Six Benefits of SLOW Reps
1. It prevents injury – When you do each repetition in super slow motion, you’re much less likely to injure yourself. That’s because you have the time to learn how to do each exercise properly and focus on maintaining correct form with every repetition. Technique is much more important than speed when it comes to building strength. Quick, jerky movements can result in injuries.
2. It helps you perfect your form – Not only are you at risk of injury when you do reps quickly, but you’re also jeopardizing your technique. An exercise won’t do you any good if it is done incorrectly, so make sure you are taking the time to get the motion right with every single repetition.
3. You can build larger muscle mass more quickly – Slow reps can build muscle much faster than regular speed reps can. This happens because it forces your muscles to hold the resistance longer. In a standard motion push-up, for example, a slow motion will keep your muscles activated the whole time. If you go faster, momentum will do a lot of the work for you, and your muscles will be active for a shorter amount of time.
4. It fatigues your muscles – One of the main goals of doing strength building exercise is to fatigue your muscles until they fail. At a certain point you won’t be able to do anymore reps; this will send a signal to your body to repair the damaged muscle and instigate greater growth.
5. Your skeletal muscles get stronger – Doing reps slowly targets your skeletal muscles, which are essential to everyday movements. Skeletal muscles use more energy than other muscles, therefore burning more calories. They also produce more heat and receive more blood flow. Activating and improving your skeletal muscle system will improve your stamina and overall strength.
6. Virtually anyone can do it – The slow rep method has been used successfully with elderly women diagnosed with osteoporosis. The quick, uneven movements of typical reps against resistance, especially for people with little muscle mass or physical limits caused by medical conditions, can be unsafe and ineffective.
Benefit of one set to failure
Muscle fibers are recruited and stimulated sequentially—from slow twitch to fast twitch—by one set taken to a point of momentary muscular failure. The scientific literature supports the concept of one set taken to failure as at least the equal of multi set work, which indicates that doing any more sets would be a waste of time and recovery resources.
One set to failure has the added benefit of making it easy to keep track of intensity numbers; weight x reps divided by minutes and you have a good benchmark to try to beat next time. Progressive intensity is the key to steady progress.
