Slow eccentric and quick-burst concentric is my jam, sometimes referred to as Time Under Tension strength training.
The real benefit, as I've noticed over many years practicing it, is the reinforcement of the mind-muscle connection. On a squat, for instance: lowering your butt down very slowly will force you to concentrate on things like posture, hamstring contraction, grip, etc. It's all about going against gravity - and in a squat gravity is working to lower the weight - so you combat that by lowering slowly.
Time Under Tension, also, has the added benefit of making you capable of being stronger with a smaller body size / weight. I'm a former wrestler, and our very old-school coach taught us that 5 reps is enough. If you can do 5 reps in a set, throw a bit more weight on and try 5 more reps for the next set. Repeat until you struggle to complete 3 reps, and that's how you know you're done. This will get you strong, and will also avoid you gaining a lot of excess muscle mass (which will increase your weight class, in wrestling.)
To this day, I still use this. I will do a 5x5 set for the heavy compound lifts (Squat, Deadlift, Military/Bench Press, Barbell Row) and gradually increase weight from set 1-5, aiming for failure at rep 3 on set 5. I've gone up in my max weights on all lifts, but remained the same weight for nearly 15 years now.
Last thing I'll add: Unless required for special circumstances like specialized athletics, those core 4 (really the core 3, with the barbell row being an add-on) will get you strong and also make you look jacked. Everything else is unnecessary (albeit helpful at times).
Squat, Deadlift, Military Press will work literally every muscle group in your body. From core, to biceps, to back, calves, wrists, etc. And I'm a firm believer that you only need 5-rep sets to achieve the jacked status. I believe that because I have been jacked for almost 20 years now, after doing mainly 5-rep sets for the last 25 years.
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04-28-2026, 05:08 PM
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