In different phases of exercise, it is important to maintain a certain pace of execution for efficiency. Find out which speed is most effective and in which phase. Each athlete knows a large number of different exercises aimed at developing each of the muscle groups. Also, bodybuilders know that you can change the type of execution of all movements, which means focusing on the shortened, negative or positive phases. Experienced athletes also know that due to the lengthened negative phase (the weight drops for a longer time than its rise), a greater number of microtraumas can be inflicted on the muscle tissues.
Quite a lot of articles have been written about these things. However, much less attention has been paid to the questions of how high speed can affect tissue injury and energy exchange. At the same time, this is a very important topic. Today you will find out how bodybuilding and fitness exercise rates can help you meet your goals.
Powerlifters need to do the exercises very slowly to achieve their goals, while weightlifters do them at high speed. Bodybuilders need to maintain an average speed to meet their goals. Thus, we can draw a simple conclusion: the maximum rate of mass gain directly depends on the speed of execution, as well as the type of exercise. Three types of strength movements can be distinguished:
- Positive - the burden rises more slowly than it goes down;
- Negative - the sports equipment descends more slowly in comparison with its rise;
- Static - The weight is held without moving.
There is also a gradation of the pace of the exercises:
- Fast - repetitions are performed without pauses for or 2 seconds;
- Medium - it takes about two seconds to complete the repeat;
- Slow - there is a pause of a couple of seconds between repetitions, and the movement itself is performed in 3-4 seconds.
Athletes in strength training need to inflict microtraumas on the fibers of muscle tissue, which occurs due to a decrease in energy reserves in the muscles. This goal can be achieved through any of the above methods. This is the main reason for the lack of consensus on the most effective type and pace of exercise in bodybuilding and fitness.
For beginners, this is not very interesting, since at the beginning of their career, any training is a lot of stress on the muscles, which implies their development. But over time, it becomes more difficult to do this, since it is necessary to constantly increase the energy consumption of tissues. The most popular way to achieve this goal is to increase the working weight of the sports equipment.
It should be noted that many athletes use it throughout their careers and do not attempt to find new ways. But some athletes know that energy expenditure also changes depending on the speed of exercise.
The pace of the negative phase in the exercise
Over the past 15 years, negative training has become very popular among athletes. Its essence lies in the delay in the process of lowering the projectile in comparison with the speed of its rise. For example, performing a biceps lift, an athlete lifts a sports equipment in less than a second, and then, slowly, controlling the speed, lowers it to its starting position in 2 or more seconds.
In addition, there are other ways of negative training used by professionals. Let's say that the working weight is so high that it is not possible to lift it on your own and a friend helps to lift the projectile. The weight is already lowered by the athlete. This contributes to a significant acceleration in muscle mass gain.
When performing negative approaches, the energy of the tissues is consumed and, as a result, they receive microtraumas, since there is not enough energy to uncouple the connected fibers of actin and myosin. Thanks to this, the muscles continue to contract and the fibers are torn, which is a microtrauma. When performing negative repetitions, the muscles perform tensile work, which contributes to the infliction of more microtraumas.
Also, an increase in the strength of ligaments and joints, which is a consequence of high loads, can be attributed to the positive aspects of negative training. However, two disadvantages of the negative approach should also be noted - energy and speed. The slower you exercise, the slower your muscles will become. Thus, the muscles will not be able to show a high rate of contraction, which is a necessary condition for achieving high results in many sports. It was also found that with negative training, energy is spent less efficiently than with positive training.
However, there is one technique that allows you to eliminate the disadvantages of negative approaches described above. The athlete needs to start performing the exercise using positive repetitions, thereby increasing energy expenditure, and in the final phase, begin to make negative movements, which will increase the number of microtrauma inflicted on the muscles.
Positive phase pace
There is a lot of information about the positive phase, but it is rather difficult to draw a useful conclusion. When comparing the positive and negative phases, it can be argued that in the first case, more energy and oxygen are expended. As many athletes know, these factors are critical to improving strength performance. Hence, positive repetitions can increase an athlete's strength. This applies equally to increased endurance.
It should also be noted that the central nervous system is more involved in positive reps. This means that neuromuscular connections are most active with positive exercise performance. In turn, thanks to this, a larger number of motor units are connected to work, which also increases power indicators.
Of course, the ideal development option for an athlete is to simultaneously increase strength and muscle mass. Thus, bodybuilders can achieve great results by temporarily balancing the inferior and overcoming phases. Every year the theoretical basis in bodybuilding is improving, and in the coming years, most athletes will know significantly more about the pace of exercise in bodybuilding and fitness.
For the pace of the exercise, see this video:
[media =
