As a weight lifting women, you most likely have heard the phrase time under tension.
However, you might not know exactly what this means.
Learning how to correctly implement time under tension into your workout routine allows you to start maximizing muscle gains every workouts.
Doing this will skyrocket your gym progress, allowing you to lose fat and gain muscle (body recomposition).
When I started implementing this strategy into my weight training routine, the changes I noticed were incredible. I saw progress like never before.
Let’s get into it.
So what exactly is time under tension?
I like to think of time under tension as how long you keep your muscle engaged and tightened during an exercise.
Essentially this means that each rep you do will be longer and slower.
You’ll be moving slower during the part of the exercise when your muscle is in the lengthened position.
This part of the rep is known as the eccentric movement and is when the most tension is on your muscle.
The goal of time under tension
The main goal of time under tension is to put your muscles under stress for a longer period of time.
Doing this causes your muscle to be more activated during the movement.
This will help you do things like train for hypertrophy or train with more intensity. Both of which will help increase muscle growth.
So, by spending more time in the part of the rep that causes the most muscle growth, you’re surely going to notice more progress.
Although it’s one of the primary benefits, increased muscle growth isn’t the only benefit of increasing time under tension.
What are some of the benefits of increasing time under tension
Increases muscle growth.
Increases muscle soreness.
Can help you overcome a plateau.
Adds variety to your routine.
Can help you increase the intensity of your workouts without lifting heavier.
How to implement time under tension into your workouts
The best way to start implementing time under tension into your workout is to slow down your movements.
By this I mean for you to try and perform each set very slowly.
However, you don’t want to slow down the whole movement. What you really want to focus on is slowing down the eccentric movement.
Understanding eccentric, concentric, and an isometric hold
If you don’t know what the eccentric movement is, just envision when your muscles are stretching out during an exercise.
For example, if you’re doing bicep curls, your biceps will be stretching out and lengthening when you begin lowering your hands. This is the eccentric movement.
This is the part of the exercise you want to slow down.
The opposite of this, the concentric movement, is the part of the exercise that should be performed faster.
During bicep curls, this would be when you’re lifting your hands and bending your elbows.
Whereas an isometric hold is when you hold your muscles in a contracted position.
Taking bicep curls as an example again, this would be holding and keeping tension at towards the top of your rep.
How to increase your time spent under tension
To increase your time spent under tension, you want to quickly perform the concentric movement, but with control.
Then, you want to perform a 1-2 second isometric hold.
Finally, you want to slowly move into the eccentric movement making the movement last about about 3 or 4 seconds.
This is what it would look like for bicep curls:
Quickly but controllable curl the weights, hold for 1-2 seconds at the top (but make sure there’s still tension), then slowly lower the weights for 3-4 seconds. Repeat for each set.
Since I started training like this, my results started to skyrocket.
I was also much more sore after my workouts, which is something I love.
Putting more thought into your workouts
I like to think of time under tension as putting more thought into your lifts. Or, lifting with more intention.
Time under tension is mainly about keeping your movements slow and controlled.
It’s about being mindful and making sure that your muscles have control over the weight.
Essentially, this means you’re not just flying through your workouts throwing the weight around, out of control.
You’re keeping a braced, steady stance, where the muscle you’re working is engaged and tense for a long period of time.
To do this though, you need to have a lot of focus on your muscle and have a strong mind to muscle connection.
Being mindful of how your muscle feels and performing the movement slowly is how you can achieve this.
Once you master the mindfulness that goes into increasing time under tension, that’s when you’ll start to see the benefits.
Takeaways
One of the keys to growing your muscles in the gym is incorporating time under tension.
Incorporating time under tension is a powerful strategy to help increase your progress in the gym.
Even if you’re not an experienced lifter, implementing time under tension into your lifts is a great way to get the most out of your workouts.
So try it out and notice how quickly your results increase!
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