@@pushpitaghosh3627 Feels bad, man. Was in the middle of watching this when I got the news. This straight up sucks - both for his family and the thousands of people who came to John for reliable fitness knowledge. I am sad.
Only time TUT came into play is in the 15 to 20 rep range with good contractions and slow neg. To complete failure. That has been probably where I see the most growth
I became kinda weary of complete failure because I once did 8 sets of rows (40 reps), angled push ups (70 reps) and caused myself heinous peripheral damage, couldn't train for 13 days. Could be that I tried to or bench press on top and did some 3'ers tho lol
Growing up I idolized Chuck Sipes and recently went back to his style of training so I'm glad to hear you guys agree you don't need a lot of time under tension
Ive always struggled to build my biceps, even found it hard to focus on my bicep when I curl, even doing very slow reps, the contraction doesnt seem to be there. ive pushed myself to no avail with low reps 5+ and middle 8-12. Usually I hit the wall and i can do maybe 2 more reps after, but Im done. No pump, no gains, nothing. Anyways, since working out from home, ive had to change my approach. Ive got a barbell with less weight, so one day I thought id do some curls until failure. Picked it up, curled quite fast at first and hit about 12 reps and my biceps were burning, but I could push through and eventually hit 20. Rested for a bit , did another set, same thing and man my biceps were bulging like Ive never felt, I could focus on them, flex them and it felt really good. Since that day I do all my reps explosively with a weight i can do for 3-4 sets to failure ( which is usually around 20) and around the 12-15 mark im burning, but its great because its light enough for me to go balls out to 20 ish. This contradicts everything Ive read over the years, for years I was stuck doing heavy, low reps and it did fuck all. Now at 40 i look better than ever, anyway... thought id share that.
Can't agree more, in bodybuilding you have to try stuff out to see what works for you. And not just go with a method that some research has proved to work, because the study groups can never cover the whole spectrum of disparities that human beings have. And i find out that your body can pretty much tell you what works for it, you have just to listen.
Bingo. Same here. I should actually post a video with the headline being “COVID built my best physique of all time”. Had to stay home vs gym due to the China flu. Small setup. Far lighter weights. No distractions and boom. Best damn gains ever using similar high rep techniques you wrote about.
Agreed. I got great gains doing 8-12 but then plateaud so I started doing lighter sets and started getting gains again. I guess once the type 1 fibers get overused you need to start working the type 2. Maybe your arms are type 2 dominant.
Science doesn’t mean 100% truth. There’s things most people would swear by that don’t work for me. There’s things that work well for me that people will tell you to never do under any circumstances. There’s no need in trying to reinvent the wheel but you should always play around with exercises to see what suits you best. We’re all different.
Im glad that you found what works for you. That being said, how about you mix it up and do both high and low reps. Changes are you see higher growths. The thing is, high reps is good for blood flow and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. More blood to the muscles means more nutrients you can use to fuel your lifts and also sarcoplasmic hypertrophy means you muscles fibres look slightly larger and can accommodate more nutrients. But you chances are you will reach a plateau soon as another guy said in the comments. Why, because sarcoplasmic growth means your individual muscles increase in size but the actual number of fibres stays the same. Unfortunately, your fibres can only grow that large and if you stop training, you might lose your apparent gains fast. This is where heavy weights and short reps come into play. This triggers myofibrillar hypertrophy, which is the addition of more muscle fibres (and not simply the increase in volume of existing fibres). This type of hypertrophy lasts longer after you stop training, while sarcoplasmic growth gains is dependent on the amount of fluid in your muscles at any given time. So yeah, dont cancel out heavy weights. Periodize your training and include both.
This conversation is so underrated! So much essential wisdom, knowledge, experience for all levels of bodybuilding. Perhaps just add, discuss phases of the rep, flex style positives, peak contractions, slower negatives, within engaged range of motion, etc... engaging the mind muscle connection... if you read this comment please make this video expounding on phases of the rep to increase intensity and the physiological reponses... your work is truly outstanding. Thank you, blessings brothers.
I’ve been lifting for 12 years now. I’m pissed in just now finding out about you the last couple weeks. I love the videos and your workouts and tips have helped me greatly in the gym. Thank you for the knowledge and keep the videos coming!
I started incorporating giant sets inspired by Milos Sarchev(thinks that's the last name) and drop sets into my training and my progress took off. I after awhile realized I was doing time under tension. I believe training always has to be intense for it to be a quality workout session. When I go to the gym 80% of the people rarely break a sweat, and here iam with my sweat towel to wipe myself off after every working set. I also incorporated Dorian's style of trainin with two warm up sets and two hard balls to the wall to failure working sets. Doing this I notice i spend half the time in the gym but when i leave I'm zapped and on the weekends i wake up at 6 or 7 in the gym by 9 workout for an hour and then come home eat and take a two hour nap because I completely zapped all my energy. Anyway time under tension works but it also has to be intense time under tension. Thanks John
Thanks again for great insight on (time under tension). I enjoy hearing how you and Eugene think...I take your tips to the gym and actually do them. Keep it up!
.. More important than the number of reps is the gradual progressive increase in resistance; mixing up the reps schemes however, will give better results and preserve the joints and connective tissue
I have found that if I concentrate on time and tension, whether it's 4 reps or 20 reps, it forces me to do the rep more slowly and keep the correct muscles in play by being more able to feel the mind-muscle connection due to reduced momentum. Keeping momentum at a minimum, should reduce the chance of injury as well. This has helped me a lot in the last year, with my weaker areas, back and legs.
I've been doing 6 days a week recently and it seems to work great. Legs, Push, Pull. First 3 Strength oriented with main exercise rep ranges 4-6 + some accessory at the end. Next 3 days hypertrophy oriented with main exercises a little higher 8-12 and accessory afterwards as well.
When I was 14 I had to ride a Bicycle on Pleasant Run from Cedar Hill Texas to Lancaster Texas 8 miles one way to get to work, only one gear worked, the high gear, after a month of riding I no longer had to get off my bike to rest. There were a lot of steep hills to and from work and there was nothing pleasant about it but when I went to visit an old friend of mine I was wearing shorts when his mother said to me... “Michael, your legs look really strong, what have you been doing lately?” My point is the tension works if you are forced to ride the Bicycle in high gear.😄
I am moving to TUT workouts. With Asthma I usually take longer rests in the past. So my upper body is thin but I have big quads from BMX/MTB racing back in the 1990’s. Again I am using bicycling to increase my VO2. This helps with me take shorter rests and do more super sets. I wish I knew this 20 years ago, I would have been a chic magnet back then like my bro and cousins. Now in my 40’s Im getting there with TUT. Thanks John👍
Coleman lifted an ungodly amount of weight that no human was biologically capable of doing without severe consequences later down the road, now he’s paying for it. The human skeletal and muscular system just wasn’t meant for that much weight
The mixture of having an intermediate weight but still doing 6-8 seconds up and down is scientifically proven to have a major effect in the muscle groups vs the normal way of lifting.
5 to 6 reps under 85 percent max lift, is pretty much what "5 and 5 training" is all about it. and it works, i know guys smaller than me that have ripped chest and can bench more than me cuz they been doing the 5 and 5 method for a couple years doing their bench presses. From what i can see it doesn't build overrall mass as much but more strenghth, that's where my Russian friend's training method of 4 weeks comes in. 2 weeks normal bodybuilding with a few drop sets here and there, 1 week pyramid sets up to max weight or 85 percent max weight 5 to 6 reps. then 1 more week lighter weight 20 to 25 reps each set, 4 sets. it burns. trust me this works I have never taken any enhancment performance drugs other than creatine and glutamine, EAA's ect. nothing funny and i'm 40 and i can still build muscle this way, Diet is the most important thing at this age we gotta eat clean as we get older, i eat a lot of Yams , oats, bananas, veggies, spices, i love making home made masala sauces to throw on food.
What i do is use a heavier weights where i hit maybe 5-8 reps or even 10....then once i hit failure or see that i am one rep away from failure i perform that last rep very slowly e.g. 30 seconds on the way down or even an isolation hold at each stage of the movement for 10 seconds each...thats my approach. I suppose after failure with the heavy weight you can do a drop set as well but the isolation hold or slow tempo after failure for 30 seconds seems really effective to me.
I trained last 2 months focused on TUT just to try something if it could make me more jacked. I had a sleight caloric deficit (200 a day). I can not agree more. Quality reps > TUT. Sometimes I still use the TUT technique for some isolation excersizes, but not for compounds. I experienced that a good long TUT in heavy excersizes like the bench press does not make the workout or results better. That is why I stopped training that way. Now I just take the weight I can control lifting and feel right about the feeling of the set. In practice, for most heavy lifts I now take a heavier weight and do less reps (still 8-15). It just feels better. I can imagine that it depends on the person. But I don't ever think that it is beneficial to do a 40 or 50 seconds or longer bench press set for example. For isolation like a bicep curl it feels right. It could have something to do with the fatigue of the CNS you mentioned in the video. With that theory and my experience, I don't believe in TUT anymore. TUT depends to much on the exercise you are performing
I got my deadlift from 225 to 465 in 8 months by basically doing nothing but 3 rep sets. My legs didnt really get bigger but they did get hella stronger.
Would it be wrong to say "Maximize your time under tension for each rep, regardless of set length"? 😅 I'd love to hear your thoughts on achieving maximum tension using mind muscle connection w limited overload (vs going heavy) in this context!
@@faqzi7145 think about it, your muscle doesn't know what number is on the dumbbell you just lifted, but it does know how much tension is being exerted on it. If you can increase the tension without increasing the weight, then that's better. It's all about maximising tension. Doing slow positive and slow negative increases tension on the muscle and takes away other muscles that could be helping doing the motion. Thus will produce you more stimulus to grow
I love both you guys, you know your stuff. It’s also true that everybody’s different, but go back in time and ask Sergio Olivia and Serge Nubret if time under tension matters, because they were both big proponents of TUT.
50 reps? It's about doing less reps very slowly as opposed to more reps, of course with a weight that's going to push you to failure in your target rep range. No one I know, who cares about time under tension is doing 50 dumbbell curls in one set lol
I'm in a phase now where I'm not tracking the used weights. Depending on the session I have my work set weights at 5/6 or 13/15 repetitions. After a thorough warmup, 1st set: hard workset, 2nd set: con. failure, 3rd set: ecc. failure. If that isn't possible due to whatever reason, I work with straight sets and utilize intensity techniques such as cluster sets and isometric holds. The burn of the muscle under tension at the shortest position / last few or 'actual working reps' is what will dictate what I will do. Being mindful of loading the musclesfibers with the proper resistance is my only focus, nothing else.
Heavier weights are harder to lift and automatically force the lift to slow down therefore more time under tension but harder and more dangerous to take to real failure Therefore it's better to make a lighter weight feel that heavy to the muscle without the joint stress and dangers by slowing the lighter weight down, lifting for time not reps, focusing on form and maybe adding pauses
@@mountaindog1 Do you need to go to failure only during the last 1-2 sets or you can even do it throughout all the sets after the warm-up, to build muscle efficiently? I don't go to the gym yet, but I do push ups with handles and full ROM, moderate speed, 1-2 times a week, 4-5 sets to failure with 5-8 mins rest in between....but I don't seem to be able to do more than 8 reps each time, even after weeks of doing it...I finish with dropping on the knees and squeezing out some additional reps for my last set. I literally try to "shock" the muscles as Arnold said, but it doesn't seem to work...Maybe I just need to do push ups like 2-3 times a week instead of 1 or 2? Or should I avoid failure until my last set?
I'm 41 and I've never maxed out on anything. I've found that choosing a weight that 6-8 reps is all I can handle, or choosing a lighter weight and lowering the weight at a 4 second rate has worked the best for me
I think the tut thing is supposed to take like 40 seconds so if you are using weight too light and it takes you like 50 reps, maybe that takes 70 seconds, thats too long
I just don't think using powerlifter who most likely, definately are using tons of gear is a fair analogy here. However, I would agree that you obviously don't need 40 seconds tut for hypertrophy. Getting stronger is a must no matter what rep range you are using. If your goal is hypertrophy.
Am I understanding correctly that the "time under tension" should actually be part of your form? I know how important that is and I, personally, try to make sure I have both. Also, John, I know you believe a heavy weight but shorter range of motion is beneficial. Would that achieve the same or is that totally different? I did the shoulder workout you posted a couple of weeks ago and really liked it. I have a little bit of trouble with shoulders. I am just not strong enough and I have a bit of a weak right shoulder. Thanks guys.
The comparison to other sports imo always is a bit out of place. Those people might grow some muscle, but how would they look if they trained differently Second: isn't TuT also about metabolic stress? Cause that's one of the factors some research more focused on, rather than just pure TuT. Great video! Keep it up!
Negatives and drop sets are probably the best way to force time under real tension. The down side is that its hard to do negatives on compound movements, and a lot of people think it takes longer to fully recover from negatives which means less working that muscle per week, and it may negatively impact other workouts where that muscle is a secondary muscle. Its also not realistic to literally do negatives on every excersize for a particular muscle or muscle group
I really wish people would try to figure out, and understand their own body instead of trying to figure out what everyone else is doing for their physique. I mean taking the time, effort, trials and errors, successes, of genuine curiosity. Might be a longer road might be a shorter road but there’s that sense of accomplishment, pride and experience that comes along with it.
What you said is exactly why I love working out. The study and practice of figuring out what works for your body has been an amazing experience. Too many people think that 1 strategy or workout is going to be enough for their goals and it's downright silly and hindering their own progress.
I take every set to failure then hold the partial (failure) rep for as long as I can before putting the weight down. I don't have a clue if there are any benefits to this though?
Hey John what would you recommend for joint care and connective tissue care what kind of a supplement should I take for ligaments tendons and Joint care?
I used to be a form police guy, T.U.T etc but this video is spot on , just like diets everyone is different. Check out erik kanevesky on youtube his form is crap yet he has made an astronimacal transformation ( his latest video ) which shows that what works for one person doesn't always work for others. Now im just experiementing till I find something that works for me then do it.
@@littlehobo261 possibly but to me I don't mind folk who use gear so long as it's done responsibly and with the correct pct etc. Using gear doesn't take away from the fact they still have to eat sleep train right as well as fight through the usual I don't feel like eating right today or training today. Anyway I will agree with you be probably did play about with his doses.
press ups, 8-10 reps over 50 seconds, no pause just slow movement with constant tension, add weight in a backpack to provide the correct level of resistance.
from time to time i've done 5 sec positives, 5 sec negatives and 2 sec hold in the contracted position for 3-6 reps TIL FAILURE, and then i increase weight once i hit 6 reps, so..... if you keep increasing load you will get bigger
For cyclist, hill climbing is definitely muscle building (speaking for myself) but would agree I could never build monster quad on a bike alone, unless I start towing a weight cart, and them I am back at using heavier weights. You do see a lot of terms thrown around, and equally as many defintions of those terms. Rather than consult a dictionary, I prefer to just hit the weights. Some times I go as aheavy as practical, some times medium, some times lighter/higher reps. No one size fits all, all the time. I do like you sensible straight up, discussions, no over the top 'guru' talk, and obviously you know a thing or two about getting results. - Cheers
I recently switched over to focusing on TUT with decent weight... really brings out the pain in regards to pre existing conditions in my shoulders, back etc.... not for me - 8 reps, heavy weight, 25 seconds is my max
I think one of the things rarely talked about with time under tension is many people that gravitate to it want a quick and efficient workout - so having 1 set to failure and the warm up built in is perfect. Perfect for full body workouts too. So by that logic if you go 1 second up and 1 second down on 30 reps to failure - that's 60 seconds - seems to be right in the middle and a sweet spot merging the different methodologies. Rich Piana as an example has his bicep feeder curl results - that's super high rep and therefore super high time under tension. A lot of people on youtube recorded the results they got with merging all this and it was pretty impressive. Blood flow being one of the other major benefits for recovery as even the kneesovertoesguy is also pointing out with sleding. I gained a tonne of muscle around my knees (I don't have a sledge so did deadmilling) by doing 4 minutes of backwards walking under tension daily (has frequency training built in).
Time under tension, as far as I have read, has only been proven in animals. they literally tied a 20 pound weight to a chickens wing and hung it up. after a couple days and then weeks the chicken grew more muscle cells and had hypertrophy. the most comparable thing in humans without torturing or mutilating someone is what gravity does to our bones muscles and tendons. Obviously if we lived in space we would lose muscle mass, and if we woke every morning and put on 100 pound vest we might grow new muscle and they may get bigger, as with an increase in bone density (stronger muscles to support your new frame) ect. The only problem is nobody likes getting a muscle biopsy so its difficult to prove. Time under tension is probably a dead end and likely won't pay out for how much time effort and pain it would take.
Have some joint issues, left elbow snapping, right hip impingement, right acl sprain (healed) and scoliosis. I had to start relying more on TUT and shorter rest + increasing load when I can to help me train while dealing with these nagging issues. My goal is more leanness than size so this works out well as long as my diet is in check. I read a lot of stuff by Steve Hollman and use his 4X training style for most of my exercises.
I think you were holding youre shake in youre mouth instead of swallowing it immediately after "drinking" it. am i right? If yes, why did you do that - is there any reason for this? Sorry for my bad english - Greets from munich, germany!✌🏼
I think its to prevent accidentally choking, or swallowing air and then having to burp, specially since this video seems to be shot at the gym itself, so they had not much shooting time (listen to the background noise). Fun fact though :if ur shake has pure coconut oil in it, and you hold it in your mouth, it gets absorbed into your body through the cheeks. 😊
I will say this time under tension helps with weak body parts. A video called "Weider bodybuilding series" had an exercise where you did a bicep curl and the bicep peak was right underneath your chin. You did it really slow. Weider knew time under tension worked.
The cyclists with the biggest legs are the velodrome sprint cyclists, not the tour de france guys. I think they also do a fair bit of leg training with weight.
Hi, whats your take on greg doucette’s opinion? He says sets should be around 40secs to be effective. If i do a set of lets say 8 reps that takes 40 secs and one with higher weight but half of the time for example (both with quality reps). Do you think one is better than the other with building muscles? I feel like your opinions are different and i dont know what to do. Thanks in advance, appreciate your work man
John, you are the world's classiest bodybuilder. I hope you stay around for the next 100 years. 😎
thank you :)
Sorry bruh he is no more😢
@@pushpitaghosh3627 Feels bad, man. Was in the middle of watching this when I got the news. This straight up sucks - both for his family and the thousands of people who came to John for reliable fitness knowledge.
I am sad.
@@ahoff64 yeah buddy BTW it's my insta I'd we can talk on insta....@indronillghosh
Rip
Without a Doubt you are one of the BEST training vids on youtube.. well done Sensei John
ty!
@@mountaindog1 Brother thanks to you i have combined the Half Rack pulls with my Barbell rows.. those have helped build my back into a Great Wall now
John Sama
Only time TUT came into play is in the 15 to 20 rep range with good contractions and slow neg. To complete failure. That has been probably where I see the most growth
I became kinda weary of complete failure because I once did 8 sets of rows (40 reps), angled push ups (70 reps) and caused myself heinous peripheral damage, couldn't train for 13 days. Could be that I tried to or bench press on top and did some 3'ers tho lol
Growing up I idolized Chuck Sipes and recently went back to his style of training so I'm glad to hear you guys agree you don't need a lot of time under tension
Love u big man.. u made training for me so much easier and made me so much more knowledgeable🙏👍
yea this was a really good video.
Miss you John 🥺
Ive always struggled to build my biceps, even found it hard to focus on my bicep when I curl, even doing very slow reps, the contraction doesnt seem to be there. ive pushed myself to no avail with low reps 5+ and middle 8-12. Usually I hit the wall and i can do maybe 2 more reps after, but Im done. No pump, no gains, nothing. Anyways, since working out from home, ive had to change my approach. Ive got a barbell with less weight, so one day I thought id do some curls until failure. Picked it up, curled quite fast at first and hit about 12 reps and my biceps were burning, but I could push through and eventually hit 20. Rested for a bit , did another set, same thing and man my biceps were bulging like Ive never felt, I could focus on them, flex them and it felt really good. Since that day I do all my reps explosively with a weight i can do for 3-4 sets to failure ( which is usually around 20) and around the 12-15 mark im burning, but its great because its light enough for me to go balls out to 20 ish. This contradicts everything Ive read over the years, for years I was stuck doing heavy, low reps and it did fuck all. Now at 40 i look better than ever, anyway... thought id share that.
Can't agree more, in bodybuilding you have to try stuff out to see what works for you. And not just go with a method that some research has proved to work, because the study groups can never cover the whole spectrum of disparities that human beings have. And i find out that your body can pretty much tell you what works for it, you have just to listen.
Bingo. Same here. I should actually post a video with the headline being “COVID built my best physique of all time”. Had to stay home vs gym due to the China flu. Small setup. Far lighter weights. No distractions and boom. Best damn gains ever using similar high rep techniques you wrote about.
Agreed. I got great gains doing 8-12 but then plateaud so I started doing lighter sets and started getting gains again. I guess once the type 1 fibers get overused you need to start working the type 2. Maybe your arms are type 2 dominant.
Science doesn’t mean 100% truth. There’s things most people would swear by that don’t work for me. There’s things that work well for me that people will tell you to never do under any circumstances. There’s no need in trying to reinvent the wheel but you should always play around with exercises to see what suits you best. We’re all different.
Im glad that you found what works for you.
That being said, how about you mix it up and do both high and low reps. Changes are you see higher growths.
The thing is, high reps is good for blood flow and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. More blood to the muscles means more nutrients you can use to fuel your lifts and also sarcoplasmic hypertrophy means you muscles fibres look slightly larger and can accommodate more nutrients.
But you chances are you will reach a plateau soon as another guy said in the comments. Why, because sarcoplasmic growth means your individual muscles increase in size but the actual number of fibres stays the same. Unfortunately, your fibres can only grow that large and if you stop training, you might lose your apparent gains fast.
This is where heavy weights and short reps come into play. This triggers myofibrillar hypertrophy, which is the addition of more muscle fibres (and not simply the increase in volume of existing fibres). This type of hypertrophy lasts longer after you stop training, while sarcoplasmic growth gains is dependent on the amount of fluid in your muscles at any given time.
So yeah, dont cancel out heavy weights. Periodize your training and include both.
This conversation is so underrated! So much essential wisdom, knowledge, experience for all levels of bodybuilding. Perhaps just add, discuss phases of the rep, flex style positives, peak contractions, slower negatives, within engaged range of motion, etc... engaging the mind muscle connection... if you read this comment please make this video expounding on phases of the rep to increase intensity and the physiological reponses... your work is truly outstanding. Thank you, blessings brothers.
Glad you enjoyed it!
in one line
As many reps as possible with as heavy weight as possible for as long as possible without getting hurt
I think it’s important to distinguish between time under tension and time under maximum tension. I think that’s where the 50 seconds comes from,
I see Meadows "Skywalker" video and I instantly smash the like button 👍👍👍
Always in for a treat when these two collab!
Best channel, your advice has really refined my training, also prevented lots of injuries. Kudos big man. Keep up the great work.
I’ve been lifting for 12 years now. I’m pissed in just now finding out about you the last couple weeks. I love the videos and your workouts and tips have helped me greatly in the gym. Thank you for the knowledge and keep the videos coming!
I started incorporating giant sets inspired by Milos Sarchev(thinks that's the last name) and drop sets into my training and my progress took off. I after awhile realized I was doing time under tension. I believe training always has to be intense for it to be a quality workout session. When I go to the gym 80% of the people rarely break a sweat, and here iam with my sweat towel to wipe myself off after every working set. I also incorporated Dorian's style of trainin with two warm up sets and two hard balls to the wall to failure working sets. Doing this I notice i spend half the time in the gym but when i leave I'm zapped and on the weekends i wake up at 6 or 7 in the gym by 9 workout for an hour and then come home eat and take a two hour nap because I completely zapped all my energy. Anyway time under tension works but it also has to be intense time under tension. Thanks John
i try to avoid the overthinking or over analysing... discomfort, pump or fatigue = mission accomplished.
Thanks again for great insight on (time under tension). I enjoy hearing how you and Eugene think...I take your tips to the gym and actually do them. Keep it up!
.. More important than the number of reps is the gradual progressive increase in resistance; mixing up the reps schemes however, will give better results and preserve the joints and connective tissue
RIP 🪦 John Meadows
I have found that if I concentrate on time and tension, whether it's 4 reps or 20 reps, it forces me to do the rep more slowly and keep the correct muscles in play by being more able to feel the mind-muscle connection due to reduced momentum. Keeping momentum at a minimum, should reduce the chance of injury as well. This has helped me a lot in the last year, with my weaker areas, back and legs.
Another excellent video from John..as usual great info on the things that matter..thanks John and eugene..👍
I've been doing 6 days a week recently and it seems to work great. Legs, Push, Pull. First 3 Strength oriented with main exercise rep ranges 4-6 + some accessory at the end. Next 3 days hypertrophy oriented with main exercises a little higher 8-12 and accessory afterwards as well.
Did it work m8?
This is pure "GOLD" you're giving us here John! I am so thankful I literally stumbled on your page!!!
One way I enjoy training is when it starts to burn that's when you begin to count 1 1 1 till you can't do anymore.
These two made a great collab
When I was 14 I had to ride a Bicycle on Pleasant Run from Cedar Hill Texas to Lancaster Texas 8 miles one way to get to work, only one gear worked, the high gear, after a month of riding I no longer had to get off my bike to rest. There were a lot of steep hills to and from work and there was nothing pleasant about it but when I went to visit an old friend of mine I was wearing shorts when his mother said to me... “Michael, your legs look really strong, what have you been doing lately?” My point is the tension works if you are forced to ride the Bicycle in high gear.😄
I am moving to TUT workouts. With Asthma I usually take longer rests in the past. So my upper body is thin but I have big quads from BMX/MTB racing back in the 1990’s. Again I am using bicycling to increase my VO2. This helps with me take shorter rests and do more super sets. I wish I knew this 20 years ago, I would have been a chic magnet back then like my bro and cousins. Now in my 40’s Im getting there with TUT. Thanks John👍
I think Ronnie Coleman proved that. Heavy weight and high reps.
made my day
"Everybody wanna be a bodybuilder but no one wanna lift this heavy ass weight".
yep, and Dorian Yates
Well arnold and franco and stuff also trained pretty heavy
Coleman lifted an ungodly amount of weight that no human was biologically capable of doing without severe consequences later down the road, now he’s paying for it. The human skeletal and muscular system just wasn’t meant for that much weight
Lower reps, higher weights = greater stress on joints, greater chance of injury.
The mixture of having an intermediate weight but still doing 6-8 seconds up and down is scientifically proven to have a major effect in the muscle groups vs the normal way of lifting.
Great video and woud just like to add that pro cyclists also do very heavy squats and leg press movements and this is wat is causing the leg growth
Track cyclists.
Wish someone told me this from day 1
5 to 6 reps under 85 percent max lift, is pretty much what "5 and 5 training" is all about it. and it works, i know guys smaller than me that have ripped chest and can bench more than me cuz they been doing the 5 and 5 method for a couple years doing their bench presses. From what i can see it doesn't build overrall mass as much but more strenghth, that's where my Russian friend's training method of 4 weeks comes in. 2 weeks normal bodybuilding with a few drop sets here and there, 1 week pyramid sets up to max weight or 85 percent max weight 5 to 6 reps. then 1 more week lighter weight 20 to 25 reps each set, 4 sets. it burns. trust me this works I have never taken any enhancment performance drugs other than creatine and glutamine, EAA's ect. nothing funny and i'm 40 and i can still build muscle this way, Diet is the most important thing at this age we gotta eat clean as we get older, i eat a lot of Yams , oats, bananas, veggies, spices, i love making home made masala sauces to throw on food.
@Dr retardo stronglifts.com/5x5/#gref
What i do is use a heavier weights where i hit maybe 5-8 reps or even 10....then once i hit failure or see that i am one rep away from failure i perform that last rep very slowly e.g. 30 seconds on the way down or even an isolation hold at each stage of the movement for 10 seconds each...thats my approach. I suppose after failure with the heavy weight you can do a drop set as well but the isolation hold or slow tempo after failure for 30 seconds seems really effective to me.
I trained last 2 months focused on TUT just to try something if it could make me more jacked. I had a sleight caloric deficit (200 a day). I can not agree more. Quality reps > TUT. Sometimes I still use the TUT technique for some isolation excersizes, but not for compounds. I experienced that a good long TUT in heavy excersizes like the bench press does not make the workout or results better. That is why I stopped training that way. Now I just take the weight I can control lifting and feel right about the feeling of the set. In practice, for most heavy lifts I now take a heavier weight and do less reps (still 8-15). It just feels better. I can imagine that it depends on the person. But I don't ever think that it is beneficial to do a 40 or 50 seconds or longer bench press set for example. For isolation like a bicep curl it feels right. It could have something to do with the fatigue of the CNS you mentioned in the video. With that theory and my experience, I don't believe in TUT anymore. TUT depends to much on the exercise you are performing
When are we gonna get that mountain dog/ct fletcher video???
that wold be cool
I got my deadlift from 225 to 465 in 8 months by basically doing nothing but 3 rep sets. My legs didnt really get bigger but they did get hella stronger.
Had an EAAs ad before this video HAHA!
:)
Would it be wrong to say "Maximize your time under tension for each rep, regardless of set length"? 😅
I'd love to hear your thoughts on achieving maximum tension using mind muscle connection w limited overload (vs going heavy) in this context!
I’ve noticed a lot more activation and stimulation while using a slower and more controlled motion.
X. Y. But what has that done for you? More muscle gains or no?
More stimulation equals more growth, with the proper nutrition and rest of course.
Dr retardo People have different goals. Size > strength some people are Strength > size.
@@faqzi7145 think about it, your muscle doesn't know what number is on the dumbbell you just lifted, but it does know how much tension is being exerted on it. If you can increase the tension without increasing the weight, then that's better.
It's all about maximising tension. Doing slow positive and slow negative increases tension on the muscle and takes away other muscles that could be helping doing the motion. Thus will produce you more stimulus to grow
If you don't lift correctly you do nothing but waste time. Slow and controlled make you stronger in the long run.
Thanks!
What are your thoughts on Myo-reps?
I was not expecting that voice and accent from the Asian guy
@Peter Brandtman Yep, he's an Aussie
He’s Polish
Yeah imagine a world outside whatever county you live in...
@@camq-py7bs Reminds me of an old meme I saw where someone photoshopped the US onto a photo of the moon and some people thought it was the earth lol
Because you’re uncultured dumbass🤡🤡🤡🤡off yaself
I know what works.. John's methods.!!
Dr. Greg Doucette sent me here.
welcome aboard!
I love both you guys, you know your stuff. It’s also true that everybody’s different, but go back in time and ask Sergio Olivia and Serge Nubret if time under tension matters, because they were both big proponents of TUT.
50 reps? It's about doing less reps very slowly as opposed to more reps, of course with a weight that's going to push you to failure in your target rep range. No one I know, who cares about time under tension is doing 50 dumbbell curls in one set lol
I'm in a phase now where I'm not tracking the used weights. Depending on the session I have my work set weights at 5/6 or 13/15 repetitions.
After a thorough warmup, 1st set: hard workset, 2nd set: con. failure, 3rd set: ecc. failure. If that isn't possible due to whatever reason, I work with straight sets and utilize intensity techniques such as cluster sets and isometric holds.
The burn of the muscle under tension at the shortest position / last few or 'actual working reps' is what will dictate what I will do.
Being mindful of loading the musclesfibers with the proper resistance is my only focus, nothing else.
Thank U John!👍🏾
Ty Eugene too!
Really interesting, thanks a lot for this! 😊
Great vid! On compounds i always do 4sets of 4-6till failure and do like 2sets of 8-12 failure for extreme pump it works good for me;)
Heavier weights are harder to lift and automatically force the lift to slow down therefore more time under tension but harder and more dangerous to take to real failure
Therefore it's better to make a lighter weight feel that heavy to the muscle without the joint stress and dangers by slowing the lighter weight down, lifting for time not reps, focusing on form and maybe adding pauses
Super good advice. Thanks!!
Glad it was helpful!
It was and I am for sure following your advice. Stay healthy ❤️! Greetings from Switzerland.
Remember what Mentzer said, he was 90 percent dead on right!!
How about going to failure?Yates was big on that; in my mind it equates more to strength gains...….
you have to go to failure, just need to be strategic about doing it...
@@mountaindog1 Do you need to go to failure only during the last 1-2 sets or you can even do it throughout all the sets after the warm-up, to build muscle efficiently? I don't go to the gym yet, but I do push ups with handles and full ROM, moderate speed, 1-2 times a week, 4-5 sets to failure with 5-8 mins rest in between....but I don't seem to be able to do more than 8 reps each time, even after weeks of doing it...I finish with dropping on the knees and squeezing out some additional reps for my last set. I literally try to "shock" the muscles as Arnold said, but it doesn't seem to work...Maybe I just need to do push ups like 2-3 times a week instead of 1 or 2? Or should I avoid failure until my last set?
I'm 41 and I've never maxed out on anything. I've found that choosing a weight that 6-8 reps is all I can handle, or choosing a lighter weight and lowering the weight at a 4 second rate has worked the best for me
Never trying anything else and saying it is the best ....
John while I'm resting and getting ready for my next workout I'm watching your videos to learn more
Nene, nandito ka.
Me too andro. Its all i do. The buisness of bodybuilding has become my life . and my wife and kids are suoer supportive
I think the tut thing is supposed to take like 40 seconds so if you are using weight too light and it takes you like 50 reps, maybe that takes 70 seconds, thats too long
I just don't think using powerlifter who most likely, definately are using tons of gear is a fair analogy here. However, I would agree that you obviously don't need 40 seconds tut for hypertrophy. Getting stronger is a must no matter what rep range you are using. If your goal is hypertrophy.
Am I understanding correctly that the "time under tension" should actually be part of your form? I know how important that is and I, personally, try to make sure I have both. Also, John, I know you believe a heavy weight but shorter range of motion is beneficial. Would that achieve the same or is that totally different? I did the shoulder workout you posted a couple of weeks ago and really liked it. I have a little bit of trouble with shoulders. I am just not strong enough and I have a bit of a weak right shoulder. Thanks guys.
The comparison to other sports imo always is a bit out of place. Those people might grow some muscle, but how would they look if they trained differently
Second: isn't TuT also about metabolic stress? Cause that's one of the factors some research more focused on, rather than just pure TuT.
Great video! Keep it up!
TUT can lead to metabolic stress....at some point you get cell swelling etc...so you could make an argument one leads to another. Thank you.
RIP legend
What about negatives. When you lower the weight slowly.
its always good to control the eccentric
Negatives and drop sets are probably the best way to force time under real tension. The down side is that its hard to do negatives on compound movements, and a lot of people think it takes longer to fully recover from negatives which means less working that muscle per week, and it may negatively impact other workouts where that muscle is a secondary muscle.
Its also not realistic to literally do negatives on every excersize for a particular muscle or muscle group
I really wish people would try to figure out, and understand their own body instead of trying to figure out what everyone else is doing for their physique. I mean taking the time, effort, trials and errors, successes, of genuine curiosity. Might be a longer road might be a shorter road but there’s that sense of accomplishment, pride and experience that comes along with it.
Well said
wireless thank you !
What you said is exactly why I love working out. The study and practice of figuring out what works for your body has been an amazing experience. Too many people think that 1 strategy or workout is going to be enough for their goals and it's downright silly and hindering their own progress.
Joshua Philbert 100% same here. it’s great to listen to some good experiences and things to pick up on but make your own as well.
yes, what I have been doing for years..love it!
I take every set to failure then hold the partial (failure) rep for as long as I can before putting the weight down.
I don't have a clue if there are any benefits to this though?
Hey John what would you recommend for joint care and connective tissue care what kind of a supplement should I take for ligaments tendons and Joint care?
joint care - made by Granite
@@mountaindog1 thank you
Nice one
I used to be a form police guy, T.U.T etc but this video is spot on , just like diets everyone is different. Check out erik kanevesky on youtube his form is crap yet he has made an astronimacal transformation ( his latest video ) which shows that what works for one person doesn't always work for others. Now im just experiementing till I find something that works for me then do it.
Not upping his doses?
@@littlehobo261 possibly but to me I don't mind folk who use gear so long as it's done responsibly and with the correct pct etc. Using gear doesn't take away from the fact they still have to eat sleep train right as well as fight through the usual I don't feel like eating right today or training today. Anyway I will agree with you be probably did play about with his doses.
Time under tension is a crucial determinant for muscle growth. Everybody claiming anything else don't understand how hypertrophy works.
RPE some one that I have heard that they don’t count the reps until it’s hard
press ups, 8-10 reps over 50 seconds, no pause just slow movement with constant tension, add weight in a backpack to provide the correct level of resistance.
This was an excellent video. Very interesting perspective
Time under meaningful load, not time under tension
It's time under high tension, not time under tension.
from time to time i've done 5 sec positives, 5 sec negatives and 2 sec hold in the contracted position for 3-6 reps TIL FAILURE, and then i increase weight once i hit 6 reps, so..... if you keep increasing load you will get bigger
For cyclist, hill climbing is definitely muscle building (speaking for myself) but would agree I could never build monster quad on a bike alone, unless I start towing a weight cart, and them I am back at using heavier weights. You do see a lot of terms thrown around, and equally as many defintions of those terms.
Rather than consult a dictionary, I prefer to just hit the weights. Some times I go as aheavy as practical, some times medium, some times lighter/higher reps. No one size fits all, all the time.
I do like you sensible straight up, discussions, no over the top 'guru' talk, and obviously you know a thing or two about getting results. - Cheers
I start breaking my plateau right after I stop thinking about time under tension and start incorporating putting the muscle under tension.
I recently switched over to focusing on TUT with decent weight... really brings out the pain in regards to pre existing conditions in my shoulders, back etc.... not for me - 8 reps, heavy weight, 25 seconds is my max
I think one of the things rarely talked about with time under tension is many people that gravitate to it want a quick and efficient workout - so having 1 set to failure and the warm up built in is perfect. Perfect for full body workouts too. So by that logic if you go 1 second up and 1 second down on 30 reps to failure - that's 60 seconds - seems to be right in the middle and a sweet spot merging the different methodologies. Rich Piana as an example has his bicep feeder curl results - that's super high rep and therefore super high time under tension. A lot of people on youtube recorded the results they got with merging all this and it was pretty impressive. Blood flow being one of the other major benefits for recovery as even the kneesovertoesguy is also pointing out with sleding. I gained a tonne of muscle around my knees (I don't have a sledge so did deadmilling) by doing 4 minutes of backwards walking under tension daily (has frequency training built in).
Time under tension, as far as I have read, has only been proven in animals. they literally tied a 20 pound weight to a chickens wing and hung it up. after a couple days and then weeks the chicken grew more muscle cells and had hypertrophy. the most comparable thing in humans without torturing or mutilating someone is what gravity does to our bones muscles and tendons. Obviously if we lived in space we would lose muscle mass, and if we woke every morning and put on 100 pound vest we might grow new muscle and they may get bigger, as with an increase in bone density (stronger muscles to support your new frame) ect. The only problem is nobody likes getting a muscle biopsy so its difficult to prove. Time under tension is probably a dead end and likely won't pay out for how much time effort and pain it would take.
Have some joint issues, left elbow snapping, right hip impingement, right acl sprain (healed) and scoliosis. I had to start relying more on TUT and shorter rest + increasing load when I can to help me train while dealing with these nagging issues. My goal is more leanness than size so this works out well as long as my diet is in check.
I read a lot of stuff by Steve Hollman and use his 4X training style for most of my exercises.
When I think TUT I think very light weight very slow controlling movement 12 reps that take 45 seconds pure agony
Love the Info.thanks..
I think you were holding youre shake in youre mouth instead of swallowing it immediately after "drinking" it. am i right? If yes, why did you do that - is there any reason for this? Sorry for my bad english - Greets from munich, germany!✌🏼
Because it tastes so good.
I think its to prevent accidentally choking, or swallowing air and then having to burp, specially since this video seems to be shot at the gym itself, so they had not much shooting time (listen to the background noise). Fun fact though :if ur shake has pure coconut oil in it, and you hold it in your mouth, it gets absorbed into your body through the cheeks. 😊
Its to get extra time under tension lol
Time under tension was with my ex-wife.
Lol, one rep just hold for 2 minutes.
Here’s the quick answer. Yes it’s important. Tut + progression overload = gainz
Great video as always John. I would love to know your take on the negatives and loading the muscle on the eccentric part of the motion.
a little is good, but no need to get carried away with it
Sounds like you need two variables. Time under tension times the load. Time under tension is just another word for reps. Our muscles can’t count.
This gentleman is so missed
I will say this time under tension helps with weak body parts. A video called "Weider bodybuilding series" had an exercise where you did a bicep curl and the bicep peak was right underneath your chin. You did it really slow. Weider knew time under tension worked.
wow dude ur videos are so good holy molly
wondering would 60 reps for biceps be too much ? for a day workout . splitted in three different sets
Thanks 👌
💪 BOOOM!!
Great video, a lot of points were covered and the explanation was really thorough!
The cyclists with the biggest legs are the velodrome sprint cyclists, not the tour de france guys. I think they also do a fair bit of leg training with weight.
Hi, whats your take on greg doucette’s opinion? He says sets should be around 40secs to be effective. If i do a set of lets say 8 reps that takes 40 secs and one with higher weight but half of the time for example (both with quality reps). Do you think one is better than the other with building muscles? I feel like your opinions are different and i dont know what to do. Thanks in advance, appreciate your work man
Both sets with the same reps but differnt weight and time under tension i meant
I put my like before watching the video...because I know jhon is great!