Sup. Should i lift my weights slow or fast to get good gains? I am mostly wanting good strength gains for football, but i also want some mass. I hear some people saying something like at the beginning go slow like 2 seconds, then explode fast back. What do you guys think?


THANKS!

Lift fast, and bring the weight back to starting position slowly.

I lift fast becasue I am training to do explosive movements. Full range of motion, especially on flat/incline/decline bench with fast repititions.

football is the same way, in fact my friend who was trained specifically to get bigger and stronger for football.

I lift fast becasue I am training to do explosive movements. Full range of motion, especially on flat/incline/decline bench with fast repititions.

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This is dependent on how heavy you're going and the exercises you're performing. Take the bench press for example. If you're lifting heavy, doing explosive movements are good, in that the weight is not going to move overly quickly, so the correct muscles are still being targeted throughout the movement. If you're lifting too light all that happens is your pecs, anterior delts and triceps are VERY BRIEFLY engaged as you explode out, but in order to control the bar so it doesn't fly away all their opposing muscle groups engage to DE-ACCELERATE the weight. So in actual fact it's more of a back workout. To remedy this, explode out and LET GO OF THE BAR. Obviously for safety you should be doing this on a smith-machine. Or you could super-set a nice heavy bench-press with explosive push-ups (put your feet on the bench) Try these exercises - you'll feel the difference.

Your primary goal is a strength increase. Lifting nice heavy weights for a good 8-10 weeks will help you here. The mass increase will come from your diet, and there's plenty of diet advice on this board. Then start switching to a power workout 6-8 weeks before the season starts to improve explosive power and speed.

For true explosive power though, you can't beat plyometrics.

slow -going down
fast -going up (controlled)

perfect form each rep : ie using all range of motion, never pausing within the set

i like power racks better

more emphasis overall on diet than lifting

1.diet
2.lifting
3.sleep

for more info google eccentric concentric form etc

Elastic Steel, it's called someplaces (Plyometrics). Infinetly useful. Look them up.
I lift fast.

Originally posted by Un-Aru
This is dependent on how heavy you're going and the exercises you're performing. Take the bench press for example. If you're lifting heavy, doing explosive movements are good, in that the weight is not going to move overly quickly, so the correct muscles are still being targeted throughout the movement. If you're lifting too light all that happens is your pecs, anterior delts and triceps are VERY BRIEFLY engaged as you explode out, but in order to control the bar so it doesn't fly away all their opposing muscle groups engage to DE-ACCELERATE the weight. So in actual fact it's more of a back workout. To remedy this, explode out and LET GO OF THE BAR. Obviously for safety you should be doing this on a smith-machine. Or you could super-set a nice heavy bench-press with explosive push-ups (put your feet on the bench) Try these exercises - you'll feel the difference.

Your primary goal is a strength increase. Lifting nice heavy weights for a good 8-10 weeks will help you here. The mass increase will come from your diet, and there's plenty of diet advice on this board. Then start switching to a power workout 6-8 weeks before the season starts to improve explosive power and speed.

For true explosive power though, you can't beat plyometrics.

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i completly agree, and should have elaborated. Only certain excersises are ment to be done this way, primarily bench, and obviously cleans and the like.

Originally posted by Snap87
Sup. Should i lift my weights slow or fast to get good gains? I am mostly wanting good strength gains for football, but i also want some mass. I hear some people saying something like at the beginning go slow like 2 seconds, then explode fast back. What do you guys think?


THANKS!

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not sure what people are telling you, always explosive up, controlled down.

Mixing it up is always good because it shocks your body into growth.

Lift at a normal pace for a few months... if you are new to lifting weights then I guarantee you will make gains. Once you start to platau you can then switch up your routine with slow lifts, up and down, both controlled.

If you still platau after that then go for the fast lifts, but you have to be warmed up for them... and always remeber to maintain control and good form.

I usually lift up fairly fast, and release slower.

supposedly the lowering part after the lift is where the most muscles are recuited.

lift as fast as possible while keeping good form.

Fast is better. Puts more strain on your muscles. Think sprinters. How do you think they have such massive legs?