Benefits of Tempo (here's your variety)
Flex Wheeler • September 16, 2021
If You're Looking for "VARIETY" in Your Program...here's some knowledge.
Benefits of Tempo Training
#1: Baseline Strength Develops Faster
This is something most of us (pretty close to all) do not take into consideration, we usually just let the weights fall nonchalantly with gravity and then thrust it back up. Then I was introduced to tempos, where standard ones like 4010 or 3010 showed me, even after decades of lifting, gave me results that eluded me before. These slower tempos, coupled with lowering your weights, forced me to refocus on technique and rebuild my body awareness. If it does that for me, think of the benefits to newby lifters.
#2. Overcome Plateaus
Once you put the time in, even with tempo training, you will eventually need to find new ways to stimulate change. Once you hit a plateau, incorporating faster, high-velocity tempos can maximize strength improvements, especially with more experienced lifters.
#3. Increased Hypertrophy
OK, to stimulate and maximize hypertrophy, you do need to stimulate protein synthesis, but you will also need to overload high threshold motor units. Those can be difficult to work, and may only be recruited with maximal loads. This means utilizing more ballistic, powerful, and quick tempos that will hit those (oh so) hard to reach Type IIX fibers. Mixing these ballistic tempos to stimulate those Type IIX, along with slower tempos to ramp up protein synthesis will lead you to those massive gains you’ve always craved.
#4. Lower Body Fat (to go with those gains)
First off, let’s define EPOC, or Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption...basically the exercise afterburn. This is the elevated metabolism following a bout of exercise. This is all a fancy way of describing energy expenditure...meaning calories out. It has been shown that a 4010 tempo produces a great increase in EPOC, as well as a high release of growth hormone, a great fat burner. Researchers have concluded that these longer tempos are ideal to lower body comp due to triggering a high level of growth hormone release coupled with the EPOC after-burn.
CONCLUSION
By properly programming all parameters around lifting, highlighting TEMPO, you can stimulate the response you are looking for, both hypertrophy and fat-burning. Here is the “variety” you’re really looking for!
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