Recently DD, a personal trainer, e-mailed me with a question on the subject of time under tension and muscle growth.
“I read that the optimal time under tension for increasing strength and power is 4-20 seconds,” wrote DD.
“For gaining size it’s 40-60 seconds. But what happens with the muscle between 21-39 seconds? And I’ve noticed that you don’t give any time under tension recommendations in Muscle Evo. Why not?”
When people talk about time under tension, they’re usually referring to the amount of time your muscles are working during a specific set. For example, a set of 10 reps that lasts 60 seconds has a time under tension (TUT for short) of 60 seconds.
The reason I don’t make any specific TUT recommendations is because I think they’re largely a waste of time.
The way that some people talk about TUT, you’d think it was some kind of undisputable fact that’s been verified in numerous well-controlled studies.
However, I’ve never seen any reliable research to convince me that basing your workouts on TUT guidelines works any better than using conventional loading parameters like sets and reps.
In fact, I’ve yet to see a decent study that’s even tried to establish the “optimal” TUT for muscle growth.
The numbers are based on the opinion of a few “gurus” and have been blindly accepted as being “the truth” by a lot of people who should know better.
I’m embarrassed to admit that this is something I was guilty of myself.
When I first read about it in the late 1990′s, it seemed to make perfect sense. And being one of those people with an annoying tendency to obsess over small (and often pointless) details, I invested a lot of time and effort in trying to follow the TUT guidelines as closely as possible.
I used a metronome to help me time the length of each rep. I read the books written by the “gurus” who promoted the idea. I secretly scoffed at the people who were using “antiquated” methods like sets and reps now that I had discovered “the secret” to packing on muscle.
But after trying it for myself, as well as reading through a big pile of studies on the subject of resistance training and muscle growth, I came to the (obvious in hindsight) conclusion that focusing on TUT isn’t all that important as long as long as you’re using the correct loading parameters (load, reps, sets, frequency and lifting speed).
Within certain limits, a muscle will grow in direct proportion to the amount of work it’s required to do. Spend too much time worrying about time under tension and you’ll lose focus on what really counts when it comes to building muscle — that you need to do more work this time than you did last time.
The idea that you need to make a set last for a fixed amount of time has also given some people the idea that slower lifting speeds work better for muscle growth — a theory that’s been debunked in a number of recent studies (such as this one and this one).
Trying to make your sets last for a certain amount of time is also going to severely limit the poundages you can handle on any given exercise.
Just to be clear, I’m NOT saying that the amount of time your muscles are under tension for doesn’t matter. Clearly it does. A set of 12 reps that lasts 60 seconds is going to affect your muscles differently to a set of 6 reps that lasts 30 seconds.
However, simply saying that TUT is important doesn’t really mean much because your muscles are under tension for a given amount of time during ANY type of resistance training.
Rather than complicating your workouts with stopwatches, metronomes and whatever else, I’d suggest following the advice of legendary martial artist Bruce Lee and make them as simple as possible.
From what I’ve read of his work, Bruce was a big fan of keeping things simple.
In fact, he once said that the art of jeet kune do (the martial art he founded) was “simply to simplify.”
“In building a statue,” Lee said “a sculptor doesn’t keep adding clay to his subject. Actually, he keeps chiseling away at the inessentials until the truth is revealed without obstructions. Jeet kune do doesn’t mean adding more. It means to minimize. In other words to back away from the inessentials. It is not a daily increase but a daily decrease.”
Measuring TUT is one of those “inessentials” that you can easily forget about and still get great results.
Or to put it another way, as long as your training program is set up properly, TUT isn’t a variable that you need to spend any time measuring or even thinking about.
A lot of guys go to the gym, train hard, and get bigger and stronger without paying the slightest bit of attention to time under tension. I’d highly recommend that you do the same.
SHAMELESS PLUG: If you want a complete step-by-step system that will help you build muscle, burn fat and build the body of a superhero, all while spending less than four hours per week in the gym, click here to download a copy of Muscle Evo right now.
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My name is Christian Finn. I run a private "members only" website that will help you burn fat, build muscle and get strong. If you want accurate, honest and in-depth reviews on the latest "hot topics" in the world of fitness, you're confused by all the conflicting advice out there, or you just want some fat-burning and muscle-building training routines that work, click here now to find out how I can help you.
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