Increasing Difficulty By Decreasing Speed

I’m always looking for ways in which I can improve.  That could mean running faster, lifting more weight or doing more reps.  However, I’m sometimes limited by my own body or the equipment around me.  For example, I’m love doing dumbbell presses but there’s only a certain amount of weight I can do before I start running into problems.  I can press more than I currently am but I don’t because it’s hard for me to walk to the bench holding those weights and then lie down with them.  So here’s a little trick I’ve been using for the past few years.

Drum Roll Please!

Rather than increase the weight or the number of reps, decrease the speed at which you’re working out.

If you’re currently doing 1 press every 3 seconds, try doing 1 press every 5 seconds.  Don’t use those extra two seconds to rest.  Instead, just move slower throughout the exercise.  If you’re doing one push up every 2 seconds, try doing a push up every 6 seconds by using slow, controlled motion.  The end result is a great workout with increased difficulty and better form.

Actually…

I think everyone should try a “slow” workout every once in a while.  First of all, they’re a nice change of pace (sorry for the horrible pun) but they’re also a wonderful way of working on proper form.  It’s much more difficult to have bad form when you’re doing a single exercise over 10 seconds rather than a single exercise over 2 seconds.

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You don’t need to pile on the weight to get a good workout.  Sometimes, all you need is to slow down a bit.

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