5-3 Countdown Rep Tempo

https://www.T-Nation.com/training/new-way-to-trigger-fast-muscle-growth

Any suggestions on the tempo that should be used for the reps or does it not really matter?

Hey Jp… I have been experimenting with isometric holds before reps for quite some time and found that explosive reps after holds are really effective to trigger muscle growth.

This is like old school stuff that Charles Glass still uses. It was described as “digging deep into the muscle”, which in a modern day context would mean you are forced to contract more explosively to get the weight moving from a dead stop, thus activating more muscle fibers. This is usually done after pyramiding up to a top set or as a 2nd or 3rd exercise like John Meadows does.

dt79 How does it apply to 5-3 countdown rep style? Will you elaborate it please. Deadstop reps are a different form of stimulation.

[quote]jasper41 wrote:
dt79 How does it apply to 5-3 countdown rep style? Will you elaborate it please. Deadstop reps are a different form of stimulation.[/quote]

It is similar if you think in terms of muscular stimulation.

[quote]dt79 wrote:

[quote]jasper41 wrote:
dt79 How does it apply to 5-3 countdown rep style? Will you elaborate it please. Deadstop reps are a different form of stimulation.[/quote]

It is similar if you think in terms of muscular stimulation.[/quote]

Well, I used deadstop reps extensively with CT’s Original Layer System: Ramp to 1RM, Cluster reps, Density work all deadstop reps. Though with CT"s system I completely changed my look in 12 weeks, I must say that 5-3 scheme is not similar stimulation muscularly or nervous. I will like to add that I’m not aware of Meadow’s approach and I’ve done isometric holds before reps a little different than Chad’s scheme but still I have followed the gist of the method. All I can say that this approach gives good visual results without beating you down.

Chad generally likes “a controlled negative” and an explosive lifting phase. Here is a video of him going over the exact technique laid out in the video and you can see how the rep tempo goes. (although this one goes from 5 to 1 and the lifter is doing it a little differently in the interest of teaching