Tip of the Day: T-T-T-Tempo! Today, I would love for you to add in the extra challenge of working on or maybe just being aware of your tempo with some of the above movements. Tempo training, similar to TUT (time under tension) training, refers to the length of time you spend during different phases of an exercise. There are four places in which we can modify the time or tempo of our exercises: 1) the eccentric phase or lowering portion of a movement (ex: squatting down), 2) midpoint pause (ex: when you are in the squat), 3) the concentric phase or the lifting component of an exercise (ex: standing up from a squat) 4) top pause or the time between reps (ex: standing upright before squatting again). In every exercise, there are these 4 points. For hypertrophy ((muscle building)) purposes, the greatest benefit from tempo training comes from increased eccentric phases ((ex: squatting down, lowering down the dumbbell in a curl, moving slowly to the ground during a push up)) I find the best tempo for this to be what is known as a 3-0-1-0. That’s a whole lot of crazy terms and odd numbers, so I’ll break it down with that squat example… lower down into the squat (this is the eccentric phase) for 3 seconds, do not hold the squat (0 sec at midpoint), stand up from the squat in 1 second *this is the concentric phase) and go right into the next rep (0 sec at top). We and our muscles can benefit from tempo training, so sometimes I like to stick to basic movements and do 3 sets of 15-20 reps, focusing primarily on tempo. It’s all about those switch ups and using staple weight training movements with twists to see great results and this is just another one of those awesome twists/switch ups!!
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