Ideas that ought not be forgotten: Compensatory Deceleration
7 November 2006If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Here’s another idea whose time has come: Compensatory Deceleration. CD is when it is appropriate to purposefully slow down the speed of the rep. How much slow-down is appropriate is the 64-dollar question. At one extreme are the Arthur Jones adherents that carry their banner ever onward. One nautilus splinter group emerged under the guise of “Super Slow.” SS is the brainchild of a Jones’ protégé named Ken Hutchins. I interviewed Ken a decade ago for a training feature in Muscle & Fitness. Ken was real strident and adamant that his way was THE way and anyone who had any reservations about his contentions was obviously pretty damned thick and dense. He had a sophisticated vernacular and dropped insider hipster lingo like ”turn-around,” “depth of muscular inroad,” “cam configuration,” and a whole lot of other cool terms. SS seemed more like a cult than a fitness discipline – they were vocal and aggressive in their unassailable contentions. They offered up a lot of science but something didn’t seem right to me. I read their detailed manifesto and the related literature and listened to the talk. Afterwards I asked to see some physical manifestations, some shinning buffed examples of rocked-out super-strong SS adherents. I wanted to see a person transformed using this methodology alone…they told me they’d have to get back to me on that and I’m still waiting for those physical examples a decade later. It is interesting how so often that most basic of questions is never posed to fitness “experts:” i.e., if your modes and methods are so great, so incredible, then trot out some buffed individuals that got that way using your methods. Most experts talk a far better game than they can walk.
Still, let’s not devolve into rabid partisans and discount everything about Art Jones and his philosophic heirs: purposefully slowing down the speed of a free-weight rep is appropriate and beneficial in certain situations. We hear about the amazing advantages and benefits of Compensatory Acceleration – are there complimentary and contrasting physical benefits to Compensatory Deceleration? Even CA advocates decelerate on the pre-loading, muscle-cocking, eccentric phase of the rep. By purposefully slowing the speed of the eccentric phase, energy coils in the compressed muscle. In CA we release that coiled muscle energy explosively…like a bomb going off – we try and release all available energy at once. In CD after the compression of the eccentric phase of the rep energy is released but slowly, evenly over the life of loaded phase of the rep. How slow? Super-Slow advocates advocate an incredibly slow rep speed done on a machine of some type. Way too slow for me. Not applicable in my world. Plus since I ain’t seeing any Super-Slow Sergio Olivia’s or Arnold’s trotted out as shinning examples of SS methodology I’m not gung ho to go as slow as they profess. I prefer my slow reps to take 3 to 5 seconds to complete. If you are doing a 5-8 rep set, that means you slow-mo the weight continually for upwards of 40-60 seconds and that’s a helleciously extended excruciatingly eternity to be pushing or pulling on a heavy barbell or pair of dumbbells. Slow-rep sets create a type of strength that my MMA buddy Mark Coleman calls “extended strength.” Not instantaneous strength rather sustained strength, the kind that produces the ability to grab and tug and push and punch for upwards of two minutes.
Slow sustained strength can theoretically be acquired by using purposefully slowed reps that culminate in sets that last 1 to 2 minutes. This slow, sustained, continual release of strength is compromised by endurance and energy limits. Dorian Yates first swayed me to the idea that purposefully slowed reps could have real muscular and strength possibility. Necessity is the mother of invention and when Dorian tore quad muscles and almost ended his bodybuilding career grinding out reps with 700-pounds in a squat set, he was forced to fine a new way to move his reps. “Explosive was out – I got really big and strong using explosive reps but I began getting injured.” Dorian began using his version of “continuous tension.” He would lower the weight under control and push or pull the poundage to lockout using a purposefully non-explosive concentric phase. A funny thing happened: after an initial post-injury poundage nosedive, once he hit bottom, he began to grow strong moving weights slowly and powerfully; he was like some giant Road Grader leveling a mountain. This is when he acquired his nickname Diesel. Using slow reps he was able to power 435 for six reps in the incline barbell press using the Smith Machine. He leg pressed 1200 for 13 super deep reps, including three forced reps. Be it pec dec or press-behind-the-neck, Dorian torqued poundage to completion slowly. His poundage came to nearly equal his best back in the old CA days. He said he had to become a CA master before he became a CD master. It was right in about this time that his physique thickened considerably – without losing any degree of his superb conditioning he was so famous for. His skin was paper thin and at his best his tanned skin up close seemed translucent. He went from 240 on contest day to 262 on contest day in about a year and credited increased calories, maturity and continual tension slowed reps as huge contributing factors.
I would suggest adding purposefully slowed reps to your arrow quiver of effective training tactics. I think it worthy of occasional inclusion in the exercise rotation. How about starting off by slowing down the eccentric portion of all free-weight exercises? Slow or pause at the turnaround: this make the rep incredibly more difficult. From a muscle-building, strength-infusing vantage-point, a slowed turnaround causes way more muscle fiber to be recruited than a bounced turn-around. Phase I: slow down the eccentric portion and pause the turn-around. In Phase II, slow down the loaded phase. Nice and smooth and steady on the weighted push or pull. Use a controlled eccentric phase followed by mirror-image concentric push/pull. Be forewarned that you will not be able to handle anywhere near what you’re capable of lifting using regular rep speed. That’s alright as slowed reps are a totally different deal. I know elite lifters who’ll throw in a set of slowed reps after completing the regular CA sets. Other elites will use an exclusive diet of slow-rep exercises for 2-4 weeks just to get totally away from standardized CA. Use slowed reps as an adjunct or as a contrasting change of pace. Try out slowed reps and let us know your results.
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