Want More Strength? Slow...It...Down...
From WebMD.com
The SuperSlow program began when its developer, Ken Hutchins of Orlando, FL, conducted a program investigating the effects of resistance training on older women with osteoporosis. "These women were so weak we were afraid for their safety," Hutchins recalls. Hutchins had toyed with the idea of slow-motion exercise before, only to lose interest. But low weight combined with slow movements seemed like the perfect program for these women; following it, the women made dramatic gains in strength.
Wayne L. Westcott, PhD, fitness research director at the South Shore YMCA in Quincy, MA, heard of the program and staged two informal studies in 1993 and 1999. In each, about 75 people trained with the SuperSlow program—for 8 and 10 weeks, respectively. Those doing SuperSlow in both groups experienced a greater than 50% gain in strength. In fact, the results were so difficult to believe that Westcott had them verified at Virginia Tech.
According to Hutchins, the key to SuperSlow is to never let the muscle rest—to remove the element of momentum from each exercise, making the muscles do the work instead of capitalizing on the tendency of a weight in motion to stay in motion. Muscles are worked beyond the shaky phase to the point of failure, when the person is physically unable to perform one more repetition.
Killer Workout
The people in Westcott's study did 12-13 exercises. The comparison group did 10 repetitions of each exercise, pulling the weight up and lowering it over a period of the usual 2 seconds in each direction. The other half did five repetitions, but lifted slowly, 10 seconds on the upstroke and 4 seconds on the way back down. (Hutchins and others recommend 10 seconds each way.) That’s 20 seconds of muscle contraction for each repetition instead of 4 seconds. Multiply that by five repetitions and 12 exercises, and you have a killer workout, Westcott says. Despite the fact that the technique started with elderly ladies, it is intensive and tough, Westcott says. (It also requires machinery in good working condition to minimize friction, which "unloads" the muscle.)
Not one person in Westcott's groups had an injury. "SuperSlow is a neat trick," says Doug McGuff, MD, an emergency-room physician in Seneca, SC, and SuperSlow studio owner. "With other exercises, to make them more challenging, you usually have to increase the force required—the weight level, whatever—which brings on aches and pains. This makes them more dangerous. With SuperSlow, you can make exercise much more challenging without increasing force."
At his studio, with people who are completely untrained and have never worked out, McGuff says he can bring about a 30% increase in strength in six to eight weeks and almost guarantee a 100% increase in eight months to a year.
Sure, you're thinking, these fanatics go to the gym six times a week. No! This is the best part. You only do SuperSlow once, and, at most, twice a week to get results. In fact the developers don't want you to do it more often. When pushed to the point of failure, muscles need time to recover. "A workout is like filling a hole,” McGuff says. "It needs time to fill up. If you start digging again before it's full, the hole will never fill. You need to get out of your own way."