Once you’ve familiarized yourself with many of the standard strength training moves and have a few to several months of consistent training under your belt, you might be wondering, “What’s next?” The good news is that you don’t have to make sweeping changes to multiple training variables all at once to elicit that little push outside of your comfort zone necessary for progress. Making small tweaks to your tempo/time-in-training can stimulate both mental and physical growth.
Who is this challenge for?
This 5 day challenge is for anyone interested in leveling up their weight-lifting routine! If you’ve been using the same weight selections during your strength workouts but are not quite ready to increase your weights just yet, increasing muscle time under tension is one of several training variables that can help you build your strength and confidence to bridge the gap between your current weights and your goal weights. To elicit muscle growth (hypertrophy) and strength we must progressively overload the body with mechanical stressors; therefore, the eccentric tempo training (extending the muscle/lengthening phase) and compounding supersets (pairing two agonist exercises with minimal rest) in this challenge are both great ways to tax your muscular system with increased muscle time-in-training per set.
Two to three months of consistent weightlifting is recommended before starting this challenge to ensure proper form and muscle engagement. Note that the term “consistent” is relative to each exerciser and does not reference a prescribed number of sessions per week, but rather denotes familiarity and a moderate level of confidence with the movement patterns affiliated with standard strength training exercises.
What to expect
-Day 1: Lower Body Tempo Strength + HIIT
-Day 2: Upper Body Tempo Strength + Cardio
-Day 3: Core + Bodyweight Active Recovery Strength
-Day 4: Upper Body Compound Supersets + Cardio
-Day 5: Lower Body Compound Supersets + HIIT
Due to the longer work intervals per set/round and the increased length of time your muscle fibers will be under tension, your weight selections per exercise are likely to be closer to about 60% to 70% of your maximum load (in this scenario, "maximum load" is the highest weight that you would use to complete about four reps of an exercise). It sounds counterintuitive at first, but slowing things down and decreasing your weight load increases the production of muscle fibers and improves overall strength. Your two lower and upper body sessions will be paired with HIIT (high intensity interval training) and cardio, respectively. These short cardiovascular-focused segments help stimulate muscle growth, training your muscles to more efficiently utilize the oxygen distributed to them by the heart and lungs. The mid-challenge core/active recovery routine includes core-centric exercises and bodyweight low-intensity strength moves to improve your foundation for increasing your weight loads (in the future) and increase restorative blood flow to any sore muscles so that you can quickly resume training with freshness.
Equipment needed
A range of weights (light-to-moderate) relative to what you can lift for your lower body versus upper body is recommended for a successful experience with this challenge. Although the workouts can be completed bodyweight-only, weights add an external resistance to your muscles that improve your chances of reaping the benefits of the type of training included in these workouts. A mat is also a good idea for any floor work — especially if you’re working out on a hard and/or slippery surface.
Whether you’re relatively new to strength training or an advanced lifter, anyone can benefit from slowing down the tempo and increasing muscle time under tension from time to time. Embrace the “muscle burn,” use the slower pacing to tap into your muscle-mind connection and, as always, adapt the workouts to work best for your current training needs and goals.