Tempo is a useful way to track and progress the speed of your resistance training.
Each lift you do has four different phases or movement.
- The lowering phase (called the eccentric)
- The pause at the bottom of the lowering phase
- The lifting or raising phase (called the concentric)
- The pause at the top of the lift after the raising phase
Tempo training has its own way of being communicated and it 4 numbers or symbols in a row that represent time in seconds i.e 3211
Let’s look at an example of 3211 in the barbell squat exercise:
When you unrack the bar you begin the lowering phase and our example asks you to take 3 seconds to lower to the bottom of the lift.
At the bottom, you are going to pause for 2 seconds.
Next, you are going to take 1 second to raise up and hold the bar at the top for 1 second to complete the 3211 tempo for one repetition.
the symbol ‘X’ is also used to note ‘explosive’ or ‘as fast as you can’. In the example of a barbell bench press that is written 21X1, you would read it as 2 seconds on the way down to your chest, 1 second pause on your chest, then press it up as fast as possible, and 1 second pause at the top. Repeat!
What Are the benefits of Tempo Training?
Whether your’e training for strength, muscle hypertrophy, or general fitness there’s a lot of value in tracking and progressing tempo in your logbook.
Training with an intended tempo can help make sure that your resistance training is controlled. If your goal is specifically to get bigger and stronger most of the time it is a good idea to not throw the weights around.
You’ll want to use muscles and not momentum. Tempo will help with pauses at the end points of your lifts and make sure that you are controlling the eccentric portion also called the lowering or stretch phase.
Tempo can be a way to progress your lifts. For example, if you started out squatting for a tempo of 3211 like our example above, as you begin to get stronger you can change your squat tempo to 2111 and be able to lift more weight. Instead of lowering for seconds and pausing at the bottom for 2 seconds, now you are lowering for 2 seconds and pausing for just one. You can see how this will allow you to progress to more weight.
Looking at the opposite effect, if you were to start bench pressing dumbells for a tempo of 1111 and then begin to run out of heavier weights, you can increase the tempo to make the lighter weights feel heavier by creating more tension through tempo.
In this case, you make changes to something like 2111, or 2211, or even 3111. They will all work, just be sure to track it in your journal or logbook so you can look back and make changes in the future.
Should All Exercises Have the Same Tempo?
Exercises can utilize the same tempo when you are learning, but eventually, you’ll want to vary the tempo towards the individual exercise.
Let’s look at 2 different exercises that work the quad muscles, the barbell squat and the seated leg extension. Although both of these do focus on the same muscles they both have different resistance profiles.
The resistance profile of an exercise shows how the force or tension on the muscle changes throughout the range of motion.
In simple terms, the squat is hardest at the bottom – easiest at the top, and the seated leg extension is easiest at the bottom and hardest at the top. If you use the same tempo for both, such as 2113 this would make sense for the leg seated leg extension as it requires a controlled lowering and a 3-second pause at the hardest part, the top of the lift. This would create a great amount of tension in the quad muscles. However, if we apply the same tempo to the squat, it would be a 2-second controlled lowering, 1 second in the hardest part, 1 second on the way up, then a 3-second rest in the standing position at the top which is the easiest. It might not be conducive to your goals to spend the most amount of time in the squat ‘standing around’ in the rest position.
How Can Tempo Vary Individual Exercises?
Tempo can also change the resistance profile of an exercise.
Remember from above, the resistance profile of an exercise shows how the force or tension on the muscle changes throughout the range of motion.
Let’s look at the exercise the dumbbell side raise. In this exercise, you start with the dumbbells at your side and then raise them with a straight arm somewhere out to your side that is comfortable.
The resistance profile of the side raise is that it feels easy on the muscle towards the bottom and hardest towards and at the top. Theres not much tension or force towards the bottom, and a lot at the top.
What if we wanted to change the tension on the muscle to be harder at the bottom and easier at the top using dumbbells? You can change the tempo. By using a heavier weight you can come up faster, maybe with an ‘X as fast as you can tempo’, 0 second pause at the top, 1 second on the way down and 1-2 second pause at the bottom to get ready to raise the heavier dumbbell again.
This tempo would allow a heavier weight as well as you to use a bit of a fast motion that will make the weight feel heavier on the muscle at the bottom and by the time you got to the top feel easier since you have been generating momentum.
This would be an example of an advanced use of tempo.
Keeping Track of Tempo
I hope you can see how applying and tracking tempo can be beneficial to your training. If you aren’t using it now, try it out and log it for a few weeks to see what changes.
Beat the Logbook is the only workout journal on Amazon right now that allows you to track tempo!
