Introduction to Tension Training

Part 9 of the Ebook 'Periodized Hypertophy Training': Strength, Tension, and Intensity (STI)

A Comprehensive Program for Year Round Muscle Growth

Parts 6-8 of this series covered the details of training for strength when gaining muscle, to continue to vary your lifts and make gains, you will need to enter into a 'tension' phase of your training as well.

The Tension phase is centered on the principle of time under tension being responsible for growth and the eccentric portion of your lifts being responsible for reducing mysostatin (a protein responsible for regulating muscle growth). This is the phase of training during which the most growth is possible and your training load will be maximized by the Strength phase previous to this. This cadence does not apply however to your leg routine and lifts like the dead lift or squat.

Here is an excerpt from my article: ‘Ultimate Triceps Training’:

“…Focus on allowing the weight to be lowered gradually and in a controlled fashion (especially since the dumbbell single and EZ curl bar overhead extensions will put pressure on your shoulder) to take advantage of the IGF-1 increasing (insulin like growth factor one has been show to have a direct link with muscle growth and protein synthesis whereas the acute testosterone and growth hormone response to exercise has not) and mysostatin decreasing (myostatin is responsible for limiting muscle growth) effects of the eccentric phase during exercise…”

The cadence for lifting during this phase will be 3 seconds during the eccentric phase, and 2 seconds during the concentric phase with 2 minutes rest in between sets. If you’re thinking that Time Under Tension lifting will greatly reduce the amount of weight you’re going to be able to lift set after set…than you’re absolutely right. The intensity will still be high, but there will be now near maximal lifting here.

An excerpt from my article: ‘You Are What You Lift- Common mistakes that ruin a Strength/Muscle building program’ will explain why:

“Now to continue with our discussion, let’s talk about everyone’s endless quest for gaining muscle and the countless lifters who constantly add weight, cheat, bounce, and throw their way through every rep. And while some of the more advanced lifters might be laughing at them, going through a lift quickly; while it may be great for increasing strength, will not optimize your gains in muscle mass. There have been studies that show high velocity lifting for beginner and elderly weightlifters is equivalent to a controlled cadence lift for hypertrophy. However, advanced lifters who do not fall within the elderly age group (the age range for must studies is 60 years and up) need to keep in mind that while an increase in muscle size correlates with an increase in strength; it IS possible to increase strength without increasing muscle size. Strength is largely related to the central nervous system and can be improved upon through overload. Think about an Olympic weightlifter that must increase his strength and power while still being able to make a weight class. This is the reason why periodization is so important for a good training program. Almost every training program calls for you to increase the pounds you attempt for a lift after a certain period of time, and going through a phase in your training when you can focus on increasing your strength becomes very important for this purpose. There is much research, most notably of which was done by Dr. Goldberg from the University of London; which points to maximizing stretch and muscle tension for hypertrophy (slower cadence, strict form, sacrificing weight to go through the full range of motion)…”

Part 10 will discuss the training split and volume for this style of lifting.