EliteFTS founder/owner Dave Tate
A lot of times, tempo is a missing ingredient in strength training programs. This can be very detrimental to a trainee when looking to achieve a desired training effect (muscular hypertrophy, strength, etc.) Some of you may asking what the hell is tempo? And that's cool cause I'm going to explain what it is, why it's important, and how to implement it into your training.
What is tempo?:
Simply put tempo is how fast or slow you lift the weight/perform the exercise. There are a couple of ways that you may see tempos prescribed. For example, for a back squat you could either see it written as:
301 or 3011
In the first example the 3 stands for how many seconds the muscle will be under tension during the lowering portion (eccentric) of the lift. The 0 indicates the the time spent in the bottom position of the lift (isometric contraction) and the 1 represents how many seconds to exert the force necessary to get the weight up (concentric) and back to starting position.
In the second example all the numbers mean the same except there is a 4th number. That number represents the number of seconds spent at the top of the lift before going back to the eccentric portion of the lift. This tempo has been popularized by strength coach Charles Poloquin.
Why is it important?:
Tempo can elicit any number effects on whatever exercise you perform depending how fast or slow (controlled) you perform it. For example, if you are looking to improve your hip stability by doing the split squat, but perform the eccentric out of control and allow your knee crash to the floor, then you will not improve your hip stability. You would perform this with at least a 3 second eccentric; in some cases longer depending on how poor your hip stability.
Another example would be a trainee training in an accumulation cycle (basic movements and developing the training targets with the longest residuals are the goal during this, with those targets being maximal strength (neural) and aerobic capacity). If the trainee were to perform their lifts that were aimed at improving aerobic capacity with a tempo that did not mesh with the goal, then this would be detrimental and there would be very minimal (maybe even zero) transfer of that lift to one's aerobic capacity.
So as you can see, if your tempo doesn't coincide with your goals then you might as well stay home and catch episodes of The Office.
It's all about tempo....that's what she said
How to implement tempo:
This will all depend on what your goal(s) are. Here is a number of common training effects that trainees strive for and they are paired up with their proper tempos (some tempos are not set in stone and can be manipulated to further enhance the effect).
Explosiveness ---> explosive (yeah nothing fancy)...however bar speed is going to have to be fast. Do not use loads that significantly slow the bar speed. Remember the heavier it is (in relation to your 1 rep max), the lower the velocity.
Maximal Strength ----> 301 (muscular) fast, yet controlled (neural)
Stability ----> 511
Isometric Strength ---> 151
Aerobic Capacity(slow twitch hypertrophy) ----> 202
