More Gems on Resistance Exercise

The authors of these articles [Gillies et al., 2006: (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16685548); Campos et al., 2002: (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12436270); Dudley et al., 1991: (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1859341)] looked at some differences in the responses to different types of resistance exercise. The authors varied the lengths of the repetitions, etc. I'm not going to actually discuss the individual articles, partly because the repetitions are bizarre. I've never known anyone to do 7-second repetitions, and I don't know of anyone who seriously thinks that slow concentric contractions (lifting the weight up) are good for anything. The main variables of interest are the length of time of the eccentric contraction (lowering the weight), the numbers of repetitions that are required before the muscle group has become exhausted, at a given weight, and the total length of time of the set (my sense is that this should remain sort of constant and be maybe 16-20 seconds or something). I generally think 2-3 seconds should be the maximum length of time for an eccentric contraction, and I think all repetitions should be done that way (no counting on the concentric contraction and 1-1000-2-1000 or up to 3-1000 on the eccentric). Going to 3-1000 makes the eccentric movement about 4 seconds, and so each repetition ends up being 1+4 = 5 (4-5 seconds). One should vary the "target" for the repetitions per set in a manner that depends on the length of time one takes for each eccentric movement. If one is doing 4 second repetitions, one should choose a weight that allows one to do maybe 3-6 repetitions per set. If the repetitions are 3 seconds, that number of repetitions might be a little higher. The main thing is to always go to exhaustion on each set and to not try to increase the weight by doing awkward, very short sets that are unpleasant to do. "Don't go flailing your arms around and botch it. You wanna make progress? Wanna stay on the green and blue, fun-colored "novice weights" for the rest of your life, or do you wanna get to WORK. Hah?" Varying the length of time of the eccentric contraction might not sound like it would make any difference, but it makes a big difference. 1-second-long and even 1.5 eccentric contractions/movements are not controlled, really. But the slightly longer eccentrics just "work" a lot more effectively. "I once knew a guy. Poor bastard went to the gym every day of his life. He went uuuuup and down that gym, and--20 years later--darnit if he wasn't still stuck in the bunny gym/beginner gym. I said to him, 'you show up in something other than a pair of 1985 trousers, from The Nautilus Book (http://books.google.com/books?ei=TvCJSuasH6f8ygSTzemeDg&q=%22The+Nautilus+Book%22&btnG=Search+Books), and I'll tell you how to do the reps without tanking them, do you hear me.'"