Muscle time under tension during resistance exercise stimulates differential muscle protein sub‐fractional synthetic responses in men

Non‐technical summary A single bout of resistance exercise stimulates the synthesis of new muscle proteins. Chronic performance of resistance exercise (i.e. weight training) is what makes your muscles grow bigger; a process known as hypertrophy. However, it is unknown if increasing the time that muscle is under tension will lead to greater increases in muscle protein synthesis. We report that leg extension exercise at 30% of the best effort (which is a load that is comparatively light), with a slow lifting movement (6 s up and 6 s down) performed to fatigue produces greater increases in rates of muscle protein synthesis than the same movement performed rapidly (1 s up and 1 s down). These results suggest that the time the muscle is under tension during exercise may be important in optimizing muscle growth; this understanding enables us to better prescribe exercise to those wishing to build bigger muscles and/or to prevent muscle loss that occurs with ageing or disease.

Muscle time under tension during resistance exercise stimulates differential muscle protein sub‐fractional synthetic responses in men Journal Articles