Best for Muscle Growth: Super Slow or Traditional Training?

Muscles grow best when you force them to work under high tension for prolonged periods. Tension makes amino acids enter the muscle cells, which makes the muscles grow. It seems reasonable that muscles would grow better if you trained very slowly – forcing the muscles to develop as much tension as possible.

Dr. L.K. Keeler and colleagues compared training gains in subjects who practiced super slow or traditional training for 10 weeks. Athletes using a super slow technique took 10 seconds per rep. The group using traditional training methods increased more in bench press (34% vs. 11%), lat pull (27% vs. 12%), leg press (33% vs.7%), leg extension (56% vs. 24%) and leg curl (40% vs. 15%).

Before we discard super slow training, though, let’s examine the results. Maximum performance on a lift requires strong muscles – mainly determined by muscle size – and good coordination between muscles and the nervous system. Traditional weight training is very good at teaching the nervous system to turn on muscles quickly and maximally. This is critical if you want to lift big weights. On the other hand, lifting big weights is not the primary goal of bodybuilders – muscle growth is. Most research shows that super slow training fails to deliver superior gains in muscle size or strength compared to regular training speeds. Taking 10 to 20 seconds to complete a rep may very well make your workout feel a lot harder. But it’s not going to help you get in shape any faster

Machines vs. Free Weights. Wall pulleys were the only weight machines in the early days of weight training. That’s changed. Now, we have a glittering array of devices in the gym with large screen televisions mounted overhead. Many power athletes – throwers, football players and high jumpers – have gotten away from machine training in favor of explosive lifts using Olympic bars. This makes sense for these athletes because they want to develop power they can use on the playing field.

What’s best for the bodybuilder? Your goals are different from those of power athletes. You want to isolate and develop specific muscle groups and force them to work under sustained tension. So, whole-body explosive lifts are not very important to you. Many exercise machines isolate muscles very well and are excellent for bodybuilding. However, you can sometimes isolate muscles better using free weights – it depends on the exercise. Choose the exercises that best isolate and work your target muscle groups. Sometimes you will use exercise machines, and sometimes you will use free weights. Many of the world’s top bodybuilders and other high-performance athletes use a combination of both, and you can take a cue from them. (J Strength Cond Res, 15: 309-314; Nat Strength Cond Assoc, 23: 67-68)

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