My mistake with "Heavy Lifting"...

In the absence of knowing if your rep range has changed then:

1) thinking about the muscles being worked slowed down the movement
2) slowing down the movement increased time under tension
3) increasing time under tension moved you more from myofibrillar hypertrophy to sacroplasmic hypertrophy
4) moving to sacroplasmic hypertrophy triggered more noticeable physique changes (power / strength athlete .v. body builder)

You could of course just work with good form and sufficient load in the appropriate rep range for your desired goals without any of this mind - body business...

The OP is pretty wrong. You should not be trying to induce DOMS with your workout. There is absolutely no benefit to inducing DOMS. The only reason you should get DOMS is if you're new to lifting (this will go away in a week or two) or you significantly change your routine (DOMS will probably only happen once or twice). If you constantly get DOMS after months of lifting then your routine is garbage.

The tension on the muscle is what causes it to grow. That is why people who have crappy form still get results. Someone curling 25lb with strict form and someone curling 35lb with sloppy form can get exactly the same results if the time under tension is the same.

The real problem with sloppy form is that it leads to injuries. I'd advise people to ignore the OP's advice.

bump

The OP is pretty wrong. You should not be trying to induce DOMS with your workout. There is absolutely no benefit to inducing DOMS. The only reason you should get DOMS is if you're new to lifting (this will go away in a week or two) or you significantly change your routine (DOMS will probably only happen once or twice). If you constantly get DOMS after months of lifting then your routine is garbage.

The tension on the muscle is what causes it to grow. That is why people who have crappy form still get results. Someone curling 25lb with strict form and someone curling 35lb with sloppy form can get exactly the same results if the time under tension is the same.

The real problem with sloppy form is that it leads to injuries. I'd advise people to ignore the OP's advice.

I would advise people to ignore what you just said.
She isn't saying the goal of the workout is to obtain DOMS. She's just saying now that she is concentrating on the proper muscle group that she is using to lift that she is now achieving that.

It's called the mind-muscle connection. Learn it. Live it. Love it.

I don't concentrate on specific muscle and I have good progress and appropriate soreness the next day. I guess it's it is another method that helps some but is not needed by all.

Just a little FYI: being sore or not being sore is NOT a good indicator of intensity or progress.

^^^^^^^ agree^^^^^^^^

Yeah you dont need DOMS to succeed, but concentrating on each rep, each muscle is important. You need the connection. Also if you are "relaxed" as you perform a movement you are more likely to employ other muscles more to help with the movement and form can waver. I'd also say to improve gains, slow down the negative.

thanks so much for posting this. I just started lifting so I'm finding it very helpful

So many "experts" on this site. I love that. There are many excellent points and opinions throughout the first 4 pages, to include the OP. I think we tend to over complicate things and let our black and white thinking get in the way of seeing other ways of doing things. With that being said, I think what the OP is saying is that the amount of weight you are lifting ALONE, did not give her the results she was looking for. Her goal was focused on her appearance, not on strength or power. She wanted a six pack and a certain muscular look. She realized that she was not going to meet these goals by simply loading up as much weight as possible for her, then doing an indicated amount of reps. Instead, she needed to focus less on lifting as much, or more weight as the week before, and instead keep her already good form, but drop the weight if needed, and focus on slowing down each rep, and thinking about squeezing and contracting all the way through the rep (contracting the lats, rather than using her shoulders and biceps to move the weight with a lat pulldown for example), or stretching to the full extent possible with the movement to get FULL benefit (really stretching to the ful range, slowly with constant tension, rather than obsessing about having to lift as heavy as possible. She would be able to stretch to a further point, which would stimulate more growth for THIS exercise, if she had a smaller amount of weight. Otherwise, she would stop short in order to move a higher amount of weight...which is just going through the motions on a dumbbell fly for example). I learned this same lesson after trianing for my first figure show. I went into my second season wanting to see a drastic VISUAL improvement in my shoulders, but was struggling to obtain that. I dropped the average weight I had been using for the past six months (also switched other things up to avoid "plateauing") by ten pounds, kept the rep range the same, but slowed down, keeping constant tension on the head of the delt I was working at that time. Bam...boulder shoulders. I hope this helps. Different goal...different approach. Different Person...different needs. No one is an expert. :-)

Is this guy trying to scratch his knee or something? Wtf.

IKR?