lifting weights slooooooowly

**Cullion** · Posted On: 7/23/2007 10:42am

Hmm.. my reps are quite a bit faster than this. I always try work with a weight which I can handly rapidle but smoothly (without relying on bouncing, momentum of any sort) for 5-8 reps, and I stop when my form deteriorates into any kind of wobbling movement.

Is this the right thing to do for somebody who is more interested in functional MA power than body-buidling hypertrophy, or am I missing out on something good ?

Most of my reading so far for supplimenting MA training with weight training has emphasized specifity, which to my mind says 'if you want to move quickly with power, move the weights quickly with power (within safe parameters)'.

**Nid** · Posted On: 7/23/2007 10:50am

Well, that's a drum I'm done beating, cuz straight-forwardness just isn't romantic.

In short, specificity means tai chi itself. It means riding a unicycle itself. It means bjj itself.

Strength training means growing muscle for strength. The only kind of strength which comes from muscle meat. Force production, both static and dynamic.

Divy up all the other kinds of "strength" in the sport you're doing. Just don't think a heaved bar-bell has any athletic analogy elsewhere. The hammer throw is the hammer throw. A suplex is a suplex. Do them as they're done, or else don't bother.

Search function for past rants.

**PirateJon** · Posted On: 7/23/2007 11:09am

The intentional use of slow movement in weight training reflects an inadequate understanding of the nature of efficient power production, the physics of work, and weight-room safety.

Quoteing Ripptoe from "Practical Programming for Strength Training"

His basic point is that you don't recruit all of the muscle fibers in your lifts if you do it slow.

**Nid** · Posted On: 7/23/2007 11:19am

And that is *precisely* where the fucktardery starts.

Simplest example. Holding oneself at the the top of a chin-up = ZERO power production, ZERO force, ZERO work. Yet...the damn muscle seems to be doing SOMETHING.

That said, there is ZERO meaningful discussion when one uses his own custom vernacular for those terms...in particular.

This is where I need Mylanta.

I...I...can't go on.

**Cullion** · Posted On: 7/23/2007 11:24am

Originally Posted by PirateJon

Quoteing Ripptoe from "Practical Programming for Strength Training"

His basic point is that you don't recruit all of the muscle fibers in your lifts if you do it slow.

What would his explanation be for the reason it's more tiring, and aches a lot more afterwards when I do it slowly with a lighter weight ? I'm not trolling, I'm a relative noob lifter and trying to learn.

**Teh El Macho** · Posted On: 7/23/2007 11:48am

Originally Posted by Kein Haar

I would posit the ligaments are so devoid of metabolic activity, there can only be heartbreak and disaster from trying to compromise them for the sake of meaningful growth. Growth which would take FOREVER if compromised like muscles are. Muscles are hot and bloody....they're meant to grow and change in short order.

Ligaments may be devoid of vascularization, but it's still living tissue that gets nutrients (via synovial fluid) and that can adapt (by increasing tensile strenght, and elasticity - growth is a distant third.) And just like muscle, they need to adapt to different loads and velocities. All of this happens automatically with good form. No need to compromise anything. The only time ligaments (and muscles) get compromised is when people overtrain, don't warm up, or do crazy **** with bad form or too much weight.

Originally Posted by Kein Haar

I would take for granted that ligaments are gonna do what they're gonna do with safe and proper strength training protocol

Well, duh!!! Tendons will do what they are supposed to do with proper form, just like muscles.

-- EDIT --

Slow-mo is good for teaching people proper mechanics as well as for the eccentric part of the lift (since muscles are stronger on the eccentric than on the concentric.) BUT after a point, that would be a waste of time.

**Cullion** · Posted On: 7/23/2007 12:03pm

Is this a bad time for me to bring up TCMA 'tendon changing' exercises ?

**Teh El Macho** · Posted On: 7/23/2007 12:20pm

What the hell are those???? :icon_conf

**Cullion** · Posted On: 7/23/2007 12:29pm

They vary by style of CMA. What I've seen involves very slow, relaxed movement where the limb is extended and held up against gravity for prolonged periods, often moving very slowly.

**Cullion** · Posted On: 7/23/2007 12:31pm

I don't know if any science supports this stuff. It's just that 'tendons cannot be safely targetted for training' has been brought up and it's a common TCMA contention that they can, and that is what some of the weird looking exercises/forms are for.