Rep Speed - John Christy (1999)

 

Here’s my description of a properly performed rep.

The bar should be lowered under control then either completely stopped at the bottom position or performed with a controlled “turnaround” or “tap,” then the bar should be driven up as hard and as fast as is necessary to complete the rep.

Yes, that’s what I said . . . “as fast as is necessary to complete the rep.”

Now don’t misinterpret this. The explosive contractions must be controlled, not thrown! And you must decelerate at lockout.

Another thing – don’t be explosive with warm-ups, or if you’re inexperienced and still learning proper biomechanics.

Also, don’t “explode” the bar up during the early reps of a high-rep set (reps above 8). Once the set starts to become challenging, start pushing and pulling as hard and as fast as you can! On sets of more than 8 reps the weight will be such that you could move the bar fast enough to throw it – but don’t! That would be an abuse of what I’m talking about.

I can virtually guarantee you that on a limit set of 5 reps or less you’ll not be able to move the weight fast enough even though you’re trying to. But you must try because this guarantees that you’re putting out maximum effort, and it also helps to recruit the fast twitch fibers of the muscle which have the greatest potential for strength development and hypertrophy.

In my professional opinion it’s not the speed that gets most trainees hurt; it’s poor biomechanics, an unrealistic progression scheme, or muscular imbalances. If you’re attempt to accelerate the bar takes you out of good biomechanics, then you have no right training in this fashion. I want you to understand that, in my book, the safety of trainees is number one, because if you’re constantly getting hurt you can’t train consistently, and if you can’t train consistently you aren’t going anywhere with the weights. My trainees have an extremely low injury incident rate that I would stack up against any training facility in the world. The reason for this is our heavy emphasis on great biomechanics, a progression scheme that the body can adapt to, and the correction of strength imbalances between agonists and antagonists.

Speed and Injuries

I want you to understand that in my professional opinion, just because you’re performing reps in a slow cadence doesn’t necessarily mean you’re using good form.

Let’s talk about “good form” for a moment.

To me, good form means getting in a good biomechanical position (one that optimizes leverage and safety for each individual trainee’s genetic makeup), and maintaining this position for the duration of the set. It has absolutely nothing to do with speed.

I’ve witnessed slow reps performed with terrible form (causing injuries) and explosive reps performed in complete safety. I’ve also seen the opposite of this.

It seems that there’s so much talk these days that if you go slow you won’t get hurt, and that’s just not the case. It seems as though numerous examples are given on how someone was doing his reps too fast and he got hurt, when more than likely it was poor form resulting from the lack of control that hurt the trainee. No one ever says anything about the trainee who got hurt moving slowly. Well, let me tell you that one of the worst injuries I’ve ever witnessed personally was by an experienced, very strong trainee. I’ve known this man for over 25 years. He severely tore his right pec with a sub-maximum weight – a weight he could comfortably perform 5 reps with when performed in his normal “not counting seconds style” – because he decided to start lowering the bar slower than his normal speed.

This occurred on the very first rep of the set. He was lowering the bar in a three-second cadence.

Was the injury the result of moving slower?

In my opinion, no. But it could have easily been blamed on that. If the injury had occurred while he was moving the bar explosively, like he normally does, it would most assuredly be blamed on speed.

The point I am making here is that speed (whether slow or explosive) isn’t necessarily the culprit. What caused this injury, by the way, wasn’t him going slow, it was an improper jump from a last warmup set of 225 to a “live” weight of 315 pounds. The trainee should have performed a last warmup set with 275.

Reaching Your Genetic Potential – Safely

I assure you that no one can refute the fact that power is the product of mass times acceleration. This is a proven fact of physics that’s incontrovertible. In my opinion, in order to develop the human body to its maximum strength and size potential you must lift the heaviest weights possible for a given number of reps for a long period of time. For the body to do this it must create the maximum amount of force it can generate. This can only be accomplished by trying to move the bar as fast as possible with as much weight as possible.

Now let’s not get stupid here. I’m very aware that physics on paper is one thing, and training the human body is another. The philosophy I presented above is the one I practice and teach, but with the proviso that the trainee generate as much force as possible in the safest way possible.

The human body is meant to move fast – it’s natural – you just have to do it in a way that’s safe. But what’s safe?

Safe is control. That’s why I don’t have inexperienced beginners train with maximum force – because they haven’t learned to control their bodies or the bar yet.

Watch world-class sprinters. Are they moving as fast as possible? You bet. But they are under total control of their bodies, their biomechanics are perfect, and this makes them more efficient. This control – this efficiency – helps prevent injuries while allowing the athlete (or trainee) to use maximum force, which in my opinion is the only way to reach one’s strength potential.

I know you’re thinking that sprinters pull muscles all the time – but so do distance runners, and they are moving much slower. (By the way, check out the size of sprinter’s legs.) Once again, what I feel causes the injuries is either poor biomechanics, training at a rate that the body can’t adapt to (too much weight, too much frequency, i.e., over-training), or muscular imbalances – not speed! Speed is the culprit if it makes you use poor form.

I just realized that I better clear up something because I can see your minds working right now.

"So,” you say, “John, if speed doesn’t matter then why don’t we just drop the bar on the eccentric phase of the movement? You know, bounced benches, rebound squats and curls.”

Guys, let’s not get ridiculous. When I’m talking about using speed safely, I’m talking about going through the concentric (positive) phase of the lift, because this can be easily controlled. Letting gravity completely “free fall” a weight is completely out of control. I would never advocate this.

Other Concerns

What I’m getting concerned with is the fact that so many trainees are getting so afraid of getting hurt in the weight room that their training is based on avoiding getting hurt instead of training to make progress – safely. Don’t think of your body as some frail or weak thing. Your body is tough. Your muscles, tendons and ligaments can withstand a tremendous amount of force as long as the body has been conditioned to handle it and the body is placed in the proper position to handle it. This is one of the reasons to train in the first place – so that you’re strong and resistant to injury from forces that would hurt someone who doesn’t train.

I’m not saying to throw caution to the wind. You must train safely! But don’t become so afraid to get hurt that you don’t put out maximum effort. I promise you that if you follow the rules of sound progression, learn and use good form, and correct muscular imbalances – it’s very unlikely that you’ll get hurt, period.

To Summarize

In my opinion, to reach your genetic potential you must move as much weight as possible for a prescribed number of reps. To do this you must generate as much force as possible. To do this you must try to move a heavy weight (or, on a high rep set, the tough reps) as fast as possible. You must do this as safely as possible. Safety comes from good biomechanics and control of the weight. Good biomechanics and control come from great concentration and experience. If, by all means, you have to count seconds to maintain control of the weight, then do so. Professionally speaking, I just don’t feel it’s necessary.

I can't resist reading it.

Enjoy Your Lifting!