How to use time under tension to build muscle strength

How to use time under tension to build muscle strength

At some point in your fitness journey, there's a good chance you'll make full use of the dumbbells, kettlebells, or weight plates you have access to at your local (or home) gym. The problem? You need these increasingly heavy tools to continue building strength and muscle.

Or so you thought: Increasing your time under tension can help you advance your workout without having to increase your weight. How does it work? Here, a fitness expert shares the benefits of increasing your time under tension and how you can use the resistance training technique during your own workouts.

What is time under tension?

Simply put, time under tension refers to the time your muscles spend contracting against external resistance, says Tessia De Mattos, PT, DPT, CSCS, a physical therapist and strength and conditioning coach in New York. For example, the slower you squat and stand up, the more time you spend under tension, she says. "The total time your muscles contract is much longer than at a normal pace," she adds. You can increase time under tension by lengthening the concentric (when your muscle fibers shorten) or eccentric (when your muscle fibers lengthen) parts of a movement, says De Mattos. Or you can get the job done by spending more time in an isometric position — holding still so the muscle doesn't lengthen or shorten, research shows. (Related: What to Know About Eccentric vs. Concentric and Isometric Movements)

The benefits of increasing time under tension

Although it's fairly easy to increase the time under tension during your workout, it can be a valuable tool to use during your strength training routine.

Can increase muscle strength and hypertrophy

By slowing down your reps and increasing your time under tension, you may see more muscle gains. In fact, a small 2012 study found that performing leg extensions with slow lifting movements until fatigue resulted in a greater increase in muscle protein synthesis rates than when the same exercise was performed quickly. During muscle protein synthesis, cells rebuild damaged muscles with amino acids, which can ultimately promote muscle hypertrophy (aka growth), says De Mattos. Similarly, a study published in 2016 found that slowing the eccentric portion of a movement increased muscle activation and the production of blood lactate — a sign of fatigue within a working muscle that itself promotes hypertrophy, according to information from UC Davis Health.

In theory, increasing time under tension, particularly during the eccentric portion of the movements, should cause you to tire more quickly, she explains. There are many good reasons why it should help improve your strength, but the research hasn't caught up, says De Mattos.

Establishes healthy movement patterns

Aside from potential gains, incorporating breaks into your pace can help you develop body awareness and learn the proper mechanics of a new movement, which can be especially useful for fitness newbies, says De Mattos. "If a person has never exercised in their life or has no experience being active, their body confidence is probably not good," she adds. “[Increasing time under tension] is a great way to learn how to move.” Even advanced gym-goers can learn a thing or two by slowing down their reps. For example, if you intentionally perform a squat slowly, you may look in the mirror and see your knees buckling inward or extending way past your toes—forming mistakes that can go unnoticed if you're constantly doing the rapid-fire reps, she explains. "It gives you a chance to correct that before you develop bad habits," she adds.

Supports tendon health

While you can increase the time under tension during concentric and eccentric movements, De Mattos suggests slowing down the latter portion as it can help support tendon health. "There's a lot of research that supports the fact that tendons, which connect muscle to bone, really like slow, eccentric loading - they respond very well to it," she says. In fact, both eccentric and heavy, slow resistance training have been found to improve symptoms and tendon structure in people recovering from chronic tendon diseases.

How to use time under tension during strength training

Increasing your time under tension is as simple as increasing the time you spend completing each repetition of a particular exercise. But there are a few more tips to keep in mind when incorporating it into your resistance training sessions.

Use bodyweight or weight-bearing exercises

Because all exercises have eccentric and concentric phases, you can increase your time under tension by performing each of your go-to movements, says De Mattos. You could slow down your squats, leg extensions, or Romanian deadlifts to strengthen your lower body, or your bench press and bent-over rows to do the same for your upper half, she adds. Or you can increase the time under tension by briefly holding your position during the exercise, such as: B. during a repetition of the Superman or the Bulgarian split squat.

Plus, you don't have to use weights to feel the burn. "It's a great way to make [a bodyweight exercise] harder on yourself," says De Mattos. "Assuming you're just doing stuff at home and don't have access to the gym - throwing up the tempo and playing around with how fast or slow you perform is a great way to introduce variation and progress yourself." If you're adding weights, choose a load that's lighter than what you would use for regular reps, she suggests. “If you increase your time under tension and do something with weights, it will feel a lot harder.”

Count to five

To perform an effective time-under-tension workout, you should spend about five seconds on each repetition, says De Mattos. “Any more than that will feel like torture,” she jokes. If you want to push your limits, try aiming for six seconds per repetition, which has the greatest effect on improving muscle strength, according to a review published in Sports Medicine. To make sure you're actually working for that period, have a workout partner count out loud (with Mississippis) or set a timer, suggests De Mattos. Without that accountability, you could cheat your reps and end up working only half the time needed, promoting muscle fatigue and hypertrophy, she says.

Don't miss out on rest breaks

As you increase time under tension, it's important to give your body adequate rest between sets. "If you're doing anything for strength or hypertrophy, you should give your muscles adequate rest - at least a minute between sets," says De Mattos. "If you go back faster, that means it wasn't hard enough or you're trying to get your heart rate up and take it to a HIIT class where you're improving your cardiovascular health and endurance, but not necessarily strength." Translation: Just like your reps, don't rush through your rest breaks.