Timing on exercises

[patchespal]

Chest Press: when lifting up how fast/slow should you lift. count to 5 or?
same with lowering the weight.

Lat pull down: pulling down fast/slow?
having the bar go up slow? count to 5 or?

same with all weight lifting exercises. what's a good rule to go by?

[Lisa~]

I don't recall tempo being discussed in NR4W, and there are no tempo prescriptions in the programs. (NROL discussed tempos and prescribed specific tempos for each program.)

A general rule of thumb is to shorten the working muscles quickly and lengthen the muscles more slowly. To use your two examples, for a bench press you'd lower the bar to your chest more slowly (the lengthening of the working muscles), say for a 3 count, and push it up quickly, but under control, (the shortening of the muscles) for say a 1 count. If you're familiar with tempo prescriptions, that's a 301 tempo. (Just a note to say that a bench press is not used in NR4W until Stage 3.)

For a lat pulldown, a 301 tempo would be pulling (shortening the working muscles) the bar down quickly, but under control, for a 1 count, then extending the arms overhead more slowly, for a 3 count (which is the lengthening of the muscles).

Lots of tempos are good and serve different purposes. Slower tempos are used to teach new movements and focus on muscle actions. Faster tempos are very effect at increasing power and strength, but should be used only after good technique has been established (with the exception being Olympic lifts which can only be executed rapidly). A 301 or 311 (with a pause in the middle) tempo is a normal tempo and one that most lifters will use naturally.

Good grief I get long winded sometimes. If that got confusing, just ask and I'll try to say it again with less verbosity.

[UConnJulie]

Originally Posted by Lisa~

I don't recall tempo being discussed in NR4W, and there are no tempo prescriptions in the programs. (NROL discussed tempos and prescribed specific tempos for each program.)

A general rule of thumb is to shorten the working muscles quickly and lengthen the muscles more slowly. To use your two examples, for a bench press you'd lower the bar to your chest more slowly (the lengthening of the working muscles), say for a 3 count, and push it up quickly, but under control, (the shortening of the muscles) for say a 1 count. If you're familiar with tempo prescriptions, that's a 301 tempo. (Just a note to say that a bench press is not used in NR4W until Stage 3.)

For a lat pulldown, a 301 tempo would be pulling (shortening the working muscles) the bar down quickly, but under control, for a 1 count, then extending the arms overhead more slowly, for a 3 count (which is the lengthening of the muscles).

Lots of tempos are good and serve different purposes. Slower tempos are used to teach new movements and focus on muscle actions. Faster tempos are very effect at increasing power and strength, but should be used only after good technique has been established (with the exception being Olympic lifts which can only be executed rapidly). A 301 or 311 (with a pause in the middle) tempo is a normal tempo and one that most lifters will use naturally.

Good grief I get long winded sometimes. If that got confusing, just ask and I'll try to say it again with less verbosity.

I think it was perfect!!!

A shortened version might read, lift/pull the weight as fast as you can (under control), and lower it slowly and under control.

I think I read somewhere fairly recently (Alwyn's blog?) that he has gotten away from prescribing tempos except in specific circumstances and just has his clients go fast on the concentric and in contol on the eccentric. But I could be wrong ...

[Lou Schuler]

Alwyn and I discussed that a year ago, when we were writing the book.

Both of us had concluded that tempo prescriptions, like specific instructions on how to breathe, were more confusing that helpful. There's nothing you do with your muscles in real life that's so explicitly tempo-specific, so why should you focus on that in the gym?

Lisa and Julie hit on the most important point: pull fast, release under control.

Think about lifting something heavy off the floor. You'd pull hard, because anything less forceful would be a waste of your energy, and wouldn't guarantee the thing would actually get lifted. But you'd set it down carefully, both to avoid damaging the object and to protect the integrity of your spine.

In the weight room you don't have to worry about breaking barbells and dumbbells, but you do have to defend your spine at all times. (And I think we all like to protect our eardrums and those of our fellow lifters, which is why everyone hates the nimrod who drops his weights at the end of a set.)

Which is a long way of saying I agree with Lisa and Julie!