The popularity of speed and power has led a lot of attention away from slow fibers. Pavel Tsatsoujline of StrongFirst has broken away from the trend.

An article he recently shared outlines the important things to know about developing slow fiber strength and hypertrophy:

Fortunately for you, slow fiber hypertrophy training is less painful than that; a set should take only 30-60sec. Today I will outline one of slow fiber building protocols by Prof. Victor Selouyanov. As mentioned earlier, his methods have been used with great success by top Russian athletes from a variety of sports, from bicycle racing to judo; from soccer to full contact karate.

  • Style of performance: super slow, no acceleration.
  • Range of motion: partial that does not allow rest at any point.
  • Set duration: 30-60sec to failure (both heavy and light days).
  • Rest between sets of a given exercise: 5-10min, active (walk, “fast and loose”). Other exercises may be done during that window.
  • Resistance: 30-70% 1RM for the lower body and 10-40% 1RM for the upper body. No difference in resistance from heavy to light day.
  • Weekly schedule: bodybuilding style split training; a heavy day and a light day per muscle group.
  • Volume: 4-9 sets on heavy day; 1-3 sets on light day.

The resistance is chosen to hit failure within the specified time frame. The difference in % 1RM between the lower and upper body exercises is explained by a higher concentration of ST fibers in the legs.

You can read the whole article here. 

Header image and text via StrongFirst.com.