300lb db rows.... whatever. I think there really comes a point where your just ego blasting. Considering tempo, I dont think most guys could do 170's for even a 1 second pause at the top with a 3 second lower. nonsense.
Contrary to what muscle mags, Ellington Darden, and the odd online guru claim, most pros (and in fact most serious weight trainers, myself included) don't do reps anywhere near that slow. If I do 12-15 reps, my set takes as little as 30 seconds to complete - maybe 40-45 seconds max, depending upon the ROM of the exercise. If I do 8-10 reps, it takes as little as 20 seconds, maybe 30 seconds max.
Going too slow obviously limits the amount of weight one can use. For those with less-than-stellar genetics who are not on a ton of drugs, progressive overload is probably the most important factor, at least during the "growing years". Of course there is such a thing as going
too fast and not controlling the weight. Bouncing, jerking, dropping, etc is obviously not good either.
I don't know if I've ever encountered anyone of significant size and / or strength who actually regularly took more than one second on the concentric and two seconds (usually only one) on the eccentric - UNLESS of course they were deliberately doing so in order to try something different or to convince people that they actually followed whatever training method they were trying to promote (superslow, Arthur Jones HIT / Nautilus, etc).
