What if getting fit - big even - meant that you didn't have to spend hours in the gym? What if building great muscle and a balanced physique took just 25 minutes, twice a week, minus 300 crunches and four 30 minute sessions on the treadmill? Would you think you were trapped in an infomercial or would you want to sign up as fast as you could?
Well, before you sign away your first born, or your '74 Camaro, let's assess.... It's as the title suggests... super slow training calls for lifting and lowering weight ever so slowly. Instead of completing many sets over the course of a 30 minute period, as in regular tempo training, super slow training involves performing one set which may consist of 6 to 8 repetitions of pull downs, for instance, over the course of 2 minutes!
Two minutes?? Yes. Super Slow training is exactly what it suggests....each repetition may last between 15 and 20 seconds. This excrutiatingly slow pace is< what founder, Ken Hutchens, calls "magic".
The beauty, say devotees, is that a typical workout lasts less than 30 minutes and you do just one or two of these each week. Good thing, too, because if you did more, what started as a workout on Wednesday, may not finish until Friday! Okay, an over-exaggeration. But the big question is, is "Super Slow" the wave of the future as many devotees suggest? Or is it inferior to normal tempo training? Many attest that the burn definitely happens, but is this "long drawn out" burn preferable to the short burn of a regular set?
Super Slow training promises to deliver greater gains in muscle size and strength than in conventional programs. But even more intriguing to the masses is that fact that it's also said to help in the weight loss game, and actually be superior in this area to other methods. This is because of the combination of endurance work and the signature slow burn that it provides. Whereas conventional high rep workouts recommended for women, in combination with excessive cardiovascular training, tears down muscles, Super Slow is purported to help preserve lean while burning fat slowly but surely.
Now it may sound like a pansy workout - moving so slowly and seemingly without any intensity. But the slow motion action is every bit as difficult as any brute force intensity found in conventional workouts. Don't ever confuse quick with easy in this case! When spending 15 seconds lifting a weight, and another five seconds lowering it again, it can really smart! After all, Super Slow may not take a lot of time, but it does take a lot of work.
Lifting weights in a super slow fashion leaves you without a very big crutch and workout partner: Momentum! When you spend that 15 seconds lifting the weight and another 5 seconds lowering it, your friend inertia isn't there to help you through it. It's totally up to your muscle fibers. Your weights will go down in number, you'll shake and shiver, and you'll feel like someone gave your muscles internal indian burns. In fact, if you're doing Super Slow correctly, your muscles will fail on the last rep, and you shouldn't be able to lift any more weight no matter how hard you tried.
If failure training like this is something you're still interested in, then read on. If not, you gave it a good shot via imagination.
The fact is, failure leads to success. And when gravity begins to win the fight, you only need try to fight back with all you have - which isn't much at that point, but it's the token and time that counts. The point is, this momentary muscle failure appears to be the strongest stimulus to the body. And this stimulus is telling us that it's either a matter of growth or we won't survive.
Super Slow isn't new. It's been around since the 70's and it's helped everyone from the competitive bodybuilder to elderly women overcome osteoporosis.
The benefits of Super Slow are obvious: It's time saving... it's virtually injury-free training... and it builds stronger bones and burns fat. The latter is because it adds muscle to the body and doesn't force the body into survival mode in terms of fat storage like excessive cardio will do.
What are the drawbacks of Super Slow? Well, for one thing, it's an issue of compliance. No one really wants to work out that hard all on their own. That's why you'll typically see Super Slow performed alongside a trainer. The other problem for many is the fact that Super Slow founder, Ken Hutchins, forsakes cardio, saying that it robs the body's precious resources needed to focus on muscle recovery. Many disagree with this, and feel that Super Slow could not possibly replace cardio exercise and keep the body fit.
In order to find out whether Super Slow is for you, try it sometime. Choose a few exercises per body part, do one set of each, and cover your whole body. Remember, it's 10-15 seconds lifting, and 5 second releasing. Want a real challenge? Try doing push ups in this manner!!
