Speed Up Your Progress

It’s easy to be so preoccupied with the number of sets and reps in your routine that you never consider the speed at which you perform them. But this often-overlooked training variable is critical for getting the most out of your workouts. In fact, researchers at The University of Sydney (New South Wales, Australia) compared the effect of slow and fast rep speeds on muscle growth and strength, and found that slower reps had the edge when it came to boosting hypertrophy while faster reps were superior for strength.

So how’s a girl to train? Actually, your body will benefit from both protocols. This research confirms the long-standing Weider Principle of muscle confusion, which emphasizes mixing up your exercise variables (sets, reps, rest periods and rep speed, to name a few) to keep your muscles from adapting.

USE IT: Switch up your rep tempo every 4–6 weeks. For slow-rep training, take 3–5 seconds each to complete the concentric (positive) and eccentric (negative) portions of the rep. For fast-rep training, take less than a second to complete each portion of the rep.