if you're looking to build muscle there are three ways you can increase the work that
your muscle fibers have to do more weight more reps and a third way that people often miss
a way of increasing muscle growth from within your existing workout it's called time under tension
time under tension is simply increasing the amount of time that your muscle is working
by making the rep longer so you're making each rep more effective
and you're avoiding the risk of injury that comes with piling on the weight time under
tension increases the work done by the muscle even with the same number of reps that you usually do
let's get right into the mechanics of each rep
for a pushing movement explode up then come down slowly counting to three as you go
remember the muscle is still working when you're lowering the weight so make this part really count
at the bottom pause for one second this not only keeps the muscle under tension
it also takes away any momentum so the next move is all new effort
it also helps the mind muscle connection making you feel each new rep working
after you've racked the weight a good squeeze of the muscle will give you an extra burst of tension
on a pulling movement try to explode into the movement this is the moment of maximum effort
keeping control slow it down on the negative part of the movement and right at the top
squeeze this is the moment of maximum tension hold that squeeze for at least a second
okay so let's count it out using cables as an example cables are ideal for time
under tension because they keep the same resistance across the whole of the movement
so you're aiming to make each rep last six seconds
two seconds up one second hold at the top three seconds down
generally keep the same rep range as your usual workout
even though your muscles are working harder
so still go for your usual 8 to 12 reps just make each rep last longer with time under tension
each set should last up to a minute with the muscle working the whole time
so here for example if you're going for 10 reps that's 6 seconds each rep 2 seconds up squeeze
for one second then slowly down with control for a count of three a total of 60 seconds for each set
so to help you build the physique you're looking for try using time under tension
in your next workout you can also combine it with techniques like super sets and drop sets
let us know in the comments how you get on
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