Weights... heavy and slow or light and fast?

"Toning" is losing the fat over your muscles and strengthening them so that they have more visible definition. Lifting heavy (with mainly compound lifts) is probably the most effective way to achieve that. But really, in the end, you should do whichever workout you prefer and are more likely to stick with. And yes, Body [insert exercise type here] classes are largely cardio with resistance moves rather than focused strength training.

Also, Body Pump is a cardio workout, not a strength training workout.

Have you done Les Mills Pump? I can't imagine it being a cardio workout.

Yes. And it's WORLDS different than lifting heavy to build muscle.

To build muscle you squat A LOT of weight for 5-10 reps. Not 15lbs until a 3 minute song is over.

Lifting heavy weight with a steady (not fast) tempo is to build muscle. Lifting light weight for high reps is cardio. It elevates your heart rate and builds muscle endurance, not muscle size.

Disagree. That's more about building strength. You can do all the heavy lifts at a slow pace, but if you aren't providing the building blocks through diet, gains in mass will be minimal, but gains in strength can be exponential.

Les Mills Pump is designed to work your fast twitch muscle fibers and burn fat using a lot of reps and lighter weight. CE is designed to help you build a little muscle and the slow twitch muscle fibers while burning fat and converting fat to muscle. Both are great for losing weight and burning fat. But for toning Pump if the better of the 2 because it doesn't let you build much but it lets you burn the fat around your existing muscle exposing your already established muscle. AKA: Toning

So again it depends on where you want to take your body. Also you have to take into consideration your body type and your type does play a role in choosing your training regiment and style.
Ectomorph
Mesomorph
Endomorph

AWSEOME response!!
I recently just discovered the Body type and how loosing fat/weight is affected.

http://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/body-types-ectomorph-mesomorph-endomorph.html

Happy Researching

I always thought that ensuring proper form when lifting weights (thus going slow, controlling the movements) was the best way to ensure the most of the workout?

Not necessarily. Correct form is, at it's most basic, about avoiding injury. You can often get better lifts with slightly less perfect form, but you increase the risk of injury. When form goes completely to hell, then you're likely to end up hurt AND not working muscles very effectively.

Les Mills Pump is designed to work your fast twitch muscle fibers and burn fat using a lot of reps and lighter weight.

If Les Mills is light weight and high reps how is it training your fast twitch muscle fibers? Fast twitch muscles are typically trained...

- Max Effort:
- Dynamic Effort
- Plyometrics

None of those categories are light weight for a lot of reps. Yes Dynamic Effort is typically lighter weight but it's usually very low reps, like 2 - 3. Well, maybe not the plyometrics but even moderate reps isn't "high".

most definetly one can do cardio with resistance

Yup, go to a BootCamp or CrossFit class.

Disagree. That's more about building strength. You can do all the heavy lifts at a slow pace

You can disagree but you would be wrong. In lifting any weight momentum should definitely be used, almost a controlled explosiveness if you will. Even though the weight is moving slowly, that doesn't mean that the lifter didn't explode into it. You're not going to be lifting anything heavy if you try to do it slowly. That doesn't mean you lose control and use poor form but you definitely want to be explosive. One strength coach I like to read from said to get violent with the weight.

I always thought that ensuring proper form when lifting weights (thus going slow, controlling the movements) was the best way to ensure the most of the workout?

Not necessarily. Correct form is, at it's most basic, about avoiding injury. You can often get better lifts with slightly less perfect form, but you increase the risk of injury. When form goes completely to hell, then you're likely to end up hurt AND not working muscles very effectively.

Yeah the "go slow" thing is a popular misconception. What's of utmost importance is to control the weight and keep good form. If you do it quickly otherwise, or slowly, it doesn't matter.

This back and forth reminds me of a guy at my gym. Only uses the machines, loads them up as heavy as possible, barely moves the weight going as fast as he can using momentum and body weight, does 1/4 reps (I've never actually seen him do ONE complete rep), has AWFUL form, then subsequently drops the entire STACK of weights. I'm waiting for the stack of plates to split down the middle one of these days.

Yeah, people like that are friggin' ignorant and sometimes I hope they hurt themselves. The idea is still to maintain control over the eccentric portion of the lift, even pause at the bottom of it, but the explode into the concentric portion. You never lose control but going slow and steady is not the way to do it.

If you're more into bodybuilding then you can definitely make the case, especially with isolation exercises, to have a more controlled tempo. Something like a 1 second concentric / 1 second hold / 4 second eccentric; focus on feeling the muscle.

I always thought that ensuring proper form when lifting weights (thus going slow, controlling the movements) was the best way to ensure the most of the workout?

Not necessarily. Correct form is, at it's most basic, about avoiding injury. You can often get better lifts with slightly less perfect form, but you increase the risk of injury. When form goes completely to hell, then you're likely to end up hurt AND not working muscles very effectively.

Yeah the "go slow" thing is a popular misconception. What's of utmost importance is to control the weight and keep good form. If you do it quickly otherwise, or slowly, it doesn't matter.

This back and forth reminds me of a guy at my gym. Only uses the machines, loads them up as heavy as possible, barely moves the weight going as fast as he can using momentum and body weight, does 1/4 reps (I've never actually seen him do ONE complete rep), has AWFUL form, then subsequently drops the entire STACK of weights. I'm waiting for the stack of plates to split down the middle one of these days.

Yeah, people like that are friggin' ignorant and sometimes I hope they hurt themselves. The idea is still to maintain control over the eccentric portion of the lift, even pause at the bottom of it, but the explode into the concentric portion. You never lose control but going slow and steady is not the way to do it.

If you're more into bodybuilding then you can definitely make the case, especially with isolation exercises, to have a more controlled tempo. Something like a 1 second concentric / 1 second hold / 4 second eccentric; focus on feeling the muscle.

Is this based on any research, or is it just bro science?

Leaves this and runs.

FWIW ... I used to train with a Charles Poliquin certifed strength coach and lifting tempo was always important for strenght gains. Here's an article Poliquin wrote last year regarding lifting tempo.

http://www.poliquingroup.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article/898/Ten_Things_You_Should_Know_About_Tempo_Training.aspx

Ectomorph
Mesomorph
Endomorph

http://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/body-types-ectomorph-mesomorph-endomorph.html

Happy Researching

This seems like it's geared toward men.

There is one with female body types but I can't find it again to post the link