Increasing time under tension with lighter weights due to injuries

[LargePeter]

Anyone try this? Plan after some research was to lift at 60% of 1rm with concentric and roughly 3 second eccentric phases of each rep, focusing on mind/muscle connection. Few big kunts in my gym do it and after a bunch of tendinitis injuries among others due to weights jumping too quickly I figured I'd have a crack at this for a few weeks to see what the effect is on how the body feels then responds.

Following the Viking upper/lower split

[air2fakie]

Artificially increasing TUT may not help that much esp if you also have to do significantly more reps, but try it & see how it works for you. You may also want to try playing with exercise selection & grip width/pronation for certain exercises, which might be more helpful.

[SuffolkPunch]

It's not about time under tension - that's incidental - it's possible to make a routine with very high TUT which is totally ineffective.

You can use lighter weights and higher reps for hypertrophy - and the good news is that it does seem to help with connective tissue problems. But it becomes even more important to take each set closer to failure. This can be tough because of the lactic acid burn. Sometimes my forearms are screaming and want to give up before the target muscle does with things like high rep pulldowns or DB bench. You really have to bin any kind of fixed set/rep structure and just do as many reps as you can to get to failure or close to it. Maybe use reaching 20 reps in your first set as a sign to increase the weight.

[EiFit91]

It's not about time under tension - that's incidental - it's possible to make a routine with very high TUT which is totally ineffective.

You can use lighter weights and higher reps for hypertrophy - and the good news is that it does seem to help with connective tissue problems. But it becomes even more important to take each set closer to failure. This can be tough because of the lactic acid burn. Sometimes my forearms are screaming and want to give up before the target muscle does with things like high rep pulldowns or DB bench. You really have to bin any kind of fixed set/rep structure and just do as many reps as you can to get to failure or close to it. Maybe use reaching 20 reps in your first set as a sign to increase the weight.

This OP

I do only high rep work for arms and shoulders (20+ reps, sometimes 30+ reps), and have gravitated slowly towards higher reps (12-20 range generally) for compounds. It is way, way better for the joints IME; I used to get tendonitis all the time in my right arm but after shifting to higher reps the problem has virtually disappeared.

But taking very high rep sets close to failure is absolutely ****ing brutal. If I had joints that could take more beating I'd much prefer to work in lower rep ranges.

[EliKoehn]

I'd focus on carrying a weight through the full range of motion in good form, as it's much more important than the speed of the execution, IMO.

[BeginnerGainz]

“Time under tension” isn’t really a thing. Certainly not useful as an indicator for growth.

Higher reps might seem easier, but taking higher rep sets close or to failure will lead to more central fatigue which means more recovery time necessary between sessions as well.

[MyEgoProblem]

Anything past a 2 second eccentric doesn't nothing but limit your growth...

2s eccentric at most
Explode up when safe otherwise just up with effort
Optional-Add a pause as the deepest part of the rom

Don't waste your time going suuuuppeer slow for hyp gainz.

[Sinfinia]

For hypertrophy purposes, you'd be surprised how hard one can "milk" his muscles with light weights.

Anyways, I wouldn't try to working exclusively slow on purpose.

Start light, go through the entire RoM, work in a very controlled manner, if you want to have fun with concentrics: a few seconds is fine (going "turtle mode" and making it 10s+... is probably unnecessary). Increase rep range to accommodate for the low weight.

Gradually increase the weight over time: work your way to restoring your precious capabilities.

A little pain is OK, but don't force yourself to anything above that.

I probably didn't tell you anything new, but that's exactly it. There are no "magic tricks"... Just careful progress and adherence.

Next time be smarter with managing stress vs recovery, and read the signs when your body tells you.

I know that pushing yourself to working hard feels like you are 'training serious', but now you learned the hard way that this is can be foolish just as well.
Respect rest,
respect time,
Respect the process,
And if you have a good program - respect the program.

GL!

[LargePeter]

Thanks gents/ladies/however you identify

Trained last night and couldn't do any overhead work or pressing work with anything above bar weight without significant shoulder discomfort but back work and triceps accessory work was fine. That said, slower controlled reps with a slight pause at full contraction kicked my ass, I was lifting lighter but the focus was on feeling the target muscle group work and it feels like I achieved exactly that.

I'll keep at it for a while and add the presses back in once the shoulder issue allows it.

[air2fakie]

That said, slower controlled reps with a slight pause at full contraction kicked my ass, I was lifting lighter but the focus was on feeling the target muscle group work and it feels like I achieved exactly that.

That's great if you feel it worked for you, but going really slow & getting your ass kicked doesn't necessarily result in progress over time both in terms of the weights & the mirror, so try to make sure that's still the end goal with TUT manipulation regardless of how one or more workouts "feel".

[jaxqen]

This OP

I do only high rep work for arms and shoulders (20+ reps, sometimes 30+ reps), and have gravitated slowly towards higher reps (12-20 range generally) for compounds. It is way, way better for the joints IME; I used to get tendonitis all the time in my right arm but after shifting to higher reps the problem has virtually disappeared.

But taking very high rep sets close to failure is absolutely ****ing brutal. If I had joints that could take more beating I'd much prefer to work in lower rep ranges.

Same here.
When I was doing 8-10 reps for curls and extensions, I had joint issues.
With high reps, I feel better.

I would say it's:
1. exercise dependant
a) for bb squat, bb row, pullups, ohp, bench - 5-10 seems to work better for most people
b) for cables, machines, isolation - 10-15 or 15-20
2. person dependant
a) people with joint problems should probably do higher reps
b) people who cannot handle failure well should probably do lower reps. Yeah, its ****ing brutal to do 15-20 reps for most exercises, to failure or very close to failure. Most people think it's easier, but this is because they fatigue pretty fast and believe they have reached failure. It hurts, it burns, you need a strong mind. But I don't see the logic of doing them for squat, ohp, bench, where form is more important.

Anything past a 2 second eccentric doesn't nothing but limit your growth...

Mike Israetel would disagree with this
But yeah, I don't see the need in a very slow eccentric, also, except for some bb methods like SST that work, from my experience, but shouldn't be done often.
2 second is quite ok