 5 seconds. This means you will be going significantly slower in performing the rep than you might currently be doing. Sometimes I go in the weight room at an athletic club and see guys pumping through their reps, only initiating the movement then letting momentum carry them through the rest of the move. While this can be used occasionally over time you are ultimately limiting your strength gains in my opinion.
Slowing down will ensure that you are forcing your muscles to really control the weight through the entire range of motion, rather than gaining a bit of momentum to help you cheat through the move. There are two kinds of muscular contractions happening during each rep of a lifting move. The concentric contraction on the muscle is happening as you shorten the muscle fiber. In a bicep curl, this happens as you bring the dumbbell up. A different type of contraction is happening while you lower the weight back down, called an eccentric contraction.
Going slow in you reps ensures that you are actually training both concentric and eccentric contractions, and not developing gaps in your strength. I know it can sometimes feel better to move way up in weight and throw the bar or dumbbells around, but try doing each of your lifts this way and I am confident that in the long run, your body will have greater strength gains because you went slow rather than fast. Save the fast, explosive training for your plyometric routines, and get the most out of your lifting routines. I also think you will find that your muscles density will increase and better definition can be achieved.
Click here to visit some older posts on our strength training philosophy. Check back next Tuesday for a great nutrition tip!
2 Comments on this post
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Ryan said:
Dang that kid is a beast!!! It must have been that kid who bear crawled everywhere and did cats and dogs the first 8 years of his life lol.
August 18th, 2009 at 11:20 am -
Scott said:
I think he has been training with Usain Bolt.
August 21st, 2009 at 9:06 pm