The number one workout mistake beginners do is not taking effort during the exercise. They go all the way and make a decision, buy the necessary equipment or expensive gym pass, but when it comes to the actual workout, more often than not their muscles are rather on holiday.
By far the most common problem I see among beginners is not putting a voluntary effort in the exercises, in the repetitions. Let me repeat. You need VOLUNTARY EFFORT to stimulate your muscles and nervous system. That means voluntarily choosing the path of most resistance. Not least resistance! It means that if the exercise feels easy, you are doing something wrong—in case it’s performance or muscle building you are after.
So first things first, you need to step out of your comfort zone.
Second, comes the repetition style you choose. Which depends on a lot of things, but in general you should ask yourself the following questions before choosing a certain type of exercise execution:
- Can I identify the way this exercise brings me closer to my goals?
- Do I want to build more muscle or rather athletic performance with this exercise?
- Can this exercise build whole body strength directly or is it better suited to strengthening auxiliary muscles?
- What angles does this exercise force my joints into? Is it possible to overload somehow at these angles? Risk-reward?
- Do I need to promote recovery with this exercise?
All the questions above effect the repetition style worth using.
If you want to know more about the common rep styles I encourage that you to read this article of Christian Thibaudeau, a world-renowned coach, best recognized for his methods which build muscle and enhance performance in a hybrid way.
Touching on the two rep styles in the video whether to move slow or fast, it really comes down to understanding how the two differs.
- Going fast: it’s not really the speed element that gives the athletic character of the repetition style, but rather the other way around. The higher the load, the less you will be able to move it slowly and under control. Working out this way, muscle hypertrophy is dominantly induced through mechanical load.
- Going slow: you can’t work with the same higher weight as with a fast movement, but you can make up for the decreased challenge by voluntarily contracting your muscles in addition to their natural contraction. You can also reduce the speed, meaning you spend more time under tension. Working out this way muscle hypertrophy is dominantly induced more through muscle metabolism.
If you would like to know more about the factors of muscle hypertrophy Bret Contreras explains the above two principles in his article here.
Why you need bigger resistance? Because of the size principle of strength training (Zatsiorsky, Kraemer, 2006). It means as you keep doing repetitions, your smaller, fatigue resistant muscle fibers are recruited first and the moment they can’t overcome the load, join the bigger muscle fibers to contribute to the movement.
It’s important to note that only fatigued muscle fibers will be subject to growth. So if your bigger fibers just kicked in a second before you finished your set, they won’t get the necessary stimulus to improve. That’s why you need to keep pushing the set so that your bigger motor units not only get to join the work briefly but also stay engaged long enough to get fatigued as well.
Same goes for your fatigue resistant smaller muscle fibers. They respond well to higher volume training hence higher reps.
Bottom line is you need both methods to use training to it’s full potential, because the often mentioned example. What do you think builds more muscle and performance, a squat of 2 reps with 200 pounds or 10 reps? Of course the latter, because of the more volume performed with a given weight.
But how can you perform more volume of squats with 200 pounds? Either if your 1RM squat is 400 pound (strenght dominant factor) in which case you can easily squat more than 10. Or if you are used to squat more volume with 200 pounds, 10-20 reps usually (endurance dominant factor). Both methods will complement each other on the long run.
Back to the original question whether slow or fast, despite the above-discussed reasonings, I would rather recommend isometric training if you are a beginner to weight training. The more time you spend under contraction the better you can focus on either recruiting more muscle to the work or isolate and feel a specific muscle or group of muscles you are targeting.
In both cases, isometric work can benefit you through improved mind-muscle connection which is key when you are learning proper technique.
I hope you find this article helpful. Have a nice day!
Reference:
Vladimir M. Zatsiorsky and William J. Kraemer. Science and practice of strength training. Human Kinetics. 2006.
