Best rep tempo???

[samgraves82]

Question: How important is rep tempo? Is there a certain tempo you recommend? What tempo is best for building muscle?

For anyone unfamiliar with the term, “rep tempo” refers to how fast or slow you perform a rep of an exercise.

Here’s a random example.

Let’s use bicep curls as the example exercise. It might go like this:
2-second concentric
This is the “lifting” portion of the rep, when you’re curling the bar up towards your chest.
1-second pause at the top
This is where you’d squeeze your biceps in the fully contracted position.
3-second eccentric
This is the “lowering” portion of the rep, when you’re bringing the bar back down towards your thighs.
1-second pause at the bottom
This is where your arms are fully extended.
So... what tempo do I recommend and consider best for goals like building muscle?

You’re going to want to pay close attention to this.

It’s fairly complex.

In fact, you may want to get out some paper and a set of colored pencils.

And a graphing calculator.

Yeah, you’ll definitely need a good graphing calculator for this one.

Ready?

The rep tempo I recommend is… none whatsoever.



Don’t get me wrong, I definitely think there’s a right way and a wrong way to perform each rep of each exercise.

There is a “good” general tempo, and then there’s the opposite of that, which I think can best be described as either stupidly fast or stupidly slow.

But honestly, as long as you’re using good form, controlling the weight, and avoiding those stupidly fast/stupidly slow extremes, you’re probably doing your reps just fine.

Does that mean every exercise should be performed the exact same way? Not quite.

I think certain types of exercises (e.g. isolation vs compound) should be approached a bit differently. I also think certain exercises should be performed more or less explosively than others. And I also think that some exercises/muscle groups benefit from slightly slower reps (calf raises are a good example of this).

But, I don’t put any emphasis on a specific tempo and almost never use or prescribe an exact number of seconds for the concentric or eccentric portion of a rep.

I find it’s more of a distraction than anything else.

I’d much rather see the focus during a set be entirely on proper form, using the target muscle(s), making progressive overload happen, and generating the training stimulus the exercise is being done for in the first place.

Not counting seconds.

The main exception to this would be when a person is using rep tempo as a progression method or for making an exercise more challenging.

 

[Bft84]

I pretty use a similar tempo on every exercise, abs, calves, everything.
3 second negative, 1 pause at the bottom, 1 second concentric, and 2 second contraction and squeeze the top of the movement.
so each rep takes around 7 seconds. Needless to say my 15-20 rep sets with intesifiers at the end are disgusting. I like to control the weight so that I could stop at any point in the movement. I never train explosively
this also makes it very hard to get injured

 

[zwhit]

I like 2-3 second eccentric on compounds with explosive concentric. Slow enough to make sure of proper form but not so slow to be a distraction. Isolation movements are usually slower.

I like to mix in some explosive movements like sprints, box jumps and plyo pushups to keep some athleticism or ramp up the nervous system for a big lift.