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Oct 17, 2022 Training Basics What’s up guys, and welcome to my new series called ‘Training Basics’, where I cover all of the essential information you need to know to succeed on your lifting journey. Whether you’re a beginner, intermediate, or advanced lifter, this series will help you build muscle more efficiently and make quicker progress in the gym in order to reach all of your fitness goals! So sit back, strap up, and pay attention, because today’s episode will tell you everything you need to know about reps! 0:00 Intro 0:22 What are REPS? A rep, short for a repetition, is the act of performing 1 exercise, 1 time. They include 2 distinct phases: a concentric portion where the muscles shorten or contract, and an eccentric portion where the muscles lengthen or stretch. 1:12 How reps build muscle Performing reps allow you to undergo isotonic contractions, where your muscles change length as tension remains constant. This leads to the greatest muscle hypertrophy, or muscle growth, since training a muscle in different positions utilizes the most muscle cells (fibers). When this happens, a hypertrophic stimulus, or a signal sent to promote muscle hypertrophy, is carried to your muscle cells (fibers) instructing them to grow and expand to get stronger. For this to happen, a rep needs 2 things: resistance and range of motion. An adequate resistance means utilizing a weight with high relative intensity, and range of motion is the extent to which a joint allows movement. Pairing these 2 together leads to the greatest motor unit recruitment and this produces the largest hypertrophic stimulus. 3:22 Technique Although technique varies for individuals, there still are methods to improve an exercise’s stimulus. So, here are 3 general rules. 3:43 Control Number 1, control the weight with the target muscle and not through the use of momentum or other muscles that shouldn’t be involved. 4:07 Resistance Number 2, actively resist the weight down as opposed to just letting gravity bring it down for you. 4:24 Range of Motion Number 3, stay within your active range of motion. 5:04 Tempo This is the speed at which you perform both the concentric and eccentric, as well as the act of changing between the two. 5:25 Concentric When it comes to the concentric, it doesn’t make too much difference whether it’s performed fast or slow, assuming you’re controlling the weight without excessive momentum. However, since your concentric speed will naturally slow down when you train close to failure, your last few reps will always utilize the most muscle fibers with the highest force production. Thus, I recommend using a fast concentric since it’ll save you time and energy in the gym, but if you’re new to the movement and want to improve your technique, a slow concentric may be worth utilizing. 6:44 Eccentric Your eccentric speed, or the velocity at which you lengthen the muscle fibers should always be slow and controlled no matter the exercise. Unlike the concentric, your eccentric does not have much effect on motor unit recruitment and thus doing it fast won’t really yield any benefits. However, doing it slow will increase the amount of time the muscle fibers spend under load, and therefore will increase the amount of muscle hypertrophy stimulated. 7:27 Change in Direction This is what takes place in between the concentric and eccentric. Even though it only lasts for a brief second, it’s crucial for hypertrophy to ensure that the target muscle is being stimulated effectively. So, don’t just drop the weight hoping for enough momentum at the bottom to spring it back up. Take a second, dissipate that momentum, and actually use your muscle fibers to lift the weight. 8:43 Final Thoughts Regardless of what exercise you’re doing and how close it is to failure, you should always try your absolute best to make every rep as meaningful as possible. In other words, your last rep should always utilize the exact same technique and tempo as your first, with the only exception being the speed of your concentric. Obviously there should be some visible struggle on those last couple reps, and maybe that means your form gets a little wobbly, that’s perfectly fine, just make sure it isn’t excessive and you’re making a genuine attempt to minimize as much form breakdown as possible. Follow me on social media: INSTAGRAM: TWITTER: TIKTOK: @maxeuceda7?la... About Me: I’m a college student with a passion for fitness hoping to make it my career. I started training in early 2019 and have devoted a big portion of my life to it ever since. Now, with the help of this amazing community I’ve been blessed to be a part of, I will try my best to give back the information I’ve learned for those hoping to embark on a journey of their own.
