Tempo
I had a conversation with a client today about repetition tempo.
She wanted to know if it mattered how fast she went while doing a resistance exercise - for those of you who don’t know what the hells bells I’m talking about, tempo basically refers to how fast/slow you perform 1 repetition of a given exercise.
Specifically we were doing push-ups and she wanted to know if it mattered how slowly she lowered herself before she pressed back up, and whether the speed with which she presses back up matters.
This question can be applied to any exercise.
My response?
It depends.
Well, before that I said I don’t care what your tempo is as long as you’re always in control of yourself or the resistance. Letting gravity do all the work for you is a sure-fire recipe for crappy results, or injury.
If she were to let gravity do the work while lowering herself, she would essentially cut out 50% of the exercise - the stretch.
Beyond that, I’m not really concerned with the slowness of the “negative” of an exercise.
Some folks are proponents of going slow, and some super-slow. All I’m concerned with is working hard, and being in control.
Beyond that, there are certain exercises I like people to “explode” out of - push-ups, Push Presses, Cleans, even Squats or Lunges.
Now, the slower you go on the “negative” (the lowering of your body while doing a squat or lunge, or lowering your body while doing a push-up), the greater the soreness is more likely to be the following day. It’s just due to the load and amount of over-stretch.
Okay, I’ll stop now and leave you with this final run-on sentence.
Tempo matters, but the thing you should primarily be concerned with is being under control the entire time - don’t let gravity do the work and don’t flail about like a fish out of water.
