Fitness Minutes 16: T.U.T.

"Do 4 sets of these exercises for between 8 to 12 reps if you want to put on size!" That's the typical advice given by most fitness experts and for most of us, resistance training or weight training often means heaving the weights quickly up and down, simply focusing on the number of the reps.

 

Is this the most effective way of training? Are you getting consistent muscular gains using this method? 

Coming across the advices seen in fitness magazines and personal trainers indicate the best repetition range for muscle gain (or hypertrophy) is 8 to 12. However they failed to take notice that in performing each rep, they need to pay close attention to "Time-under-tension" (T.U.T.).

 

 

It refers to the amount of time per rep (or set, or exercise, or workout) that the muscle is under tension. For example, if an individual takes 3 seconds to perform 1 repetition of a bodyweight squat, it is said that the T.U.T. was 3 seconds. If someone performs 10 repetitions, then the workout T.U.T. was 30 seconds.

 

T.U.T. is usually written using numbers like this 2010. Using the bodyweight squat as an example, this would mean that you will take exactly 2 seconds to lower yourself. The next number will mean whether you pause at the bottom or not; 0 means no pause. The 3rd number represents the time needed to raise you back to the start position which is 1 second. The last number stands for the amount of time used to pause at the top of the movement.

 

 

Charles Poliquin, a strength and conditioning coach, has come up with the following numbers as a guide to help us determine our T.U.T.

 

Therefore if hypertrophy is what you want then a full set should last between 40-70 seconds. Like any new toy, you will want to play with right away; you should incorporate this into your next workout in the very next session. Remember that if you want to identify its success or failure, you must show consistency in its usage.

 

Every few weeks or so, determine if your applied T.U.T. is working well for you. So no one is the same, what works for an individual may not work for another. I may need to stay within 40-second sets and you may need 70-second sets. Muscle growth is not about magic numbers or pills, but it is about hard work and determination.

 

I have used this for many years and have time and time again seen the results achieved. Therefore I hope you learn from it and very soon you will be on your way to fast muscle gain in no time.

 

* This article is contributed by Mr. Ong Beng Hwee, a strength coach and consultant to Vitage Fitness Pte. Ltd. For more information on T.U.T., you may email him at ongbenghwee@gmail.com

 

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