Anatomy of the Rep Most
strength training programs are based on only one thing: reps. How often
have you heard "ya gotta do 1 to 5 reps for strength and 8 to 12 reps
for size" and other such pearls of wisdom from Michelin Man Joe, the
self-appointed expert at your gym? If you’re anything like me, you’ve
heard it a bazillion times! The problem I’ve always had with this type of thinking is that the way you complete the reps is just as important as the number
of reps! Doing ten reps at a very fast tempo will have a much different
training effect than doing ten reps using a slow, controlled rhythm.
I’ve seen a lot of people training mostly in the 8 to 12 reps range who
didn't gain an ounce of muscle tissue in three years! The problem was,
their sets of 8 to 12 reps lasted about the length of their average
sexual experience: five or ten seconds! Many of these
problems were solved when the concept of Time Under Tension (TUT) came
into play. TUT quickly became a buzzword in the strength training
kingdom. Along with tempo, TUT improved the quality of the training
process, at least as far as hypertrophy (size) training was concerned. These
concepts helped gym enthusiasts around the world stimulate more muscle
growth simply because they were now moving away from the 5 to 10 second
sets onto more productive hypertrophy protocols. It also gave the
average trainee more choices. As long as each set would last 40 to 70
seconds, you'd stimulate a lot of hypertrophy gains. However,
TUT itself had some problems. For one thing, it's a system (if you can
call it that) that's highly unpractical for most athletes, mostly
because it revolves around slow, controlled reps. These are great for
hypertrophy, but not so great when power is concerned. Athletes need to
train fast at least 30 to 40% of the time to gain the most from their
training. TUT and tempo training are also not very well
suited for maximum strength lifting. Who in his right frame of mind
would use tempo (counting rep speed) when attempting near-maximal and
maximal weights? Not only is it unproductive to do so, it's dangerous! Furthermore,
as the weight gets heavy, it becomes harder and harder to maintain a
certain lifting speed. At some point you just push against the damn
thing hoping it'll rise up! Tempo is probably the last thing on your
mind at this point! This is part of the reason why TUT and
tempo training have fallen out of favour among strength athletes around
the world. However, I don't think we should throw out the baby with the
bath water! There's a form of TUT training that's highly effective and
applicable for athletes: timed sets.

What Are Timed Sets? Timed sets are a form of TUT training without
the tempo variable. The way it works is by selecting a certain
timeframe which suits your needs and then doing as many reps as
possible within that timeframe. For example, if you're a
hockey player, your shifts will last 30 to 45 seconds, so this is a
very good timeframe to use. You'd simply try to complete as many reps
as possible in 30 to 45 seconds. This allows you to work simultaneously
on the specific energy system used in your sport while also targeting
power. Another benefit of this method is the development
of functional hypertrophy over non-functional hypertrophy without
having to resort to maximal weights. Some athletes indeed need more
muscle mass; the problem is when they use classic bodybuilding training
to achieve that goal, the mass they gain isn't entirely functional and
there's little, if any, neural improvement. A second
alternative is to have the athlete complete a large number of heavy
sets (80 to 95% of one rep max) with few reps. This is certainly more
effective for an athlete since the mass gained will tend to be more
functional and there'll be a significant neural improvement. However,
this method can be potentially dangerous, especially if used by
athletes without a proper base in strength training. Most of the time,
athletes severely lacking in muscle mass won't do very well on this
method of training. In short, timed sets offer the best of
both worlds! They allow you to stimulate muscle hypertrophy by using
relatively long sets (40 to 70 seconds) and light loads, but doing as
many lightning fast reps as possible (still making sure to
respect proper form, of course). With this form of training you can
significantly increase muscle mass while heavily involving the nervous
system and improving the capacity to move quickly. Forget supersets;
there are Superman sets! As a general form of athletic training, who could ask for more? Obviously,
timed sets are best suited to work on power, power-endurance,
muscle-endurance, and functional hypertrophy. Their only weakness is
when it comes to limit-strength development, so heavy lifting shouldn't
be completely dropped. Both methods could easily be combined into a
program to ensure complete development of the motor capacities.

Training Parameters The
beauty of timed sets is they allow for a lot of variation: the duration
of each set can be modified to better develop a certain capacity. The
only thing to remember is that each rep during the chosen timeframe
should be explosive, or at least very fast. This means you're not going
anywhere near failure. Here's a short list of possible applications for this method and their general impact on your physical capacities:
1) Very Short Sets

Duration: 5-10 seconds
Load: 50-60%
Number of sets: 8-12
Maximal power development: very high
Hypertrophy development: low
Muscle and power endurance development: low

2) Short Sets

Duration: 10-20 seconds
Load: 40-50%
Number of sets: 6-10
Maximal power development: very high
Hypertrophy development: moderate
Muscle and power endurance development: low

3) Moderate Sets

Duration: 20-40 seconds
Load: 30-40%
Number of sets: 4-8
Maximal power development: high
Hypertrophy development: high
Muscle and power endurance development: moderate

4) Long Sets

Duration: 40-60 seconds
Load: 20-30%
Number of sets: 3-6
Maximal power development: moderate
Hypertrophy development: high
Muscle and power endurance development: high

5) Very Long Sets

Duration: 60-90 seconds
Load: 10-20%
Number of sets: 2-3
Maximal power development: low
Hypertrophy development: low
Muscle and power endurance development: high

Now the trick is to select the method(s) best suited to your sport. The info below should help you get started: XXX = extremely effective method XX = very effective method X = effective method If the duration of time isn't listed, the method isn't very effective for that sport.

Football

Very short sets: XXX Short sets: XX Moderate sets: X

Hockey

Long sets: XXX Moderate sets: XX Very long sets: X

Baseball

Very short sets: XXX

Soccer

Very long sets: XXX Long sets: X

100-200m

Short sets: XXX Very short sets: XX Moderate sets: X

400-800m

Long sets: XXX Moderate sets: XX Very long sets: XX

Martial Arts

Very short sets: XXX

Throws

Very short sets: XXX

Bodybuilding

Moderate sets: XXX Long sets: XX

Progression Much like Coach Staley’s [url=javascript:void(0);]EDT[/url], your goal is to increase the number of reps you can complete within the set timeframe. Once
you've added a significant number of reps to each set, you can increase
the load. Be patient; the objective is to do the reps faster. Progress in load only if you don’t have to decrease speed too much. The ideal number of reps should be:

• Very short and short sets: 1.5 reps per second
• Moderate sets: 1 to 1.25 rep(s) per second
• Long and very long sets: 0.75 to 1 rep per second

If you can reach these threshold values, you can increase the load.

Conclusion Timed
sets have a lot to offer athletes and bodybuilders. They'll allow you
to develop physical capacities directly applicable to your sport while
being gentle on your body (which can be important to athletes involved
in contact sports). Also, this method can be used year
round without risking overtraining. It's an interesting tool to add to
your toolbox, and if power is important to you, you should definitely
use it in your arsenal!

About the Author
Christian
Thibaudeau is a strength and conditioning coach who works with a wide
range of elite athletes. He has successfully trained athletes requiring
a wide array of physical qualities ranging from strength and power
(football players, Olympic lifters, strongmen competitors) and
important energetic capacities (hockey players) to proprioception and
stabilization/balance (figure skaters ). He's also a competitive
Olympic weightlifter and a football coach. Christian is completing his
M.Sc. degree in exercise science and has been a research assistant in
that field for the past two years. His book, The Black Book of Training Secrets, is available here.
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