Time under tension (TUT) is an approach found mostly, but not exclusively, in weightlifting. As the name suggests, it refers to the time a muscle spends activating (or under contracting) during an exercise.
By increasing the amount of time your muscles spend under tension when working with the best dumbbells, weights, or your own adjustable body weight, you can benefit from hypertrophy, which is the muscle-building process. Doing so can add more challenge and resistance to your workout, which can help build muscle without lifting heavier weights.
If you’re considering adding the time-under tension technique to your strength-training program, we cover what time-under tension means, the potential benefits, and whether it can help you grow muscle mass.
What is time under stress?
As mentioned, TUT uses cadence to make your muscles work harder with the same amount of resistance. It involves slowing down the exercise and performing it for a longer period of time, thus extending the total work time. This technique is also used during high-rep endurance training to improve muscular endurance.
Many trainers program the exercise cadence into three phases—the concentric phase (when muscles shorten or contract), the eccentric phase (when muscles lengthen), and the in-between phase.
For example, a bicep curl programmed at a 4-1-4 pace means holding the weight up for four seconds (concentric load), stopping for one second, then lowering the weight (eccentric load) for four seconds.
Adding a longer pause results in an isometric contraction—which puts the muscles under stress without shortening or lengthening them.
Does time under stress work for a swell?
During exercise, your muscles are working hard, and muscle fibers are getting delicately torn. It used to be thought that a buildup of lactic acid was the cause of delayed next day muscle soreness (DOMS), but we now know that these micro-tears are the most likely culprit.
When this type of “injury” occurs to the muscle, the body will send the necessary healing to the area, and it will also produce growth hormone, which helps the muscle adapt and grow stronger. It’s how you build muscle mass—essentially, you break it down to make it stronger—a process called hypertrophy.
However, different tempes suit different styles of training. To develop strength (think of a sprinter or high jumper), you’ll focus on fast, powerful movement that recruits fast-twitch muscle fibers, which are responsible for rapid bursts of movement. For endurance sports and hypertrophy training, a slow tempo will recruit slow twitch fibers (or sometimes a combination of the two), which are responsible for more sustained periods of exercise.
But does TUT work? Some research supports the time-under-tension technique when working out with weights. One example is an excerpt from The science and evolution of muscle hypertrophy (Opens in a new tab): “Evidence suggests that TUT plays a role,” but we must also consider “the context of the resistance training variables that comprise a given routine.”
body of work suggests the total A TUT for a muscle group is more relevant—it can be in a session or over time over the course of a week—and a longer TUT (60 seconds or longer) per group is “beneficial for targeting type I hypertrophy.”
last 2016 study (Opens in a new tab) It was found that twice the time to load decentralized compared to focus had positive effects on growth. But before focusing on repetition duration or increasing volume for muscle growth, make sure you lift well and focus on the correct range of motion to maximize the benefits.
Time pressure workout
If you plan to try TUT training, start by following a strength training program and spending 35 to 60 seconds on each set. For example, if you time your bench press at 4-1-4 for 6 repetitions per set, you’ll get to 54 seconds. You may need to lift a little lighter than usual to achieve a longer set, but it also shouldn’t feel easy.
Another way to achieve time under pressure during a high-intensity workout is to use complex exercises. By grouping the exercises into one longer working set without rest, you can reach the same goal of muscles working longer toward fatigue. This five-move compound workout tones muscles and boosts metabolism in 20 minutes.
You can also follow the same form for bodyweight exercises like squats and pushups. We love this gymnastics exercise for muscle development and functional training experience.
If you’re looking for more creative ways to build time under tension for muscle growth, add more reps to increase your total training volume or supersets to target and fatigue a single muscle group. The Arnold Schwarzenegger workout builds total-body strength in just four moves and uses super-block sets to work muscles even harder. Performing consecutive moves will increase total repetitions and work muscles longer to build strength and mass.
to rule
Time-under-tension techniques can help build muscle mass along with progressive overload — training regularly and gradually adapting your routine as you improve, such as increasing weight. Protein is also a big player in building lean muscle, so focus on eating plenty of protein as part of a balanced diet to support gym gains along with sleep and recovery time. Already a pro protein? Here are the best protein shakes we swear by.
If you are currently suffering from an injury, seek advice from your physician before engaging in new exercise regimens.
More Tom’s guide
[ad_2]
