Slow, Fast, Slow, Fast

Going slow, and then fast, and then slow, and then fast sounds like advice from the Kama Sutra, but it’s actually a rep-scheme strategy with some serious potential.

Scientists in Brazil recently discovered a means of boosting post-training levels of growth hormone by an unbelievable factor of 17. Researchers took two groups of resistance-trained men and put them through four sets of bench press using 70 percent of their one-rep max.

One group used a very quick eccentric movement (the lowering of the bar) while the other group took three seconds to return the bar to their chest. Fifteen minutes after the workout, the levels of growth hormone were 17 times higher in the slow group than in the fast group.

While many factors are involved in muscular adaptations, and it’s not quite clear if elevated levels of post-workout growth hormone translate to a bigger and leaner physique, an influx of anabolic hormones on a regular basis can’t hurt.