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Quoted from: Siff, MC "Facts and Fallacies of Fitness" (2000, Ch 12).
Dr Mel C Siff
There are numerous theories and beliefs about what the best formula is to
foolow for producing greatest muscle hypertrophy. One such concept is
that every exercise must maintain a prolonged muscle tension time for at
least 40 seconds or so if one wishes to produce maximal hypertrophy.
Others have commented that ìAll the big bodybuilders who I trained with did
their reps pretty fast, which makes me seriously question the Time Under
Tension theory, though I am sure there are exceptions, as there always are
to each rule. However, it's not the biggest guys I see who are counting
the seconds on the way up or down.î
Others have commented to me that ìPeople with extreme genetics who are
using huge amounts of drugs will probably get big no matter what kind of
weight training and rep speed they're doing. What's more important is
finding out how much rep speed matters for a natural bodybuilder with
average genetics.î
Now, what we are all trying to identify here are the most important factors
in stimulating muscle hypertrophy, or we should rather say,
musculo-collagenous hypertrophy, since training affects the entire muscle
complex, not just the muscles. Physical loading also stimulates bone
hypertrophy, especially at the sites of maximal stress concentration, but
that is of little consequence to the bodybuilder because bone size and
definition are not seen by spectators, though this phenomenon may assist us
later in answering some other questions about muscle growth. An
Hypertrophy Formula has to be based on many well-known observations on
muscle physiology and mechanics. Some of these observations are:
1. The fundamental stimulus to increase in all strength and tissue
hypertrophy quite simply is physical loading.
2. The physical loading must not exceed the mechanical strength of the
tissues involved.
3. Increase in strength and hypertrophy is not instantaneous, but occurs
predominantly during a certain recovery period after loading
4. All tissues do not hypertrophy or strengthen at the same rate or to
the same degree
5. Strength and hypertrophy is minimal unless a certain minimal
threshold load is imposed
6. The minimal threshold is not fixed, but increases with level of
adaptation, which ensures that rate of progress slows down or ceases
7. The concept of tension time per se is meaningless, since loading even
for very prolonged periods may have no effects of strength and hypertrophy
if the tension does not exceed this minimum threshold
8. The effects of tension on tissue depend not only on the magnitude or
duration of the tension, but the way in which the tension is produced or
maintained. For example, one can use high or low Rates of Tension
Development, and one can increase tension by use of a large, slowly
accelerated load or a smaller, rapidly accelerated load (in accordance with
Newton II: Force = Mass x Acceleration)
9. Long periods of muscle 'time under tension' as imposed by cyclical
activities such as endurance running, cycling and swimming are not known
generally to produce significant increases in strength or hypertophy.
10. Continued increase in strength and hypertrophy is a consequence of
progressive incremental increase in loading (principle of progressive
overload)
11. Changes in strength and hypertrophy are not linear or continuous.
For example, a 10% increase in load does not necessarily produce a 10%
increase in strength. Some changes may be delayed or marked at certain
stages.
12. Muscles rarely are able to produce 100% of their maximum potential,
due to a variety of reasons such as protective inhibition by certain
reflexes.
13. Increase in strength and hypertrophy may or may not be associated with
some form of fatigue
14. It is difficult to distinguish between the limitations imposed by
short-term fatigue and those imposed by reflex inhibition of maximal force
production
15. Fatigue is not a single discrete factor, but a multi-faceted process
involving phenomena such as central and peripheral fatigue, slow and fast
fatigue, and short-term and long-term fatigue.
16. Muscle tension is not constant during any movement, but varies between
zero and a certain maximum as joint angles change
17. Muscle tension is not produced under the same conditions throughout
any movement, but changes between concentric, eccentric and isometric modes
of action
18. Muscles comprise smaller groups of fibres which exhibit different
rates of fatigue, fatigue-resistance and ability to generate force (e.g.
so-called slow and fast twitch fibres)
19. All muscle tension and patterns of muscle recruitment are a
consequence of nervous activity, so that increase in strength and
hypertrophy ultimately are the result of specific patterns of nervous
excitation.
20. Increase in strength is not necessarily associated with increase in
hypertrophy or vice versa
21. Strength and hypertrophy diminish if physical loading is not imposed
regularly at certain intervals
22. Strength and hypertrophy increase may be stimulated by active muscle
contraction, passive stretching, vibrational oscillation or external
electrical stimulation.
There are many other observations which are relevant to our quest to find
the ideal, individualised physique or strength building program, but these
should suffice to show that a 'Time Under Tension' formula or any other
highly prescriptive rule is oversimplistic in satisfying many of the above
observations.
When my colleague stated that "People with extreme genetics who are using
huge amounts of drugs will probably get big no matter what kind of weight
training and rep speed they're doing", he is probably far closer to the
truth than anyone who religiously propounds those Tension Time tales. One
has to remember that the marketability of a certain fitness figure or
group, according to well-established marketing principles, depends on
slogans and simply stated formulae.
The public usually feels far more comfortable with cerebrally undemanding
mantras and 'fast food' solutions than with far more accurate, more complex
methods. That is a major reason why many fitness figures write as they do
and market their catch phrases simplistically as they do - society has been
processed by the mass media to behave like that and they usually do not
want to be forced to think too deeply or to have their convenient current
beliefs questioned, because that entails a serious threat to their
psychological safety. Humankind has always been like that and they receive
what they have been processed or educated to want.
Dr Mel C Siff
There are numerous theories and beliefs about what the best formula is to
foolow for producing greatest muscle hypertrophy. One such concept is
that every exercise must maintain a prolonged muscle tension time for at
least 40 seconds or so if one wishes to produce maximal hypertrophy.
Others have commented that ìAll the big bodybuilders who I trained with did
their reps pretty fast, which makes me seriously question the Time Under
Tension theory, though I am sure there are exceptions, as there always are
to each rule. However, it's not the biggest guys I see who are counting
the seconds on the way up or down.î
Others have commented to me that ìPeople with extreme genetics who are
using huge amounts of drugs will probably get big no matter what kind of
weight training and rep speed they're doing. What's more important is
finding out how much rep speed matters for a natural bodybuilder with
average genetics.î
Now, what we are all trying to identify here are the most important factors
in stimulating muscle hypertrophy, or we should rather say,
musculo-collagenous hypertrophy, since training affects the entire muscle
complex, not just the muscles. Physical loading also stimulates bone
hypertrophy, especially at the sites of maximal stress concentration, but
that is of little consequence to the bodybuilder because bone size and
definition are not seen by spectators, though this phenomenon may assist us
later in answering some other questions about muscle growth. An
Hypertrophy Formula has to be based on many well-known observations on
muscle physiology and mechanics. Some of these observations are:
1. The fundamental stimulus to increase in all strength and tissue
hypertrophy quite simply is physical loading.
2. The physical loading must not exceed the mechanical strength of the
tissues involved.
3. Increase in strength and hypertrophy is not instantaneous, but occurs
predominantly during a certain recovery period after loading
4. All tissues do not hypertrophy or strengthen at the same rate or to
the same degree
5. Strength and hypertrophy is minimal unless a certain minimal
threshold load is imposed
6. The minimal threshold is not fixed, but increases with level of
adaptation, which ensures that rate of progress slows down or ceases
7. The concept of tension time per se is meaningless, since loading even
for very prolonged periods may have no effects of strength and hypertrophy
if the tension does not exceed this minimum threshold
8. The effects of tension on tissue depend not only on the magnitude or
duration of the tension, but the way in which the tension is produced or
maintained. For example, one can use high or low Rates of Tension
Development, and one can increase tension by use of a large, slowly
accelerated load or a smaller, rapidly accelerated load (in accordance with
Newton II: Force = Mass x Acceleration)
9. Long periods of muscle 'time under tension' as imposed by cyclical
activities such as endurance running, cycling and swimming are not known
generally to produce significant increases in strength or hypertophy.
10. Continued increase in strength and hypertrophy is a consequence of
progressive incremental increase in loading (principle of progressive
overload)
11. Changes in strength and hypertrophy are not linear or continuous.
For example, a 10% increase in load does not necessarily produce a 10%
increase in strength. Some changes may be delayed or marked at certain
stages.
12. Muscles rarely are able to produce 100% of their maximum potential,
due to a variety of reasons such as protective inhibition by certain
reflexes.
13. Increase in strength and hypertrophy may or may not be associated with
some form of fatigue
14. It is difficult to distinguish between the limitations imposed by
short-term fatigue and those imposed by reflex inhibition of maximal force
production
15. Fatigue is not a single discrete factor, but a multi-faceted process
involving phenomena such as central and peripheral fatigue, slow and fast
fatigue, and short-term and long-term fatigue.
16. Muscle tension is not constant during any movement, but varies between
zero and a certain maximum as joint angles change
17. Muscle tension is not produced under the same conditions throughout
any movement, but changes between concentric, eccentric and isometric modes
of action
18. Muscles comprise smaller groups of fibres which exhibit different
rates of fatigue, fatigue-resistance and ability to generate force (e.g.
so-called slow and fast twitch fibres)
19. All muscle tension and patterns of muscle recruitment are a
consequence of nervous activity, so that increase in strength and
hypertrophy ultimately are the result of specific patterns of nervous
excitation.
20. Increase in strength is not necessarily associated with increase in
hypertrophy or vice versa
21. Strength and hypertrophy diminish if physical loading is not imposed
regularly at certain intervals
22. Strength and hypertrophy increase may be stimulated by active muscle
contraction, passive stretching, vibrational oscillation or external
electrical stimulation.
There are many other observations which are relevant to our quest to find
the ideal, individualised physique or strength building program, but these
should suffice to show that a 'Time Under Tension' formula or any other
highly prescriptive rule is oversimplistic in satisfying many of the above
observations.
When my colleague stated that "People with extreme genetics who are using
huge amounts of drugs will probably get big no matter what kind of weight
training and rep speed they're doing", he is probably far closer to the
truth than anyone who religiously propounds those Tension Time tales. One
has to remember that the marketability of a certain fitness figure or
group, according to well-established marketing principles, depends on
slogans and simply stated formulae.
The public usually feels far more comfortable with cerebrally undemanding
mantras and 'fast food' solutions than with far more accurate, more complex
methods. That is a major reason why many fitness figures write as they do
and market their catch phrases simplistically as they do - society has been
processed by the mass media to behave like that and they usually do not
want to be forced to think too deeply or to have their convenient current
beliefs questioned, because that entails a serious threat to their
psychological safety. Humankind has always been like that and they receive
what they have been processed or educated to want.
