Super Slow

David McGruff, M.D. and John Little put this exercise regime forth in their book “Body by Science” published in 2009. I highly recommend this book to those of you who are interested in the scientific justification and logic behind super-slow training.

 

The program consists of five compound exercises that takes only 15 minutes to complete and is done only once a week. Twice a week for beginners, until they gain adequate strength and twice a week becomes unproductive.

What I mean by productivity is improvement at every consecutive session; heavier weights or one more rep.

You will use a weight that allows you to do 5 reps and, literally, the 6^th rep will be impossible to complete.

The rep speed, the most important factor, is 10 seconds positive (concentric) and 10 seconds negative (eccentric).

Neither the 5 reps, nor the 10 seconds up and 10 seconds down are written in stone. I will give you alternatives later on, but start with this scheme.

The following exercises are all done on machines, I will, however, give you free weight alternatives.

I believe that it’s a good idea to start exercising with the biggest muscles first and move on to the smaller muscles. This is why I have changed Dr. McGuff’s sequence slightly.

Here goes:

Leg Press

Seated Row

Chest Press

Pulldown

Overhead Press

The pictures should make the exercises easily understandable/doable.