Is "time under tension" the best training method to build mass?

[edgecrusher]

What I mean is this. A lot of programs and methodologies will have individuals shoot for a certain number of reps before raising the weight. You hear this all the time. "Once you get X reps, raise the weight Y percent."

So people will go and move some weights. Say one day they max out at 10 reps at a given weight. Two workouts later they squeeze out 13 and think "w00t! I caused more growth because I did more reps." Well, no, not necessarily. Past maybe 5 reps with reasonable negatives (2-3 seconds), doing more reps on top of that isn't going to add more growth.

There are other reasons to do higher rep stuff, though. Lactic acid promotes joint and connective tissue healing and can cause some sarcoplasmic (cosmetic, nonfunctional) hypertrophy.

That whole TUT thing is sort of tied in with that fact that with a moderate rep range of 8-12 you get a balance of sacroplasmic and sarcomore (functional) hypertrophy. The recommendation is based upon "gurus" just kinda noticing that they grew more doing this rep range. Individual recommendations of TUT sounds a lot like what some IART people do; it's based upon fiber twitch type and rate of fatigue factors that are only relevant to strength (not growth) training.

-casualbb

Even if the protocol is relative to strength training, that can in turn lead to greater growth. If an indivdual can do the same reps w/ a higher weight, that (for the most part) is going to lead to a more favorable hormone ratio which can enhance hypertrophy. Another thing that was looked at was the hormonal profile of indivduals who utilized TUT. They found (once again,) on average that 30-45 seconds of tension lead toa more favorable testoterone to cortisol ratio.

I'm going to state once again, this protocol is recomended only for bodybuilders that are wishing to increase there size. an athlete especially one of an explosive nature would have to train differently.