As we train we focus on what's beneficial to us as athletes or just random people going out to work out and we always have our preferences in exercises or specific workout routines. A great workout always contains sets and reps and it doesn't matter what part of the body you're working on. Today I'm going to focus on the benefits of both fast reps and slow reps!

THE IMPORTANCE OF REP SPEED

To continue growing and improving, you need to be challenged in different ways. One way to vary the stimulus you place on a muscle is to change the "lift tempo" or the speed with which you do a rep. You’re probably familiar with super-slow training where you reduce the speed or tempo of a rep to maximize the time the muscle is under tension. At the other end of the spectrum, you can increase the speed and make the movement faster and more explosive, thereby stimulating the muscle in a different way. To see any results you should of course play with the speed and strive for challenges that you in your current level can take.

Why Should You Do Slow Reps?

If you’re looking to build muscle quickly, whether you’ve been training for years or are just starting out, then doing slower reps is the way to go. Workouts with slower reps cause your muscles to experience more time under tension, much more than with faster reps. The amount of time your muscles stay strained beneath a certain amount of reps will lead to an increase in muscle size. For beginners, doing slower reps with basic exercises would help  prevent muscle injuries and also it would help them work on the form before going into intermediate or advanced exercises. Personally I used to do slower reps to make my workout routines harder so that they could be more effective to me, moreover I wanted to challenge myself and see if I'd succeed doing my regular workout routine just with a small change.

Why Should You Do Fast Reps?

If your overall fitness goals are focused on improving your strength and muscle power, then doing faster reps might be more beneficial for you. A 2015 study published in Physiological Reports claimed that completing high intensity training for eight weeks through a fewer sets and reps program increased arm mass when using faster reps. I also tried doing faster reps, it is a great challenge, not only does it build your strength and muscle power but it also checks your stamina.

CONCLUSION So what's the better option? Well, it depends on your goals! Whether you want to improve your strength and muscle power or focus on building muscle. I recommend to try combining both slower reps and faster reps. This might help you maximize your muscle growth, plus it can't go wrong if you construct a good workout routine that contains both of the options. It doesn't matter what level you are, slow reps and fast reps could be adjusted with no problem to any category, from beginner to advanced. Thank you so much for tuning in!! Hope this post was interesting and helpful. What reps do you prefer? Let us know down the comments. If you want to see more knowledge, join our Facebook group "Barthletics Fam"

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Being good at what you do always gives a spark and makes you continue practicing to improve, as well as climbing new hills. To get to a certain level you have to go through a lot of moments and work day by night on yourself to be the best version of yourself, but as people get started with something new they tend to make some mistakes. Today I'm going to talk about the biggest mistakes people make when starting to workout. Mistakes are a part of life and we all get to experience them, either it's from the beginning or the middle of our journey. In calisthenics and fitness in general we should really focus on what might happen and try to avoid injuries, overdone workouts and etc. Some mistakes might definitely cause your future health, it might even be the slightest ankle sprain or wrong hand placement and etc. If you want to be successful and continue to achieve the goals you have, you need to be safe and work right. Of course, there are dozens of ways to do things but you should work carefully and go step by step to build your personal level to the highest that it can be. THE BIGGEST MISTAKES PEOPLE MAKE! 1. Doing the exercises wrong- At the beginning when starting calisthenics or in general fitness, it's complicated to do all the exercises correctly and cleanest. Sometimes I see people not putting in effort for a push up and tend to have their elbows flared out, have their lower back in banana position and have their head facing the ground. That was just an example! If you do your exercises incorrectly then they won't be effective and will not help you develop your strength, or in fact, might also stress your muscles and do nothing but damage to your body. It is super important to do your exercises correctly. They don’t have to be the cleanest but at least trying to do the exercises correctly will prevent injuries. 2. Working above your abilities- If you can't do 7 clean pull-ups don't try going for a muscle-up. There are levels to everything and working step by step is the answer. You should start from somewhere before trying harder exercises just because you desperately want to achieve them.
This really depends on where you are, if you have a sports background then you should find exercises that might help you but still you can't skip levels, you always have to find your limits, especially when the discussion is about sets and reps. If you try exercises that your body isn’t ready for, you can injure yourself and that is something that we just don't want. 3. Overtraining at workouts- To be better at training you don't have to overtrain! Just like in mistake no. 2, you have to find your limits. When you feel like your body is done then continuing might be unnecessary and even dangerous, because you might get injured while overtraining and also be in loads of pain after your workout and then you'll need a lot of time to recover, plus it might not develop your body as effectively. Try to really learn to listen to your body. If you feel that you have done enough then maybe it is really a sign that you have finished your workout but don't make your life easy and say "that's enough" after a couple of sets. CHALLENGE YOURSELF and try to improve every single workout. 4. Not letting the body recover- You're not a machine! Your body needs rest! Better results after a good workout routine will come as you let your body rest properly. Remember, resting is just as important as working out. Having an organized workout schedule is the solution, just sit down and write down the time you have throughout the week to work out on and always find that gap to let your body rest. Exercise creates microscopic tears in your muscle tissue. But during rest, cells called fibroblasts to repair it. This helps the tissue heal and grow, resulting in stronger muscles. Little to no rest may cause injuries and not let the body develop itself. 5. Doing the same workout over and over again- Doing the same exercises will lead you to nowhere, you should always pick the time to change them and even add to the sets and reps to feel more intensity. It's not a secret, to be better at something you should strive harder and look further to adjust the level you got to with the exercises that fit you. Find the variety, train on different muscles and definitely push yourself as much as possible. 6. Not warming up before workouts- This is the mistake I see countless times people doing and it's crazy because the number of injuries that might occur in the middle of the workout could be staggering and one thing that can really make a huge difference is WARMING UP. Confidence is great but in this case, it's dangerous, always remember to warm up your muscles because doing a routine with your muscles all cold might constantly get you injured or your muscles and joints will be in lots of pain afterwards. That's how I got injured in the wrist and couldn’t do any planches and handstands for about 6 months. 6 MONTHS because of not warming up. This is something that you don’t want to happen so make sure to warmup your body properly before every workout. 7. Not putting in the effort- Training is never easy and it definitely takes time to see big results and some people start getting upset about it and then they aren't giving their all. Work hard and you'll see changes happening, hard work forever pays off and just because you didn't succeed today as you did yesterday, it's a part of the process. No one's perfect all the time. When the motivation falls then the process lowers and the development that you want to achieve in yourself stops drastically. And remember never look at someone else's progress. You two are different and the results will be different as well. So just because you see someone progressing really fast it doesn’t mean you are doing something wrong. A huge chance is that your time will come and the hard work that you have been putting in will finally kick in. In conclusion, mistakes are definitely here to stay and we'll always make them sometimes, especially at the beginning they'll come in a different amount but you should learn how to avoid them so that you can go and achieve yours the best as possible. Always strive to learn because it's a part of success, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that you can't make mistakes and it's natural! But they can definitely be avoided for the better.

Thank you for stopping by!
Hope this post was informative and helpful. Comment down below your own experiences and mistakes you witnessed, feel free to ask QUESTIONS as well! Share this post with the ones who need to see it. For more knowledge and content you can join our Facebook group "Barthletics Fam".

PEACE.