Originally Posted by
gbranton
I used to manage a gym and did personal training for select clients during that time and have used a variety of different routines on myself and my clients over the years and new thinking backed by research is making waves in the personal training community.
The problem with doing the slow thing is the way it recruits muscle fibers, research is emerging that points to this not being the best way to train. It has been proven that the human body attempts to be efficient by responding to a load with the least amount of muscle fibers required to lift that load, basically the smallest motor units will always be recruited first; your largest will always be recruited last, in a fixed and orderly fashion. Furthermore you cannot sustain maximum motor unit recruitment for more than 15 seconds. A set of slow reps will last much longer than fifteen seconds and at that time fast fatiguing, fast twitch motor units that possess Type IIB muscle fibers are beginning to cease to fire. These motor units are capable of inducing huge amounts of strength and hypertrophy increases. Lifting slowly with any load less than 100% of your one rep maximum will not recruit all of your motor units. BUT you can make up the difference by attempting to lift all loads as fast as possible. So the reps should be performed FAST, concentrating on speed, range of motion, and technique.
Also if you concentrate on speed, you can work with smaller weights, making injury less probable AND get better results.
5X5 is not new, it dates back to at least the 1970's but research is starting to come around to what some bodybuilders have known for a long time, but with a twist: While 25 may indeed be the magic number, the number of reps per set is irrelevant. It's the total number of reps per exercise that matter, perform as many sets as it takes to get the reps with speed and perfect form. Perfect form determines the end of a set, the your form breaks down, rest. With a heavy load, one guy might need 4 sets, another guy might need 7 sets. All you need to think about is the target number of total reps, and the length of the rest periods.
The rest periods coincide with the load and goal of the workout. Since each workout is different, you would use different rest periods. Your rest periods are massively important because the rest allows you to keep the speed as fast as possible.
There is a fantastic book on all this that has quickly become very influential among all the trainers I know, it is called "Get Huge in a Hurry" by Chad Waterbury. Contrary to the title, it has a wealth of information, all backed by research, for all levels of fitness. It is a fantastic book, I highly recommend it, this book can change your whole way of thinking about weight training.
Incorporating these principles and a few others I have trained competitive athletes who had tried a variety of different regimens and gotten fantastic results.