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Fit and Fine by Kamal CSCS: Tempo talk
Here’s how you can increase the intensity of your workout by simply changing the tempo of the exercises you are doing
A friend, who is a regular gym goer, called me the other day. The Covid pandemic had put paid to his workouts at the gym. The frequent shutdowns and the fear of working out amongst strangers made him look at training at home. But he had a limited collection of weights at home and this was hampering his progress. I chuckled at his dilemma as he, at least had some weights in his home gym unlike others who never thought they would need to invest in any kind of home gym equipment! But it is possible to increase the intensity and continue making progress, even with few weights, if the tempo is changed.
Changing tempo
Most trainees do not consider tempo or the speed of performing the exercise as an element to play with. Though we instinctively know that if we slow down an exercise, it becomes harder and doing it faster makes it comparatively easier. You can confirm this with a simple test: Do as many push-ups you can in a minute. Most people will crank out push-ups as fast as they can. Next ask them to do push-ups by taking two seconds while lowering themselves and two seconds while raising themselves. I will be surprised if they will be able to get even 12 push-ups in a minute!
Charles Poliquin, a well-known strength and conditioning coach introduced the concept of tempo for training athletes. He began writing a 4-digit number next to the exercises in his training programs.
For example, for a barbell squat Charles might write 4101. The first digit tells you how quickly to squat down – in the above example - 4 seconds.
The second digit tells you how long to pause at the bottom position of the exercise – in the above example it would be 1 second. The third digit shows how fast the weight has to be lifted up – in above example, the 0 is for lifting as fast possible.
Lastly the fourth digit is for the pause in the top position of the exercise. The above example has 1 second as a pause in the top position with knees locked out before squatting down again.
Tempo is a simple way of adding intensity to an exercise, especially in times when access to a well-equipped gym is severely limited. Here’s how to go about for a person who can only do body weight exercises like squats, lunges and push ups:
•Squats: Three seconds for lowering phase, 2 seconds hold, 1 second for going up. Do these slow speed squats for 10-12 repetitions for 3-4 sets. I bet nobody can get more than 10 reps the first time they try to do this.
•Push ups: Four seconds for lowering phase, 2 seconds hold, 1 second for going up. Do these slow tempo push-ups for 10-12 repetitions for 3-4 sets.
•Lunge:Get into the lunge position, front knee at 90 degrees, back knee about 2-3 inches off the floor. Hold for 60 seconds, repeat for the other leg. For the real masochist, you can add a 60 second hold for a deep squat position.
Tempo training to the rescue
Changing the speed of doing an exercise is an easy way to add intensity or progressively overload an exercise. Tempo training can be manipulated for achieving multiple goals, from increasing strength to enhancing local muscular endurance. It is a valuable tool in the tool box of the gym trainer and should be used more often and not only when a trainee finds he/she cannot load the bar with more weight! Now go out and do it….
Kamal Singh is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist who has been coaching for 15 years
From HT Brunch, July 25, 2021
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