There has been some recent talk and studies performed in the efficacy of slow rep “intense” training vs fast paced high volume training.

Bodybuilding connoisseurs will recognise this as the age old HIT vs Volume debate.

The premise behind this renewed interest is whether slowing down repetitions to 6-12 seconds per individual rep creates greater muscle gain. This hypothesis is borne out of the theory that muscle growth signals are elicited by “Time Under Tension” which we will call TUT.

One of the greatest confounding variables in the search for truth on this topic is the simple fact that most people muscles and joints are not working optimally whilst training. Slowing down the pace can paradoxically do the opposite of what it’s supposed to do and just about deactivate the muscle you are trying to isolate.

This effect is especially prominent if you have accumulated multiple injuries that have healed over by laying scar tissue and permanently stiffening muscles.

What I have found is that slow rep training is more effective provided that you are able to engage the targeted muscles effectively and that they in turn can glide against each other and pull your skeleton along  a path which maintains load and therefore tension upon them.

In my case many of my muscles and joints had accumulated deactivating injuries to an extent that my mind muscle connection was in most places compromised to an alarming extent.

In the last two months I have begun ART treatment to attempt to reverse this old man like decrepitude and what I am finding is that even minimal time under tension is now able to elicit a pump and a feeling of contraction that I hadn’ t felt in a looooong time.

As I regain my strength I am hoping to put this theory to the ultimate test and commence more serious training, implementing slow rep training alongside ManUp supplementation in what should now prove to be superypertrophic stimuli.