There are many different training strategies that powerlifters, strength athletes, and bodybuilders use in order to gain size and strength. Bodybuilders tend to use more volume and more time under tension than powerlifters and those who are simply trying to build strength.
Mike Tuchscherer is an outstanding powerlifter who prefers to compete in raw powerlifting competitions. In the video below, he is at a stage in his training cycle where he is lifting very heavy and doing a lot of single reps. The total workout takes a little over 2 hours to complete, but he cuts most of the rest and transition time between sets and exercise from the video. As a result, he fits his entire workout into a video that lasts 12 minutes and 32 seconds. If you time the actual time under tension in the video, his total lifting time adds up to 4 minutes and 34 seconds. A video of the workout is posted below followed by the amount of time it took him to perform each set of the workout.
The lesson to be learned from Mike’s workout is that it really only takes a small amount of actual exercise time to build strength, but in order to do each set properly, it requires a lot of rest time between sets and the workouts end up taking a long time.
Deadlifts
Sets 1 – 4 are warm up sets
Set 1 = 3 reps = 13 seconds
Set 2 = 2 reps = 8 seconds
Set 3 = 1 rep = 3 seconds
Set 4 = 1 rep = 3 seconds
Sets 5 – 9 are work sets
Set 5 = 1 rep = 3 seconds
Set 6 = 1 rep = 3 seconds
Set 7 = 1 rep = 3 seconds
Set 8 =1 rep = 3 seconds
Set 9 = 1 rep = 4 seconds
Total Time Under Tension for Deadlifts = 43 seconds
Bench Presses with a 4 second pause at the bottom of each rep
Sets 1 – 3 are warm up sets
Set 1 = 9 reps = 35 seconds
Set 2 = 6 reps = 11 seconds
Set 3 = 1 rep = 7 seconds
Sets 4 – 9 are work sets
Set 4 = 1 rep = 5 seconds
Set 5 = 1 rep = 4 seconds
Set 6 = 1 rep = 6 seconds
Set 7 = 1 rep = 5 seconds
Set 8 = 1 rep = 5 seconds
Set 9 = 1 rep = 5 seconds
Total Time Under Tension for Bench Press = 1 min 23 seconds
Rack Pulls
Sets 1 – 3 are warm up sets
Set 1 = 4 reps = 18 seconds
Set 2 = 3 reps = 13 seconds
Set 3 = 6 reps = 29 seconds
Sets 4 – 6 are work sets
Set 4 = 6 reps = 27 seconds
Set 5 = 6 reps = 31 seconds
Set 6 = 6 reps = 29 seconds
Total Time Under Tension for Rack Pulls = 2 min 28 sec.
The Total Time Under Tension for the Entire Workout =
4 minutes 34 seconds
1 Set Every 5 to 6 Minutes
The workout consists of 24 sets, which amounts to about one set every five to six minutes. Remember that this workout takes 2 hours to perform, but when you add up the total amount of time in which the weights are being lifted, there is only 4 minutes and 34 seconds of time under tension or actual lifting time. This is probably a fairly common phenomenon among powerlifters and weight lifters.
Some of the West-Side lifters seem to do quite a bit of work in a fairly short amount of time, especially when doing their speed work, but for the most part, I don’t find many powerlifters who squeeze a lot of work into a short amount of time. In contrast, there are definitely top bodybuilders who endeavor to pack a lot of training into a short amount of time.
Body Builders Who Worked Out At a Rapid Pace
Arnold Schwarzenegger tried to squeeze as much work as he could into his workouts, but he did so much work that it still took him a long time. Some of the old timers such as Bob Gajda and Dan Lurie did phenomenal amounts of lifting with very little rest between sets. Vince Gironda believed in squeezing as much work as possible into each workout, but his workouts tended to be fairly brief and could often be complete in 30 to 35 minutes.
Body By Science
Doug McGuff wrote the book, Body By Science, and advocates a 12 minute high intensity workout that is to be performed on a weekly basis. Most of the 12 minute session consists of actual exercise time with very little rest between sets. A 12 minute workout sounds like a joke when you consider that it consists of only 12 minutes of exercise per week, but it starts to make a lot more sense when you compare it to the actual time under tension of those who spend much more time in the gym, but only a small portion of that time is actual exercise time. In the end, McGuff’s workout is close to the weekly amount of actual training time that is included in other training methods that require more time in the gym.
I find this a very interesting subject and will continue to evaluate the time under tension of other lifters in the blogs that I write over the next few weeks. Best of training to you.