To make the most out of your workout, you have to be sure to do a lot of specific things. For instance, you have to stretch and warm up properly. It’s wise to eat nutritious meals and rest well when you are trying to build muscle mass, too. Some exercises even require that you learn and perfect certain techniques to gain benefits. Now that you have all of that down, have you tried tempo training?
Just as important as your form and technique, your tempo while your train has a huge impact on your fitness. In other words for speed or pace, the tempo is a focused type of training that has you working out with your timing in mind.
You can find people referring to tempo training when they count the number of seconds they hold certain positions or when they create programs based on how time is passing by during an exercise.
Tempo training can be incorporated into several types of fitness programs.
The Benefits of Tempo TrainingThere’s a good reason that people focus on their speed or pacing while working out– tempo training helps to speed up your muscle gain. That’s a fact.
Biologically, the speed at which you exercise or hold certain positions affects the signals your body sends out. For example, when you lower a weighted barbell and do so very slowly, your body has to endure higher tensions for longer.
This causes greater muscle trauma, which causes your body to break down more muscle. As a result, your body sends out signals for more muscle to be built back up, giving your muscles a more defined and obvious shape.
Another signal sent when your body is exercised at varying speeds and paces for tempo training is for your muscles to produce more acids. When you continue to push your body to work out after bursts of high-speed or low-speed exercises, your threshold for tolerating and reacting to certain acids and other hormones released into your body grows.
As a result:
Incorporating Tempo Training Into Your Run
One way to make tempo training a part of your routine as a muscle gain exercise is to incorporate it into your run. A tempo run is just a run that includes running as fast as you can for a certain distance or amount of time, and then running at different paces for other distances or amounts of time.
Tempo training while running can build serious muscles and increase a runner’s endurance. Often, runners training for marathons will practice one of four
common tempo training running routines:
1. Traditional Tempo - 1 mile slow, 2 miles at a fast pace, 1 mile slow.
2. Tempo Intervals - 1 mile slow, 3 miles switching between fast pace and sprinting, 1 mile slower.
3. Race Pace Tempo - 1 mile slow, 3-5 miles at a race pace, 1 mile slow.
4. Negative Split Tempo - 3 miles slow, 3 miles at a fast pace.
As you practice tempo running routines like these, you will find that you feel the burn in your legs. That’s a good thing! The burn indicates that your body has released signals to break down your muscles.
You can also do leg exercise, the best way to get a super-effectiveleg workout at home when you don't have access to any weights or equipment using just your body weight.
As you continue running, your body will adapt to raise your threshold and will build more muscles. Just be sure not to perform tempo runs too often so that you avoid overuse injuries.
Tempo Training for Weight Lifting
Another popular way to perform a muscle gain workout with tempo training is to lift weights at a certain pace and for specific timed intervals.
The specific motion or position you make or hold for a certain amount of time has a huge effect on your muscle breakdown and growth.
Also called repetition prescriptions, there are many different recommendations and types of tempo training while weight lifting. Common prescriptions include raising a weight quickly, and then lowering it slowly so that the muscles perform a slower eccentric contraction.
Some of the other key exercises you can perform at specific tempos might include contractions, stretches, lifts, and tensions. Each of these exercises targets a different function and part of your muscles and body.
The exact tempo weight lifting routine you practice will affect which muscles you build strength and endurance in. It will also influence the shape of your muscles.
Varying your tempo training regimen is wise for full-body muscle-sculpting and strength building.
