Slowing it Down with Tempo

You might have had some crazy slow squats in your program last week. The emphasis of the entire week for many of you was tempo.

When we program in tempo, or slow, controlled reps, we’re doing a few things.

First, we’re hoping to increase strength via time under tension. The more time your muscles and tissues are under load, the more stimulus they have to make adaptations. It’s feedback to the system that you’re ready for more.

On top of that, it’s all about motor control. Meaning, can you slow down and control your body? Your joints, your breathing, your balance and stability? When forced to slow down, you get exposed. You can speed through sticky spots, or places where you slightly lose your balance. This slower tempo demands more control from you, more focus.

The final reason is from a practicality standpoint. At some point, the weights you use might be enough. While it’s important to always chase more strength, we don’t always have to make things harder by adding more load. Slowing you way down can make the same weights much more challenging. Think of it as extending the effectiveness of the same load. 

Think of the runner who does the same route every day. They know exactly how long it’ll take them. After a while, it no longer becomes challenging for their system. They’re physiologically adapted to be really good at that route. Make them run with a friend one day and they might get cooked running faster than normal. 

If you were to do the same weight, same tempo, same rep scheme all the time, you’d get really good at squatting that weight. But as soon as you try to do more, it would be disproportionally difficult. Instead, a well-thought out strength and conditioning program varies the load, rep schemes, volume and tempo to allow you to always be challenging your physiology. 

Since we’re so good at adapting, we must modify some variables to maintain the right amount of stress on the system. 

Justin Miner

@gain_sc