LIFTING HEAVIER WEIGHTS FOR FEWER REPETITIONS — AND TAKING YOUR SWEET TIME ABOUT IT — WILL ULTIMATELY MAKE YOU STRONGER MUCH FASTER

It’s entertaining to read health writers’ columns encouraging women to lift light weights and perform lots of repetitions to change their body shape.
Jane Fonda still seems to have an influence over some training routines. Long after her fitness career has come to an end, her followers can still be seen performing exercises at breakneck speed in the hope that it will melt away the fat on their bodies.

However, training is a science, and by manipulating different training variables — such as repetitions, sets, rest intervals and tempo — the result can be altered, whether that is in the weights room or aerobic work.

Not every repetition is created equally and tempo (the speed at which the exercise is performed), is the least understood of all the strength training loading parameters. The concept of tempo first emerged during World War II when the demand for iron for building weapons meant that there was a shortage of iron for weights equipment. To maintain their impressive physiques, body builders started to manipulate the speed at which they performed exercises in order to get a better training effect.

World renowned strength training coach Charles Poliquin was the first to create a science of manipulating the speed of exercises in 1982 and this skill enabled him to train Olympic medallists in 18 different sports.

He uses a four-digit system to complete the different phases of a strength-training repetition. The first number is the eccentric lowering, that is, when you lower the resistance (for example in a bench press, to bring the bar to your chest). As a rule of thumb, that is when the muscle is being lengthened and it is being placed under stretch.

The second number is the time of pause in the stretched position.  The third number is the concentric contraction, which is, lifting the weight or shortening the muscle. The fourth number is the time of pause in a contracted position (the top of a bench press). An example would be a bench press with a 4210 tempo: four seconds to lower the weight, two seconds hold at the bottom, one second to lift the weight and no pause at the top.

Your training goal will have an influence on the use of tempo. High-power sports should not exceed a certain time under tension, so it is best to perform lower repetitions to develop your strength and enable you to lift heavier weights.

This is especially important for a sport where maintaining your weight class is important. A boxer performing bigger repetitions could increase his muscular size and weight too much, moving him out of his fighting class. He could maintain his weight and get strong by lifting heavier weights for fewer repetitions.

If you want to gain fat-burning muscle, your time under tension in the muscle should be longer to encourage more growth in your muscles.

This will have a bigger hormonal response so that your body will increase its muscle mass and speed up your metabolism to burn more calories.

Slow speed lifting brings about more metabolic adaptations than high speed lifting. It enables a novice to develop a better mind to muscle connection.

Strength is gained more effectively at slow speeds than fast speeds. A squat, where you bend your knees to lower your bum to the ground, is best performed at slow speeds to prevent injuries.

As you get more experienced in your training, it becomes more important to have a greater variety of training velocities to elicit a response. You should vary your exercises every six workouts and manipulate training variables, such as tempo, if you wish to progress.