The Secrets of
King Tut - T.U.T. (Time Under Tension)
You probably didn't know that the young king had
a few lifting secrets. After all, how much could a 9-year-old
know? He was only running the superpower of his timehe had to
know something. Well good ole Tut had some secrets, even Joe
Weider would be surprised at what Tutankhamen knew. All
rightso King Tut really didn't know anything about fitness.
For God sakes he died at 18, how the hell could he have known
anything about fitness? I know some say he was murdered, but
if that is the case, he obviously wasn't big enough to fight
for his life, so he's not a good example of
fitness.
However, T.U.T. (time under
tension) is a great tool for breaking into the next level of
your fitness progress. I am assuming most of you have heard of
T.U.T., but for those of you that are new let me briefly
explain. T.U.T. is the time your muscle is under tension
during any movement. For example: while doing a biceps curl,
keep an eye on the clock (with a second hand), the moment you
begin to curl the weight to the moment you stop curling the
weight reflects your T.U.T. for that movement. So if it takes
you ten seconds from beginning to end your T.U.T. is ten
seconds. Easy huh?
The idea is to work
with T.U.T. just as you would with your movementschanging from
time to time to create a new stimulus for your muscles. As we
all know, one of the keys to growth and development is the
constant change in the way we train our muscles. T.U.T. is
just one of those methods. Alternating from super slow to a
regular speed can have a great affect on you growth. You can
start by finding out what your current time under tension is.
Are you a fast lifter or a slow lifter? You may be surprised
at what you find out. Now I certainly don't expect everyone to
walk around with a stopwatch for a month, but I do suggest you
find a way to determine your average T.U.T. For those of you
that are extremely anal about your workouts I would assume you
have already determined your average
T.U.T.
Another way to quickly
determine your T.U.T. is to add up your rep tempo. For example
a 1-2-1 tempo adds up to 4 seconds, multiply that by 8 and
each set has a T.U.T. of approximately 32 seconds. This method
works if you have been keeping track of tempo, which is a
completely different article if you are unclear of what tempo
is. Once you have analyzed your numbers and determined an
average, you will need to look at where it is you want to go
with your training. Are you looking at strength or
hypertrophy? What are your current goals? This will help you
adjust your T.U.T. to meet those goals. Charles Poliquin, a
strength and conditioning coach, has come up with these
numbers as a guide to help us determine our
T.U.T.
1) If you train for
relative strength, TUT [time-under-tension] should be under 20
seconds,
2) if you train for
hypertrophy, TUT should be around 40-70
seconds
These numbers are base on
a full set. In other words your T.U.T. should total between
40-70 seconds per set for hypertrophy, which is what most of
us are looking for. Growth! As with any new toy you will want
to play with it right away, but keep in mind that T.U.T.
should be used within your program. You will not be able to
identify its success or failure if you are not consistent with
it or introduce too many other new variables to your training
at the same time. Additionally, don't be afraid to work with
the numbers. What works for each individual will be different.
I may need to stay within 50-second sets and you may need
70-second sets. And yes, some of you may even need to go to 80
seconds. As with any variable to training, T.U.T. should be
experimented with for your goals. Muscle growth is not about
magic numbers or pills, but it is about hard work and
determination.
Here is how I would
incorporate T.U.T. to maximize my training efforts. Let's use
the bench press for this example, as that seems to be
everyone's favorite. My particular tempo should be 1-3-1. This
allows me to reach a 50-second T.U.T. if I perform 10 reps.
There is the likelihood that you could work a 1-3-3-1 tempo,
but that would be for the more advanced lifter. This method
would decrease the speed of the press, but would increase your
T.U.T. to a full 70-seconds for 10 reps. As I continue on my
chest work I would use the same T.U.T. rules for each
exercise. Keeping in mind that I may have to adjust the amount
of weight used to perform the exercises with proper form. This
seems to be the biggest struggle when people decide to use
T.U.T. as a training tool. No one wants to reduce the weight
they are using for fear of looking like a wimp. When in
realityif you do this for a short 4-6 week period you should
see increases on the other side. Allowing you show off again
at the bench station!
So King Tut
really didn't' have much to do with any of this. He really
didn't have much to do with anything come to think of it. The
kid only ruled for 9 years. Perhaps if he spent some more time
in the gym he might have been more likely to live longer.
Christopher Phelps has been involved with
recreational fitness and strength training for over 10 years.
He utilizes his management background as a development tool to
manage individual goal setting and success. He has written The
Workout guide, which offers extensive fitness programs for all
fitness levels. Personalized programs are also offered via e-mail
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