Time Under Tension: What is it?

What does it mean?

Time Under Tension or (TUT) is the amount of time a muscle is being loaded for a given exercise. Throughout a full range of motion there are three different forms:
-Concentric or contracting the muscle
-Isometric or holding/pausing
-Eccentric or “the negative”

Concentric

This is usually everyones’s favorite because it is much easier to contract a muscle, especially using momentum, than to lengthen it. Concentric loading usually feels like a tightness in the muscle and a “balling up” feeling.

Isometric

This, in contrast, is normally usually most peoples’ least favorite as it either skipped altogether or very brief. Isometric loading is a static movement and involves holding in one position for an extended period of time. Normally this takes place in the middle of the range of motion, irrespective of specific exercises of isometric hold only exercises like planks.

Eccentric

Eccentric loading is the stretching or lengthening of the muscle. Most people refer to it as the “negative” portion of the range of motion. Eccentric loading is where the majority of the muscle is built.

How do people get it wrong?

Many people have heard the term time under tension but many times they are mistaken when they claim to be practicing it properly. Just because someone says they do 10, 12,15 or even 20 reps does not mean they are practicing proper time under tension.

As you may have seen at gyms, many people have improper form to begin with. Let alone practicing the necessary time under tension for each exercise. Improper form coupled with rushing through reps is why many people will look the same month after month.

While in practice they are lifting weights, much of their time spent involves very little eccentric or isometric loading. This leads to a much longer time to see results as each exercise is only producing a fraction of the required work.

Not all time is created equally

In line with the thinking above, timing a set is not enough either. Though some may be aware total reps ≠ proper time under tension, neither does total time for each set.

As mentioned above, most people skip the isometric holding portion and fly through the eccentric portion. They may produce a lot of reps but spend the majority of the time in the concentric portion, great for power but not building muscle. Or, even worse, they may rest in the start of the rep and not be any tension at all for the desired muscle group

What can you do about it?

Our recommendation:

⇒Spend at least 45-60 seconds per each set
⇒Spend an equal amount of time in concentric as eccentric
⇒Pause for at least 1 second in the isometric hold
⇒Count the seconds spent in each loading phase of the range of motion, roughly 5-6 seconds/rep

Putting it all together: spend roughly 2 seconds in the concentric portion, 1-2 seconds in the isometric portion and 2 seconds in the eccentric portion. Following this method will ensure each repetition is being performed with proper time under tension.

If you have not been performing repetitions in this manner you will likely notice you will not be able to do the same amount of weight or for the same amount of repetitions. This will however lead to seeing faster results!

Another key point to focus on is to practice proper form. Improper form decreases the proper time under tension spent for a specific exercise because the tension is not in the desired muscle but a supporting one. A perfect example of this is bicep curls. Many people swing the weights around and momentum is the driving factor which drastically reduces the time under tension for the biceps.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article!

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