Using the appropriate tempo for your goals and the selected exercises can allow you to get even more out of them than you might be aware. I can’t count the number of times I’ve introduced a new client to a slow eccentric during certain exercises, and it just shocks them how
much a simple change like slowing the lengthening portion down can change things. This is for a number of reasons, but I’ll list the most obvious. Most people are simply concerned with doing the exercises in a manner that is pretty much “go from point A to point B” without any real concern for how they are travelling between the two points. When you place more of an emphasis on the eccentric portion of a movement (which is pretty foreign to most gym goers), a couple of pretty helpful things happen:
- This is where the muscle can generate the most amount of force
- This is where you can build the most amount of strength
- This is where your brain and body do the most amount of learning
Varying The Tempo
Now that’s not to say you should always be lifting slow and under control, but it’s a pretty damn good starting point.
Varying the tempo of an exercise can also allow you to change how it feels and the adaptations it forces on your body, without you even having to change the weight. By changing the tempo you are now placing more of an emphasis on a different part of the movement which is going to produce a different kind of result. Strategies like this can allow you to bring up any potential weaknesses or imbalances through your training itself with a very precise and targeted approach. A couple examples of something like this could be pausing at the bottom of a Split Squat to improve ankle mobility (because each and every rep in and of itself if done correctly is essentially now a loaded stretch) or pausing in the lengthened/bottom position of a shoulder press to spend more time where the muscle is in its weakest position.
This is a perfect example of the grass growing greener where you water it. As mentioned in the previous video on reps, not all reps are created equal. There is a very big difference between just doing a squat going from point A to point B vs. slowly controlling your bodyweight and the load against gravity, pausing at the bottom and then exploding back up to your starting position. The opposite is also true however. A slow and controlled squat on the way down, is going to feel very different when compared to a squat where it’s a controlled and regular pace on the way down, but with a slow ascent on the way up. The possibilities to tailor the movement to your specific goals and vary the stimulus are almost endless.
Mind-Muscle connection
Another major benefit to being mindful of your tempo while training that I’ll leave you with is the ability to truly develop and appreciate that Mind-Muscle connection some of you may have heard about before. Taking the time to really put some intent and purpose behind not just the movement that you’re doing, but HOW you do it is really going to let you develop a greater sense of body awareness and coordination. You’ll become more in tune with what you feel, and develop a greater sense of control over how you move your body and getting it to do exactly
what it is that you want. Like everything else though, this is a skill and needs to be not only learned but practiced. You’ll need to do the repetitions…quite literally.
A personal example:
A personal example I’ll share with you is over the last 3 months while I’ve been working out at home I’ve placed a huge emphasis on improving my stability during single leg exercises. I’ve been doing this using a number of techniques that have already been mentioned to you above. I’ve been using controlled descents, pauses in strategic parts of the movement, controlled ascents, and other techniques to increase the TUT I spend in areas that need more attention. This is something I’ve done to position myself to come back to the gym more structurally sound than I left it, which means everything else I want to work towards will follow much easier than if I hadn’t done this. If you’re still working out at home or find yourself travelling and limited by the load available to you, Tempo is an amazing tool to help you stay productive and change the difficulty of your movements.
Conclusion:
I hope you can now appreciate just how powerful of a tool Tempo can be if used correctly. And that “correct” way is completely contextual. You can shape the tempo of your exercises to line up with whatever your goal may be at that point in time. There needs to be a reason why we do things the way we do. Remember, not all reps are created equal. Move with purpose. Move with intention. Move with a very clear goal, and keep that goal in the front of your mind as you go through each and every rep.
In the next part in this series we’ll go over your Rest periods between exercises and how we can play around with that to help you reach your goals in the most effective way possible.
Asad Sayal
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Join personal trainer Asad Sayal, as he looks at essential factors to consider when designing your workout. From reps to rest periods, Asad explores how taking these variables into account, and using them in unison with each other can help you reach your goals quicker, avoid plateauing and progress your fitness journey.
Asad answers this not-so-straightforward question by defining what exactly a rep is, introducing rep ranges and how you can use this method to optimize and progress in your workouts. He also touches on the relationship between reps and load.
Did you know that the order in which you perform your sets is critical to your performance? Asad explores how to organize your sets in a certain sequence, in terms of intensity and difficulty, to get the best results and avoid injury.
Asad reviews the various types of sets that exist and which you should use depending on your workout type and goals. He discusses straight sets, supersets, tri-sets and circuits.
Setting a tempo for your workout is one of the most overlooked variables. Asad defines what setting a tempo for your workout really entails, and how you can use it to make the exercises you already know, feel completely new.
Did you know you can change how an exercise feels and what it does to your body just by varying the tempo? Discover how altering the tempo can produce a different kind of result and can bring about potential weaknesses and imbalances.
Rest and recovery are commonly misunderstood and misused. Asad explores common mistakes in regards to rest periods and different considerations that need to be made to ensure you are getting the biggest return on your effort.
Asad reviews general guidelines you can implement into your training, to ensure you are getting optimal rest. He discusses how the amount of rest is dependent on what your goal is at that time, and how you're performing the exercise.
Asad defines load and how it directly relates to the other variables covered thus far: reps, sets, tempo and rest. He highlights the value of thinking beyond just the amount of weight you lift in any given exercise.
Have you ever been stuck on a certain weight and can’t seem to go heavier? Does this mean you’ve reached the ceiling to your strength? Asad explores how you can combine variables, like tempo and reps, to avoid plateauing and increase the weight in your exercises.
To sum up this series, Asad recaps all the variables you should consider when designing a training program. He defines progressive overload and emphasizes the importance of the variables covered in this series and how to use them in synchrony with one another.