One common thing I notice in the gym is that people ignore the pace at which they do their reps and sets. Tempo is just as important as reps and sets when it comes to building the perfect muscle-building workout. Before I start talking about tempo, let me give you my explanation. Tempo is the speed at which you lift and lower the weight, the pauses at the top and bottom of each rep, and the total time for the set. Next, let me tell you how to read tempos because they are usually written with just numbers on a line. An example of a written tempo would be 4242. This means that you lift the weight for four seconds, pause for two seconds at the top of the rep, lower for four seconds, and finally pause for two seconds before moving on to the rep. Next. rep.
Some people write them with just three numbers, like 313, and ignore the pause at the bottom. I prefer pauses because they stop the momentum, and if you’re just swinging the weight up and down, it takes a lot of tension off the muscle. Another thing to watch out for is if the tempo contains an “X”. All that means is blasting as fast as you can on the way up. It seems simple enough, so let’s get into some common tempo manipulations. One thing to note very quickly. Some people write tempos the opposite way I do. Some have the eccentric part or the part that lowers the weight first. Just be aware because there is no universal law for writing tempos.
fast times
Fast tempos are generally not used for muscle-building exercises because they don’t keep the muscle under tension long enough. Instead, they’re great for an explosive workout. A common explosive training tempo would be X0X0, or as I call it the hug and kiss tempo. Explosive training is just quick movements meant to mirror those of sports normally so athletes can gain strength to call and use quickly. Typically, explosive training isn’t done with too many dumbbells and barbells, but instead uses mostly bodyweight exercises and medicine ball exercises. Medicine balls are great for an explosive workout because you can launch the ball and do moves that are impossible with a dumbbell. Bodyweight exercises are easy to manipulate for an explosive workout because you can get up off the ground. Push-ups, where you push yourself off the ground as hard as you can into the air, and jump squats are good examples of explosive bodyweight training.
slow times
I honestly don’t see much value in really slow tempos, and by slow I mean 15+ seconds per rep, so the tempo would be like 6262. As the saying goes, “Train slow, be slow.”
muscle development times
Now to get to the bread and butter of manipulating tempos. If you want to do this for muscle gain, you probably already know to use 8-12 reps. At least that is commonly known, but for more details in your muscle building training plan, you should use tempos that can keep the muscle under tension for 40-60 seconds. Anything below that will result in strength gain and anything above 80 seconds or so will result in aerobic gains. The best is between 40-60 seconds. To get our time between those recommendations, we need to do about 5-6 seconds per rep. So my recommended tempos would be 1131, 1121 or even 1221. Any of those will be great because with 8 reps the seconds go to 40-48, and with 12 reps it goes to 60-72 seconds.