Quick reps vs. gradual reps: That are higher for muscle hypertrophy?
Time-under-tension and tempo coaching. Two strategies of bodybuilding that manipulate the pace of a repetition in an try to extend muscle development. Similar to adjusting the load of a elevate or rising coaching frequency, this coaching method treats the pace of a repetition as a variable that may be altered to attain totally different outcomes.
However does it work? Does merely performing a gradual rep lead to nice positive factors, or is it higher should you go sooner? A big meta was simply launched that has a solution to: how briskly ought to a rep be?
Key Factors You Want To Know!
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The Examine: How gradual do you have to go? A scientific evaluation with meta-analysis of the impact of resistance coaching repetition tempo on muscle hypertrophy.
Resistance coaching tempo, or the pace at which you elevate and decrease the burden, has lengthy been a subject of debate on this planet of bodybuilding and energy coaching. The dialog goes additional than merely suggesting to carry out a rep, “gradual and managed”.
Slightly, proponents counsel that purposefully performing a rep slower or sooner can elicit totally different outcomes. Normal ideas included;
- Slower reps improve “time underneath stress” and mechanical stress, leading to better muscle development.
- Quicker reps trigger better muscle activation and better drive output, leading to better energy positive factors.
Prior to now, older evaluations tended to lump whole rep length collectively fairly than isolate the phases. Nonetheless, a brand new systematic evaluation and Bayesian meta-analysis (2025) simply printed is the primary to separate eccentric (reducing) and concentric (lifting) tempos to see if manipulating tempo really impacts hypertrophy.
As an alternative of simply “gradual vs. quick reps”, they checked out eccentric vs. concentric tempo results on muscle development.
Outcomes & Key Findings
The researchers carried out a big meta-meta, pooling from a massive provide of research. A couple of key factors in regards to the examine choice embrace
- Examine pool: 14 randomized trials, 278 individuals (largely younger adults, solely 73 ladies, and some skilled lifters)
- Examine length: Most research lasted 6–12 weeks, with individuals coaching 2–4 instances per week.
- Muscle tissues studied: Primarily quadriceps and biceps; mixture of single-joint and multi-joint workouts.
- Measurement instruments: Ultrasound, MRI, DXA, biopsies, or limb circumference.
- Evaluation technique: Bayesian hierarchical meta-analysis, which estimates the chance of 1 tempo being superior fairly than counting on easy “significance.”
Researchers ran the numbers and got here up with 5 vital findings.
1. Quick vs. gradual, each elevated muscle development. When analyzing muscle development inside every group, each quick and gradual tempos yielded stable positive factors.
This implies that researchers examined whether or not quick repetitions and gradual repetitions can construct muscle independently.
When evaluating the impact dimension (i.e., the magnitude of the development), sooner tempos confirmed a medium impact dimension of 0.43, whereas slower tempos had an impact dimension of 0.34.
This means each teams constructed noticeable muscle with neither displaying a big benefit.
2. Direct comparability: no clear winner. When researchers straight in contrast sooner reps and slower reps, sooner reps had a slight statistical edge (imply distinction of 0.09). Nonetheless, the chance that this edge held any significance in the actual world was solely 45%.
This means the likelihood of it having an precise impact is low.
3. Optimum speeds for concentric and eccentric phases. When damaged down by section, the concentric section trended barely in favor of sooner tempos. The eccentric (reducing) portion confirmed virtually no distinction. Nonetheless, any variations had been basically negligible.
This means they made little to no distinction.
4. Higher vs. decrease physique. This was an attention-grabbing element because the researchers examined whether or not totally different physique components could be affected by rep pace. Nonetheless, tempo did not matter for the physique area.
This implys that slowing down squats will not improve the mass of your legs, whereas rushing up curls does not lead to greater biceps. Each higher and decrease our bodies responded the identical approach regardless of tempo.
5. Coaching to failure. This was one other attention-grabbing element of the examine, because it checked out whether or not these speeds make a distinction in relation to training to failure. Perhaps it has a bigger impact when you do not prepare near failure? Effectively, they did discover some attention-grabbing outcomes.
- When individuals skilled in need of failure, sooner eccentrics appeared barely higher.
- When individuals skilled to failure, slower eccentrics had a modest edge.
Nonetheless, each results had been small and inconsistent.
This means the variations weren’t sturdy sufficient to justify altering how most individuals ought to prepare.
How It Suits with Earlier Analysis
The findings above primarily constructed upon info from previous analysis with no main contradictions, however there had been some.
1. Schoenfeld et al. (2015) reported similar hypertrophy across tempos starting from 0.5 to eight seconds. This new meta-analysis confirms the discovering however builds upon it by making certain that is true for eccentric versus concentric actions independently.
2. Hackett et al. (2018) advised slower tempos would possibly assist quads, whereas sooner tempos benefited biceps. The brand new evaluation finds no constant regional benefit as soon as variables are managed.
3. Wilk et al. (2021 narrative evaluation) hypothesized that slower eccentric contractions and sooner concentric contractions could also be optimum and are doubtless excellent for energy and mass improvement. This is considerably contradictory to the brand new 2025 meta, which reveals no clear hypertrophy profit for both section.
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In abstract, this examine primarily strengthened the proof that the pace of a repetition has little to no impact on muscle development, assuming the length is at an inexpensive pace (.25s-4.5s per contraction)
The one distinction is that earlier analysis suggests a slight profit could also be achieved by performing the concentric portion sooner. |
Sensible Takeaways
The clearest message from this paper is that tempo does not considerably have an effect on hypertrophy, so long as you are coaching exhausting and with adequate quantity. Each quick and gradual reps construct muscle successfully.
After we mix this info with the info we mentioned above regarding energy, listed below are 3 pointers on rep pace for energy and hypertrophy.
- Concentric Contraction: Carry out rapidly and underneath management
- Eccentric Contraction: Sluggish and managed eccentrics
- At all times Management The Load: We’ll say it once more, at all times management the load
We examined this subject in its entirety earlier than this examine was launched and got here to an identical conclusion – you can review it here.
That stated, tempo can nonetheless be a great tool relying in your state of affairs:
- Rehab or joint ache: Slower tempos cut back joint stress and assist preserve management.
- Energy and explosiveness: Quicker tempos are extra sport-specific and construct charge of drive.
- Selection and fatigue administration: Altering tempo can present novelty and assist handle coaching stress with out affecting development.
With all that stated, the large levers for hypertrophy nonetheless stay: coaching quantity, progressive overload, and proximity to failure. Tempo can simply be a enjoyable little variable to play with should you’re .
References
- ENES, A., PIÑERO, A., HERMANN, T., ZAMANZADEH, A., HENNESSY, T., MONTENEGRO, D., PARNELL, C., JIA, A., WEITZMAN, T., WOLF, M., KORAKAKIS, P.A., SWINTON, P.A. and SCHOENFELD, B.J. [2025]. How gradual do you have to go? A scientific evaluation with meta-analysis of the impact of resistance coaching repetition tempo on muscle hypertrophy. Journal of energy and conditioning analysis (pre-print)
- Hackett, D. A., Davies, T. B., Orr, R., Kuang, Okay., & Halaki, M. (2018). Impact of motion velocity throughout resistance coaching on muscle-specific hypertrophy: A scientific evaluation. European Journal of Sport Science, 18(4), 473–482. https://doi.org/10.1080/17461391.2018.1434563
- Schoenfeld, B. J., Ogborn, D., & Krieger, J. W. (2015). Impact of repetition length throughout resistance coaching on muscle hypertrophy: A scientific evaluation and meta-analysis. Sports activities Medication, 45(4), 577–585. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-015-0304-0
- Wilk, M., Zajac, A., & Tufano, J. J. (2021). The affect of motion tempo throughout resistance coaching on muscular energy and hypertrophy responses: A evaluation. Sports activities Medication, 51, 1629-1650. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-021-01465-2
