fast reps vs. slow reps

[jonwilson]

im kinda confused about how to go about this. chad waterbury says you should always try to move the weight as fast as possible and always have a controlled negative, but if youre lifting lifts that are heavy for you, how are you supposed to lift the weight as fast as possible? he says fast/explosive reps work the fast twitch muscle fibers. me personally, i use a weight for me and go slow and controlled. i feel my muscles working more by not going fast maybe cuz momentum is taken outta the picture. does anyone agree with waterbury? slow lifting reduces momentum and makes the muscles work harder and fast reps work the fast twitch muscle fibers. my goal is to preserve muscle and maybe build a little bit. what do you guys/gals do? should i go to a moderate weight and lift it as fast as possible or keep doing the weights that are heavy for me slow and controlled so momentum isnt doing the work for me???? thanks

[mybody001]

who cares what the chad says, if it works for you, it works for you. both fast and slow positive movement has worked for me. and i've always been iffy about the chad. the dude thinks he's a teacher, bodybuilder, ufc fighter, and honestly sometimes it just makes him look like an idiot. just read his t-nation articles.

[jonwilson]

who cares what the chad says, if it works for you, it works for you. both fast and slow positive movement has worked for me. and i've always been iffy about the chad. the dude thinks he's a teacher, bodybuilder, ufc fighter, and honestly sometimes it just makes him look like an idiot. just read his t-nation articles.

well, it aint just him man, i read a lot of articles where people say to lift the weight as fast as possible and than theres other people saying it lift it slow and controlled both eccentric and concentric. im just curious as to what people think.

[crossus]

As far I know the slow reps build strenght ,max gains and the fast reps build speed , endurance /diffrent muscle fibers/
Slow reps should give you more gains but fast reps better deffinition.
Compare boxers to weight lifters

My advise would be do your slow reps but at least ones per week do fast reps to optimyze your work outs.
All depends on- do you focus on max gains or overall performance.

This is my opinion tho... there are so many diffrent aproches to training routines that it's hard to say this or that only -if you know what i mean.

[Tyciol]

'Fast as possible' for a heavy weight means as fast as you can get it up. That's slower for heavier weights. It means with heavy weights you can't afford to be artificially slowing it down, it should be so heavy that if you did that you wouldn't get it up at all.

[JoeyDaFool]

slow concentric is a waste of time and energy. slow eccentric/fast concentric is great to hit all the muscle fibers.

[swolegantor]

A good rule of thumb is to totally dismiss everything chad waterbury says.

The guy is a complete douche bag.

[Leyton Stone_old]

Unless you're doing an Olympic lift, then with a weight that is around 6RM or less even if you try to move it as fast as possible it's not going to move that quickly.

[A & B]

The negative part of my reps are always a little slower. I think that slowing down on the negatives is really important. The concentric part of my movements is always as fast as possible while maintaining control and form.

I don't often do superslow reps. Although Milos Sarcev (pro's come from all over the world to train with him) advocates using the superslow technique from time to time to fully exhaust muscles.

[user345008781]

Slow and controlled fellas. Fast reps are for people who are seeking injury.

[LiveForDaPamp]

There's no "one way" to lift weights. You should always be switching your workouts, rep tempo, rep range... Etc.

[showtyme333]

There's no "one way" to lift weights. You should always be switching your workouts, rep tempo, rep range... Etc.

x2. There are benefits to doing both. "typically" a movement that you are concentrating on moving as fast as you can, will condition your CNS to recruit more fiber because you are using more than is needed to move the weight at a faster speed... personally, I think concentrating on going slower would not be very beneficial, i think to get that type of stimulation, isometric contraction would be much more appropriate, but thats just me.

[belairdfence99]

He means that when you bench press for example, you should try to explode out. This helps develop smaller muscles

[Big Arm Big Pay]

I dont get whats with this fast slow ****, why not just do the weight normally unless your trying some stuff out for a day.

[Nick1971]

I'm a fan of slow-and-controlled, but I don't move at glacial speeds. I might take a second to go up, and a second to go down. But I'm not trying to get the weight up there as fast as possible, or trying for explosive movement. I'm trying to focus on maintaining form more than anything else.

[swolegantor]

Slow and controlled fellas. Fast reps are for people who are seeking injury.

No......

[clusternakker]

im kinda confused about how to go about this. chad waterbury says you should always try to move the weight as fast as possible and always have a controlled negative, but if youre lifting lifts that are heavy for you, how are you supposed to lift the weight as fast as possible? he says fast/explosive reps work the fast twitch muscle fibers. me personally, i use a weight for me and go slow and controlled. i feel my muscles working more by not going fast maybe cuz momentum is taken outta the picture. does anyone agree with waterbury? slow lifting reduces momentum and makes the muscles work harder and fast reps work the fast twitch muscle fibers. my goal is to preserve muscle and maybe build a little bit. what do you guys/gals do? should i go to a moderate weight and lift it as fast as possible or keep doing the weights that are heavy for me slow and controlled so momentum isnt doing the work for me???? thanks

Depends on what your training and whether its a machine or not. Bench press machines work better for me if i slowly push, and quickly decrease and hold, then push again. Free weights work better for me if I squeeze it up, not fast nor slow, maybe a pause at the bottom, then squeeeeeze.