SLOW TRAINING

SLOW TRAINING

By Drew  Israel

Posted on NaturalStrength.com on April 24, 2001

Reprinted with permission from HARDGAINER issue #56, September-October 1998

Over the past few years I’ve had great success with my training. I’ve suffered a few injuries, but have gotten over them. Though my training was going well, I wanted to recover better and possibly enhance my results. I also took into account the people that I train. Some of these people already had bad problems physically, stemming from various forms of alignment problems. Many of these people had no previous training background and immediately developed bad form while training on their own.

From time to time I too had trouble with my training. Certain problems with my form would not be corrected until my body told me, in the form of an injury, that something was wrong. All in all, it made sense to give slow training a try.

I felt bored during the first month of slow training. I had become used to seeing much more weight on the exercise machines than I was now seeing. From the beginning I cut the resistance back about 50% in everything that I did. The speed I selected was ten seconds for lifting the weight, and ten seconds for lowering. The hardest part in the beginning was lifting and lowering the weight smoothly. There is a tendency to rush through difficult parts in the repetition, shifting the weight rather than lifting it, thereby decreasing the intensity of stress on the muscles involved. Once the proper speed of motion is developed, training becomes more productive.

After the first month or two I began to get better at it. What I noticed was how much more aware I was of my breathing during the sets. As a carryover effect from slow training I found that in all activities my breathing got deeper and more relaxed. This in turn connected me more to what was going on in my body, and I could better take care of it during the week.

I decided to use a repetition range between five and ten at different training times. I know that many people feel that being under a given resistance for 2-4 minutes is too long a time for developing a great degree of strength. I don’t. Over a period of time I found this to bring great results for myself and those I train. As always, the key is to train hard.

After completing about fourteen months of slow training I wanted to see if there was any improvement in strength levels at my former style of training. Over a period of about three weeks I returned to my former fast and explosive style of performance. Then I tested myself using that fast style. My seated military press on a plate-loaded Nautilus machine went up from 250 pounds for 10 reps to 300 pounds for 12 reps. This was after having been stuck at 250 pounds for 10 reps for a few months prior to training slow.

My best deadlift on a Hammer Strength machine, when training using my former explosive speed, was 600 pounds for 10 reps. Fourteen months after having begun slow training, I tested myself at my former fast rep cadence. My deadlift had climbed to 680 pounds for 11 reps. Again, before the slow training, gains were minimal. Some of the improvement would have occurred anyway, but I believe about 50 of those pounds came from having my muscles more directly stressed. For comparison purposes, my workout poundages for the slow training were about 60% of what I was handling during the test period using the fast rep cadence.

In the past, when I trained at a fast rep speed, I used certain parts of my body to overcompensate. As I approached failure I recruited whatever muscles I could just to get more reps. In other words my form was very loose. At times this approach to lifting resulted in injuries. When I used to train at a fast speed it felt like I used excessive joint involvement in both the area that I was training as well as other areas. This caused days of swelling around certain joints which, in the past, have chronically bothered me.

While I was always able to get over the injuries, and keep training hard, hard gainers without the big and robust structure I’m blessed with would be crippled if they took as many liberties as I did. Controlled exercise form really is critical for safe training. Equally important, the explosive and loose style of training detracted from stressing to the fullest degree the muscles that I intended to train. When I saw all my lifts going up so fast during the slow training, my boredom ceased. Remember, it’s about progressively adding weight; this is strength training!

I was, of course, taking a big risk in testing myself at my former fast rep cadence following the fourteen months of slow training. I got away with it, but I wouldn’t do it again. I’ve had enough of injuries from fast and explosive training.

For the most part I can’t believe how much faster my body recovers between workouts. I train twice weekly, but sometimes it feels like my muscles are recovered in just one or two days.

I don’t get too caught up in having to move in exactly ten seconds each way; 17-22 seconds total per rep is fine. This training works, not because of the specific time the rep takes but because quality muscular loading is ensured.

I have friends who train their clients at different speeds and all their programs are effective, though some speeds are much more fraught with the risk of injuries than others. Bob Whelan, for example, has one day a month when he trains his clients at an eight seconds up and eight seconds down rep speed. Bob and I always talk about how so many different training philosophies work because they have one thing in common-the importance of adding weight and repetitions whenever possible. Bob’s clients have benefitted greatly due to the hard work that he puts them through and the motivational support he gives them. Many others in the field train people at slow speeds. Two other friends of mine, Jamie La Belle and Jeff Watson, make sure their clients move the weight slowly and under control to ensure the safety and effectiveness of their programs.

My workout program consists of two fifteen-minute sessions per week. I like to do 6-8 sets per workout, similar to other programs I’ve used. The muscles are so effectively targeted that I rarely do any breakdown sets. I take 15-45 seconds between sets, but if it feels like I’m having a heart attack I take just enough time to get my breathing under control before moving on.

I’ve found that weight value of each repetition in slow training to be specific to different parts of my body. For lower-body compound leg movements I find each slow repetition to be worth about 60 pounds. For upper-body compound movements each repetition is worth about 35 pounds. In other words, at the 10/10 cadence, if I perform a lower-body compound exercise with 60 pounds less weight than usual I will be able to perform one additional rep.

I’ve two specific workouts each week.

Monday
1. Leg press: 1 set of 10 reps
2. Chest press: 1 x 10
3. Rowing torso (for the rear deltoids): 1 x 10
4. Hammer Strength Low Row: 1 x 6-8
5. Seated overhead press: 1 x 10
6. Tru-Squat: 1 x 10
7. Dumbbell curl: 1 x 5

Friday
1. Hammer Deadlift: 1 x 10
2. Pullover machine: 1 x 10
3. Overhead press: 1 x 10
4. Hammer High Pull (or upright row): 1 x 10
5. Chest press: 1 x 10
6. Wrist roller: as many turns as I can get
7. Arm curl: 1 x 5 with a thick bar
8. Neck harness: 1 x 4-6 reps, 5 seconds up and 5 seconds down

Note that all these exercises are done to momentary failure. If I achieve the 10-rep goal, for example, I do an eleventh rep to ensure that muscular failure is accomplished. If the 10-rep goal is achieved, next workout I add 5 or 10 pounds, drop reps and work back up.

My friend and training partner, Chris Whitehead, has gotten stronger at an accelerated rate using slow training. When he started training with me he had no previous lifting experience. He has now completed one year of consistent training, with great results. In the deadlift he has gone from being unable to do one rep with 200 pounds at regular speed (we took a few weeks training at a relatively fast speed to establish his baseline strength) to being able to do 350 pounds for 6 reps at slow speed. His other lifts have gone up at the same rate of increase. Plus, he has always recovered very quickly, enabling him to tackle each workout fully recovered.

Obviously, Chris would have gotten stronger using any method of training, and he is more responsive to training than most people are, but I’m not sure the results would have come as quickly from faster training. Some of my other friends have gotten similar results from slowing their training speed, and I’m sure if they went back to training at regular speed they would see dramatic increases in their lifts.

While I doubt that I will continue to train as slowly as 10/10 indefinitely, the last fourteen months have been somewhat of a revelation. For all those who are interested, you may find that this type of training is something you may want to explore for a period of time. And then, after two or three months, go back and see if your lifts have improved at your former rep speed. But a few weeks must be given for your body to readapt to a faster speed.

When training at a very slow cadence, above all else, pay close attention to how you move. If you become too interested with the exact time of the repetition you may not keep your muscles working throughout the entire movement.


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