Part of slow lift's appeal, say advocates, is its versatility. I college basketball player who added 11 pounds of muscle in only a month. Mass. Westcott, incidentally, says he is not an advocate for slow lifting, but conducted the studies out of scientific curiosity. In each study, Westcott says, participants did 13 exercises on Nautilus machines consisting of one set of 10 repetitions lasting seven seconds per rep, while another group did half as many reps, but doubled the time for each rep. After eight weeks in the first study and 10 weeks in the second, the slow-trained group gained an average of 50 percent more strength than the conventionally trained group.
Skeptics are undeterred.
For athletic fitness, you want to do your resistance training with explosive force. That's why slow training doesn't provide the best benefits. He also warns that some people's tendency to hold their breath while lifting could send the blood pressure of older slow lift participants skyrocketing, because the lifting time is extended. Sports scientists deride the idea that weight lifting alone can provide the same cardiovascular benefits as traditional aerobic exercise. And they're apoplectic over claims by Hutchins and other slow lift proponents that people compromise their gains from resistance training if they do aerobic exercise as well.