It’s a war.
At present, my pal Kate Vidulich and I are having a battle.
No, it’s not over the typical things that women argue about…We’re arguing about rep tempo and the most effective fat burning protocol.
This is what we can agree on:
Lactic acid is the precursor to Growth Hormone (GH). The more lactic acid present in the bloodstream, the more growth hormone (GH) your body releases. This is key because GH causes muscles to grow and attacks stubborn fat stores. We agree that adjusting rep tempo will increase lactic acid production.
Kate suggests that slowing down the concentric phase of any movement is the most effective strategy to creating more lactic acid.
I prefer slowing down the eccentric phase of any movement as the most effective lactic acid creating strategy. This also increases DOMS (or delayed onset muscle soreness) and strength gains.
(The concentric phase of a movement is the ‘lifting’ portion and the eccentric phase of a movement is the ‘lowering’ portion.)
It turns out to be a complicated matter and possibly room for BOTH of us to be correct. Read on…
Here’s a study:
Rep tempo can improve body composition and fat loss.
In April, the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism compared the effect of three different lifting tempos on energy expenditure and excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). Greater EPOC means the metabolism is elevated to a significant degree after the exercise bout–your body continues to burn calories at a greater rate for up to 48 hours after an intense workout.
The subjects were trained men who were assigned to perform a workout of 3 sets of 5 reps at 70 percent of the 1RM in the bench press using one of the three following lifting tempos:
- 1.5 seconds for both eccentric and concentric–15 seconds per set
- 4 seconds eccentric and 1 second concentric–25 seconds per set
- 1 second eccentric and 4 seconds concentric–25 seconds per setResults showed that the 1.5-second tempo required the least energy to perform and EPOC was significantly less than with the other two tempos, this is not surprising since trainees spent less time under the weight.
Here’s the conclusion: a simple way to burn more energy during and after a workout is to mix up the tempo.
We all know that to get stronger you need to resistance train or generally lift heavy loads.
Here’s a fact: more central nervous system adaptations result from moving a heavy weight fast, such as with Olympic lifting. But so will moving a heavy weight more slowly, as with near maximum loads on any lift. By manipulating the muscle’s time under tension with a ‘load’, you can recruit more muscle fibers.
Recruiting and building more muscle fibers results in a higher resting metabolic rate = more calorie burning even at rest = more fat loss.
Okay, so we’re both on the right track… that’s good news for us all, right? Multiple ways to turn on YOUR fat burning furnace.
Luckily Kate and I aren’t your typical girls. These ‘arguments’ we have encourage us both to create intelligent and effective programs that will help you meet your goals.
Kate has a new p
rogram out that’s fantastic. It’s called Ab Accelerators. It’s an aggressive 21 day workout plan that gets rapid results using intense circuits to rev your metabolism. She’s created the best combinations of ab exercises to get you visibly, defined abs.
And while you’re at it, CLICK HERE to pick up any of MY programs that you don’t have since I’d like to think that I’m right in our little ‘argument’:
You can be sure that Kate and I will be at it again with another training ‘argument’ soon, stay tuned.