Seasons greetings and salutations to fellow fans of arm training around the globe. It’s a sunny and unseasonably warm winters day here in the city and already the shops are playing christmas carols on incessant repeat loops, another excuse to avoid them and instead hit the gym on a saturday morning.

Today’s topic is linked as tenuously as ever to three key training variables that receive little or no mention in the majority of articles and training programmes (and there a lot) that circulate on the internet. There are endless formats for reps and sets, from 10 x 10 to 5 x 5, 5-3-1 (one of our favourites) and many more. However, turn your attention to these forgotten gems and you may find new ways to put a seasonable spin on your training that can produce some new results, some painful soreness, and maybe even a little extra girth on that target muscle, be it calf or biceps.

Tempo:

There are some pretty strong opinions out there about tempo/speed of movement of lifting weights. Each to their own we say, after all we aren’t here to argue over others methods, simply changing training methods can be enough to see a result anyway.

However, it is hard not to escape the fact that just about everyone in the gym lifts weights at the same speed no matter how many reps they are doing. Many go that stage further adding ballistic elements to exercises as the weight increases in an effort to attain a target rep range that has little relevance when the exercise is performed poorly.

Now, intelligently applied, the adjustment of movement speeds can have a profound effect on a workout. It would be hard to argue that a set of 5 pull ups performed on a 613 tempo has the same effect as 5 ‘kipping’ style reps performed explosively on a shoulder grinding X0X tempo.

The speed of movement as an exercise variable seems to have originated from the outstanding if understated strength coach Ian King (we highly recommend his text on Designing Strength Training Programmes) who uses three numbers. The first number always describes the eccentric or lowering portion of the movement, the next refers to the pauses at the end of the ecccentric and concentric phases, while the third refers to the raising or lifting element of the movement as the muscle shortens under tension.

By adjusting the speed at which you perform the rep, you can then adjust the length of the set and in turn have an influence over the training effect that you create. By doing this strictly the usual consequence is an immediate need to lower training poundages, which may explain why it is a training variable that is relatively unpopular.

Many of the arguments against tempo work seem to stem from a misguided application of the principle rather than an intelligent argument against the concept and as ever you should let your desired goal drive your programming.

For instance, if your desire is to target neural adaptations and work on maximal strength then using a very strict tempo of 4.2.2 may not be appropriate. Trying to hold a 2 second pause at the chest with your 3 rep max could result in an embarrassing squeak to attract the attention of the nearest lackaback that can assist you with not crushing your windpipe.

However, when targeting muscle growth, breaking plateaus, performing rehabilitation movements, aiming to improve metabolic conditioning, or using pre/post fatigue formats, it can produce some startling results. Try putting that 2 second pause in the bottom position of a dip for example and then witness how much sorer your triceps are days later, and how much they grow in response over a 4 week period.

Rest Intervals:

When was the last time you timed how long you rest for? Or does your rest period consist of surveying the gym area for that hot chick who was on the Cross-Trainer (ever noticed how hot girls seem to love this machine?) when you got into the gym, while admiring your tricep horseshoe from multiple perspectives in the mirrors? Go on, you can be honest, you haven’t timed your rest periods since Culture Beat was in the charts have you Mr Vain?

Well, its time to start because you will soon realise that consistency precedes results and that the path to an ‘honest’ workout is having the discipline to start that next set when the stopwatch beeps. Keeping rest periods consistent is an almost forgotten variable, again due to the fact that it often serves to mediate the amount of weight that can be lifted rather than to increase it.