Lifting Tempo: How, Why, When

Tempo is a really solid tool to add to your arsenal of training tactics, and can greatly benefit your training!

What is Tempo?

Tempo refers to the speed of your lift and the time spent in each phase of lifting. To understand its use and implementation, it’s helpful to understand the different types of muscle contraction.

Eccentric: muscle is in the lowering phase (like the lowering of a squat or deadlift)

Concentric: muscle is in the contraction, or the lifting phase (like standing up from a squat or pulling a deadlift off the floor)

Bottom and Top: isometric contractions (the muscle generates force but does not change length) at the bottom (end of eccentric) and top (end of concentric). The bottom position is generally used as a ‘pause’.

Some Benefits of Tempo

• can increase strength and health of tendons, which attach muscle to bone

• adds variety to your program

• can help build a better understanding or comfortability in various positions of movement

• increase time under tension, which can aide in muscle development

How do we use Tempo?

Tempo will usually be written as 3 or 4 numbers:

• the first number represents seconds spent in the eccentric phase

• the second number represents seconds spent in the bottom position

• the third number represents the seconds spent in the concentric phase

• and, if included, the fourth number represents the seconds spent in the top position

Written Example:

You might see tempo written as “1301”, “1/3/0/1” or “1-3-0-1”. There’s not necessarily a correct or incorrect format, and I’ve seen different coaches use any of these!

Let’s use 1/3/0/1 in the example of a squat. With this prescribed tempo, the lifter would spend

• 1 second lowering

• 3 seconds in the bottom position (a 3 second ‘pause’)

• the 0 would mean to stand right back up

• then finally, spend 1 second at the top

When to use Tempo

Spending more time in the eccentric phase is likely to help develop strength and health of tendons, increase time under tension, and potentially increase muscle development. Utilizing pauses is a decent way to address weaknesses or become more comfortable in various positions.

If you have a coach already, it’s likely you’ve been prescribed tempo! If not, go ahead and try it out.

As always, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, go ahead and send me an email. I’d love to talk more!

Thanks for reading.

- Jory