Forcing Reps...

You might be wasting time in the gym. As loaded a statement as that might be, it really might be true. And if it's not you that's wasting time, I am certain that others in your gym that are.

How is time being wasted? Well, besides your kickbacks, crunches and time spent checking out the token "hot girl" on the butt-buster machine, you are probably forcing some reps. 

I know, I know.

When you knock out forced reps, whether it's when you're having a spotter, reverse curl the barbell as you try to bench it or when you turn a dumbbell curl into an Olympic lift, you're likely promoting sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, basically storage of glycogen, water and other "energy" related factors, instead of the hypertrophy you're really after, which would refer to your actual contractile proteins.

Why does this happen? Well, when you lift a load normally, that is it's not forced, your eccentric contractions will be more controlled, and it's the eccentric contractions that are most closely related to myofibrillar hypertrophy. 

Conversely, when you're doing a set of curls and after 8 or 10 of them, you start getting your hips into the movement, it's likely that the weight wasn't heavy enough to recruit your fast-twitch fibers until later in the set, the fibers that have the greatest potential for growth. But if you had chosen a heavier load that would only let you get 6 good, clean reps in, it would have supported earlier recruitment of your FT fibers and more myofibrillar hypertrophy. 

Now don't think of this as your magical cure for why you haven't grown in a year. It's just something to keep in mind. There are definitely exceptions to this rule too. For instance, many lifters will tell you nothing made their legs grow as much as sets of 20-rep squats. But, that's an exception, not a deal-breaker. So, keep your reps clean, in the functional hypertrophy zone and don't waste your time!