Rhythm in lifting?

[SanSoo Student]

When lifting weights, how slow do most of you guys lift or do a rep? How many seconds does it approximately take to do a rep for most exercises?

Faster reps are suppose to give you better twitch muscle for explosiveness, and slower reps are suppose to give tone and strength, according to my workout partner...is this true?

[IronFist]

There's not really a short answer to that question. But "tone" has nothing to do with how fast you lift. Tone is a result of muscle size and low body fat.

[SanSoo Student]

But in short is it better to do it slow or as fast as you can?
And are their benefits to doing it faster?

[Vash]

Speed in the lift is generally for "explosiveness."

Slow . . . heard a bunch of conflicting about slow and super-slow lifting. Would recommend it on the last set of whatever exercise.

Generally, the best thing to do is lift with a 3-3 rhythm. That's 3 seconds on the positive (working against the force) portion, then 3 seconds on the negative (working with the force).

I like the 3-3 tempo myself.

[IronFist]

3/3 would be good for general lifting. Fast lifting is generally an advanced technique, and is usually done with sets of 2 or 3 with like 50% of your 1RM. There is controversey over whether or not this even works

[SanSoo Student]

Ironfist you have any articles or links about fast lifting?

[rubthebuddha]

typically, i like to vary up the tone, just to keep the muscles guessing. my favorite is a 4-count: explosive 1 up, slow 3 down. every third workout, i do something different, just to change up the rhythm.

[Vash]

Just got finished reading through my logs from 2 years ago; here's a few rhythems I used.

3-3-3, three negative, three midpoint (or bottom, in bench), three positive

3-3, as said before

1-4, like RTB

5-5-5, same scheme as the 3-3-3

2-2, same as 3-3

Funny thing, I rarely used anything other than the 2-2 on bench, and every week after I switched in the 5-5-5 with about 45% Max, my bench strength and endurance jumped, usually about 10lbs. It'd drop five of those the next week, though

I miss weights/karate *sighs*