Time under tension is a great tool to use when trying to make gains in size and strength.? It’s well accepted that in order for one to stimulate muscle to induce gains the optimum time under tension is 20 – 60 seconds for the vast majority of people.? In the April 2007 issue of Ironman magazine William Litz has written an article on extending time under tension using partial, burns and X-reps.
Let me start by addressing the before and after pictures included on the second page of the author.? Underneath the pictures it states, “William Litz took his physique from a soft 220 to a hard, abs blazing 210 in only eight weeks using X-reps partials and stretch overload.”?
Does he really think the readers of this magazine are that deficient in their reasoning ability they wouldn’t see how ludicrous the caption under the pictures is?? In a word, YES.? Remember that magazines primarily exist to sell product and could care less about dispensing valid training advice.? Most of what is found in muscle magazines is nonsense filler, like this article.
In this worthless article Litz states, “Why burns fell out of favor is beyond me.? It clearly produced amazing builds in the decades before chemical warfare.”? Yet performing burns and partials for over ten years proved ineffective for him.? He used partials and burns sice the early 90’s, but didn’t make “ab blazing” gains until using X-reps, which are a variation of partials and burns.?
Litz also claims new research indicates that bottom, or stretch position burns are more beneficial, but to keep variety alive.? No research is sited in the article.? Litz would like you to keep in mind that stretch position partials can activate a lot of fibers and may even lead to fiber splitting, if such a phenomenon exists.? It may lead to, if such a phenomenon exists?? Are you kidding me?? You could actually transport yourself from place to place within seconds if such a devise existed.
The fact is, we humans have a finite ability to recover from physical stress.? Stress induced by high intensity training is no exception.? There is no reason what-so-ever to take a set beyond momentary positive failure.? In fact, partials, negatives and other forms of extending sets fell out of favor because they do more to over-train individuals than anything else.? Top bodybuilders are always sited as proof a certain training program works, but what about the 10’s of thousands who use these vary programs and get nowhere.
You can not force growth.? If your progress has come to a halt, you’re not recovering.? Using partials and burns should only be used by advanced lifters wth low frequency.? Pushing beyond, doing more without allowing recovery, will only exacerbate the problem.?????
