I was asked...

[pellius]

That body in the pic above was developed in this manner. I made more gains in 2 years then ever before and this is at a time where I trained just as you do currently and was resolved to the fact that free weights was "the way" watch some of my video's particularly some of my earlier ones YouTube ryan ergo for my channel. There is more to it but in a nutshell this is it. That body was trained in this fashion...

Muscle does not know what exercise you are doing. Muscle does not know if you're using a barbell, cable, cement block etc. Muscle can and will only respond to stress that is created and directed toward stimulating the muscle into responding. With the goal being hypertrophy. Bodybuilders accomplish this stress through a series of repetitions that are performed during a set. Muscle does not know about repetitions. The standard repetition is a stutter approach to creating stress on the muscle. A stutter approach is not the best approach. A more prolonged type of TUT (time under tension) is preferred to damage the muscle. If you watch the average trainer perform their set the stuttered TUT will be for that set (8-12 reps) would average a stuttered 12-20 seconds total. This is why the average trainer must do 12-20 sets to have any effect on positive results. This is a very haphazard way to train and will only delay your growth.You must find a machine that will deliver a constant tension throughout your set during both the positive and negative phases. You must train as heavily as possible while still allowing yourself to maintain a constant TUT for a minimum of 45 seconds to 2 minutes per set. Slow the reps down. Muscle does not know reps. Muscle only knows that you are delivering a new kind of constant stress that it cannot get a reprieve from as it does with a stuttered approach. It must, must activate deeper muscle fibers to compensate for this new approach. Often as little as 4-6 reps can destroy the muscle from the TUT it takes to complete the 4-6 reps. If you can go beyond 4-6 reps, do so. The lactic acid and pump will be incredibly painful. You must endure the pain and keep going to complete muscle failure. Your pain threshold will improve and so will your strength and so thus will the gains in new muscle size. Seek out the best machines at your gym for this method. These machines must give you a constant stress throughout the positive phase at a minimum. Most well designed machines can at least do this. If you can find a machine that delivers a constant stress for the negative also, do so. In other words it drives you back into the tension mode upon reversing the movement. This is an optimal machine.

If you recommend a TUT of at least 45 seconds and even up to two minutes are you suggesting to always keep the reps high, 20+ or more? To get a TUT with less than 10 reps you are getting into Super Slow territory and hasn't SS pretty much been discredited useful only in the beginning stages of rehab with very fragile patients? SS does cause a lot of burn and pain but that in and of itself is not an indication potential hypertrophy stimulation. Besides, when I tried it I just felt the muscles just don't work that way. Moving so slow. Even Arthur Jones recommended at bit of pre stretch or bounce at the beginning of the concentric phase. He believed it recruited more fibers and generated more contractile force. Sort of like when you swing a baseball bat. You don't just swing and pivot like when a door closes but you throw out your hips first to get that pre stretch in your hips, pecs, shoulders and all the other muscles involved in swinging. So if you are doing a bench press just as it is about to touch the chest you do a slight bounce (not bouncing off your chest) and then press up without throwing the weight. It's like the difference between a jab which is all arms and a knockout punch where the hips precede the punch.

Would you count partials/burns at the end of a set or static holds as part of the TUT?

[ergo]

The first thing you must do is understand what a perfect rep is. You must choose the right compound movement that can best replicate a perfect rep. This is primarily accomplished with machines. Both plate loaded and stacks. Efficiency versus energy expenditure. Many variables effect TUT. Rest pauses, mid range partials. A rep is just a unit of time that we assign to a three part phase of movement. Positive, static and the negative. Super slow is out as you must sacrifice to much intensity due to loss of shear resistance decrease. I know nothing is really explained here. My training is a Variable form of HIT requiring multiple sets...