Slow Reps Vs Fast Reps – Which Is Better?

The old debate of which is better: slow reps vs fast reps. Keep scrolling to understand the mechanics behind each type of exercise.

If you want to lose weight, should you do faster reps? And if you are trying to build muscle, should you do slow reps? Max Posternak tries to explain these and more questions in the matter.

Max Posternak is the founder of Gravity Transformation, a website focused on giving tips and training guidance for people looking to improve their fitness and lose weight. His YouTube channel has over 5 million subscribers.

Check out Posternak’s arguments of which is better between slow reps vs fast reps.

Slow Reps Vs Fast Reps – Which Is Better?

Before anything, here are the benefits of doing slow reps:

Increases the eccentric phase of a movement, the part when you are breaking down more muscles
Your form will improve, typically, by doing slower reps and targeting the muscles a bit better
Develop more endurance by targeting the slow twitch fibres in your muscles

And here are the benefits of doing fast reps:

Build strength by concentrating on lifting a heavier load
Increase explosiveness

But the question remains, which is better between slow reps vs fast reps?

Well, after knowing the benefits of each type of lifting, you can actually combine them both to get the best result.

For example, you can increase the time under tension when descending the barbell on a bench press, for example, and lift as fast as possible. A study made in Brazil found that the group who took 3 seconds to lower their lifts and took 1 second to lift it back up built 5x more muscle fibres than the group who took 1 second to lift and 1 second to lower the weights.

“The best way to get the benefits of both is by going really, really slow during the eccentric portion of the movement, the descent, but during the concentric portion of the movement, which is the opposite, you should go as fast as you can,” Posternak says.

Slow Reps Vs Fast Reps - Which Is Better

That is for muscle growth, but what if your goal is weight loss? Posternak says that for fat loss, choosing slow reps vs fast reps should not make a difference in the amount of calories burnt at the end of the workout.

If you hit a plateau in your fitness journey, you can also use this information to your advantage. If you are used to doing slow reps all the time, switching up to faster reps might do the trick to get you out of that plateau. The same can be said about slow reps. It’s all about shocking your body to doing something it is not used to.

And that is Posternak’s arguments on which is better: slow reps vs fast reps. If you want to know more, click on the video below.