Slower to Get Better

A sneaky, long-term, and often overlooked way to get really strong is controlling the tempo when lifting.

Tempo is how fast you move. Sometimes when we want a fast tempo; speed work, explosive exercises for power development, sprinting and conditioning. When building strength and learning how to move though, nothing beats a slow tempo.

Slowing down makes things feel harder, forces you to breath better and gives your muscles a big dose of strength building stimuli.

There’s also the paradox of strength training to be aware of. The paradox of strength training is that you keep lifting heavier and heavier every week, except there’s one problem, this doesn’t actually work forever - or else we’d all have 1000 pound deadlifts.

Tempo affords us another variable to control. By slowing down, we’re increasing the difficulty of a weight, or a bodyweight movement like a push up, without moving up in weights.

If you’re starting to feel good at a weight, or a certain number of push ups or pull ups, add a tempo to your next bout and feel the difference!

Justin Miner

@justinminergain