Tempo: The Missing Variable in Your Training
There are a lot of variables that can be manipulated when lifting. First, you can change the lift that you are performing. You can change the amount of weight you are lifting. You can perform the lift through a smaller or larger range of motion. These may not come as a surprise to anyone. However, there is another variable that can be manipulated that is far too underutilized, manipulating tempo. Manipulating the tempo, or speed, of a lift is a great way to improve strength, form, and can also be used as a useful tool when rehabbing from an injury.
How can tempo help improve strength?
Spending increased time under tension (more time working during the lift) has been shown to increase strength. Think of a squat, for example. If you are holding the barbell on your back for a longer amount of time, slowly descending, and then coming back up, you’ll feel more tired than if you just quickly dropped down into a squat and bounced out of the bottom position. Forcing your muscles to work for longer during the lift helps make you stronger.
To get more scientific, you are able to tolerate more load eccentrically (as your muscles are lengthening) than you can concentrically (as your muscles are shortening). Using the same squat as an example, how many times are you able to control the squat to the bottom position and then fail the lift when trying to stand it back up? This is how most missed lifts occur with the squat. You can handle more load during the eccentric phase of the lift. Since that is the stronger portion of the lift, you can manipulate the tempo of different phases of the lift to challenge yourself in many different ways. At submaximal loads you can sometimes focus on slowly controlling the squat to the bottom (because you are stronger on the way down and can handle this change) to increase the time under tension of the lift and still be able to stand the weight back up. You can also increase this time under tension by pausing at the bottom. Adding tempo lifts into your strength training can help you see big changes in the amount of weight you can lift.
How can tempo help improve form?
Sometimes people can complete a lift even when there are breakdowns in their form along the way. It is common to see someone drop quickly into the bottom of the squat, only to see lumbar hyperflexion (“buttwink”) or other compensations, often because they haven’t adequately trained their strength at this portion of the range. Focusing on controlling the tempo or pausing during different parts of the movement helps to train the strength and control throughout the lift so the athlete can truly own that position. Improvement happens when you spend time working on the task that is difficult. The same thing is true with lifting. Try some tempo work and watch your form improve as well as the “sticking points” in your lifts.
Why is tempo important with injury rehab?
Because tempo work can help improve strength, it is a very important tool to use while rehabbing from an injury. Increasing time under tension early on when the athlete may not be able to tolerate heavier loads can serve as a way to ensure the injured tissues are being adequately stressed to promote healing.
How it is written?
Tempo can be expressed using 4 digits. The first digit represents the amount of time in the lowering phase (eccentric). The second digit indicates how long to pause in the bottom position. The third number represents the amount of time in the raising position (concentric). And the last digit represents the amount of time spent at the top of the lift.
For example, the notation 3100 for a squat would mean the athlete would spend 3 seconds descending into the squat, pause for one second at the bottom, and then stand back up at their regular speed.
This notation gets a little trickier for lifts where you raise up first, rather than lower down first, such as pull-ups and deadlifts. For these lifts that begin with the concentric phase of the motion you have to reach the third number first.
If you’re looking to improve your strength, lifting form, or rehab from an injury, adding tempo work into your programming can be a big help. For any questions on how to make this work for you, email ezra@shorestrengthpt.com.