Build more Muscle with Time Under Tension
I am sure you will agree at least 90% of gym goers start lifting weights to build muscle. Because its muscle that gives our body shape and form â the basis of all the âbody transformationâ plans you see on the fitness market are based on losing fat and building lean muscle.
We can all agree that weight training is the preferred and scientifically proven choice when it comes to hypertrophy (Muscle building). However, itâs important to understand the basic essence of what makes weight training so effective before you cloud your mind with fancy techniques.
In this article we are going to talk about TUT (Time Under Tension), and how important it is if your goal is to enhance your muscle building efforts in the gym.
What is Time Under Tension?
Before we point out the benefits of it, itâs important to understand what it is. When we talk about time under tension, we refer to how much time the muscles are under stress. Basically, if you lift a weight and it takes you 40 seconds to complete that set, you have a total time under tension of 40 seconds.
For example my rep takes six seconds, two seconds up and four seconds down, my muscles are under load for six seconds each rep. If you do your reps in four seconds, two up and two down, your muscles are under load for only four seconds per rep. When performing resistance training, the longer time the muscle is under load, the more muscle fibers are recruited. This means that you get more hypertrophy out of each set.
The entire point of resistance training is to recruit as many muscle fibers as possible with the available ATP. Since you only have about an hourâs worth of ATP, the more you can get out of each rep/set, the less you need to do per workout.
Now remember, weâre speaking strictly of hypertrophy gains here. If youâre a seasoned athlete whoâs primarily concerned with strength, power and speed gains, such a protocol is likely (at least during the protocol itself, and for the near future thereafter) to negatively affect those aspects. So many trainers go out on the hunt for a fancy-pants muscle building program and put so much focus on the precise exercises theyâre doing, how much rest theyâre taking between the exercises, complex techniques, writing everything down, but then completely neglect the time under tension factor.
If you get this one wrong, youâre missing out on a key element that can help you build some serious muscle!
To read the full article on How to integrate Time Under Tension into your workout program click this link