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Long reps or short reps?

post #1 of 8
5/10/07 at 6:31pm
Thread Starter 
Is doing a few long, stretched out repetitions of a weightlifting exercise better than doing many short, quick ones? Or are they the same?

Additionally, is there maybe a mathematical formula or something to figure out how many short ones would equal a long one or vice versa?

The reason I ask is because I heard that you build leaner muscle with many quick repetitions, but you build faster with long, slow ones. I'm skeptical but its just plausible enough to be true.
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post #2 of 8
5/10/07 at 6:36pm
Long reps, and opposing the bar heavily when its going down, especially when it too much weight (negatives) is a tried and true way of building muscle and can build quite a bit of hypertrophy. I believe this is Soph's favorite method of building muscle.
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post #3 of 8
5/10/07 at 10:50pm
Whatever you do, if you don't keep it up you'll shrink back to your normal size. Weightlifting gains are temporary.
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post #4 of 8
5/10/07 at 11:24pm
It depends on the exercise, how slow, and how fast. If you do them slow, you won't develop any power, but you will increase strength some. What do you mean by "leaner" muscle? Just do normally paced reps, don't mess around with random stuff like this unless you can afford to experiment BECAUSE YOU'RE JUST SO DAMN HUGE
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post #5 of 8
5/11/07 at 4:29pm
Doing super fast reps as a way of building "lean muscle" is just stupid. The idea behind this is that you're somehow doing cardio and weight training at the same time. This is a pretty dumb idea. When you're lifting weights, go for a moderate to slow pace and leave the cardio for after you're done with lifting.
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post #6 of 8
5/15/07 at 5:07am
i like to exert quickly and release slowly. this minimizes chance for injury while maintaining moderate gains on strength.

so for example, on the bench press, i'll push the barbell upward with a controlled but brisk force and at the apex i will slowly begin to lower the weight. The weight probably travels downward for about 3-4 seconds before it touches my chest.
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post #7 of 8
5/19/07 at 6:02pm
It's not exactly a formula or anything but I've always heard the advantage of longer reps is that you are increasing the time that your muscles are under tension and contracted.
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post #8 of 8
5/19/07 at 6:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coulomb View Post
i like to exert quickly and release slowly. this minimizes chance for injury while maintaining moderate gains on strength.

so for example, on the bench press, i'll push the barbell upward with a controlled but brisk force and at the apex i will slowly begin to lower the weight. The weight probably travels downward for about 3-4 seconds before it touches my chest.

That isn't so bad as long as you are using proper technique. The real danger would be releasing very quickly, e.g. very fast eccentric muscle action.
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