Importance of Time Under Tension For Muscle Growth

Time Under Tension is not a common concept and very few people outside the bodybuilding world know what it means. First its important to understand what is Time Under Tension to decide whether it is important or not. The idea is that you do not need to worry about number of reps rather you should keep track of time your set lasts. You do not need to complete the 12 reps for each set instead you will have to aim for total time under tension like 20, 30 or 50 seconds. When the specific time completes you can end your set regardless of the number of reps you did during the set. According to different theories the time between 10 to 20 seconds is ideal for muscle growth and 60 sec to 70 sec is suited for muscle endurance.

The time in which your muscle remains under tension does play an important role for muscle growth but does it means that you should start counting seconds instead of the number of reps. This concept is already in practice by most of the bodybuilders as everybody knows that how many reps are needed for muscle growth. If you can do more than 12 reps with your weight than you need to increase your weight so that your remains under high amount of tension for less time. If you can do less than 6 reps with your weight than you need to decrease the amount of weight. If you are following these rules than no need to worry about Time Under Tension as you will automatically follow the mentioned rules.