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Originally Posted by eltipo
- Regarding the tempo, where is the pause supposed to happen? When your muscles are firing the most? (bottom of bench press, bottom of squat, top of pull-up) or the least? (top of bench press, top of pulldown, top of squa).
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I'll answer your tempo question. The first way you wrote is correct. NROL uses only a three number system for tempos using the second number as the pause in the most difficult position of the lift.
However, tempo prescriptions are just as often written using four numbers and these tempos are, IMO, easier to understand.
In a written tempo, the first number is always the eccentric contraction (the lengthening of the working muscle), the second number is the pause after the eccentric movement, the third number is the concentric contraction (the shortening of the working muscle), and the forth number it is the pause after the concentric movement. So using a bench press, lat pulldown, and squat as examples, here is what NROL would have written as 311 tempos for all of these exercises:
Bench press, 3110 tempo
3 counts to lower the bar to your chest
1 count pause
1 count to push the bar up
No pause before the next rep
Lat pulldown, 3011 tempo (NROL writes 311 tempo)
(When only three tempo numbers are used and the second number is intended to be the pause, then tempo prescriptions can get pretty confusing. I would prefer to go ahead and just use the forth number to show the pause after the concentric movement. NROL, though, only ever uses three numbers and intends for that middle number to be a pause in the most difficult position of the lift, so in a pull after the concentric and in a push after the eccentric.)
1 count to pull the bar down to your collar bone
1 count hold at the chest
3 counts to return to straight arms, bar overhead
No pause between reps
Squat, 3110 tempo
3 counts to descend into the squat
1 count hold at the bottom
1 count to return to standing
No pause before the next rep
I hope I haven't confused you when I intended to elucidate!
Again, for the workout you're doing your first way of describing it was correct. The pause is made when the muscles are firing the most.