Tempo

Sorry for the post being a little later today. It's tough for me to get my thoughts going when it's this cold !!!! Today we are working on the last word of the fitt acronym. the last T stands for tempo. Tempo refers to the timing in which your workout moves as well as the timing of how your muscles work. We are going to get a little technical for a second and then we'll break it down. Essentially our muscles have three stages of movement that they go through to do work. The first is eccentric, or lengthening. The second is isometric, or stabilizing, and the last is concentric, or shortening. The tempo of an exercise refers to how much time is devoted to each phase of your muscles movement. Let's take a push up for example. Starting at the to the muscles in your chest and triceps are contracted. The tempo begins as we lower ourselves to the floor, eccentrically lengthening these muscles, for a count of 4(this means literally count aloud to 4). When you reach the bottom of the push up, isometrically stabilize by holding yourself there for a 2 count. Finally contract the triceps and chest muscles to bring yourself up and return to the starting position(this motion, the concentric, gets a 1 count). The tempo I have just described is written 4-2-1 in an exercise key and refers to the Eccentric, isometric, and concentric motion respectively. There are many different tempos to work with but for today this is the one we will be going with. Here is your workout !!!

5 min Warm up
Stretch
2x 15 push ups
2x 15 ball squats
2x 15 overhead presses
2x 15 bent rows
2x 25 crunches
5 min cool down
Stretch

15-30 sec. of rest between sets. 4-2-1 tempo.

The next few weeks are not going to be the most exciting of workouts as far as actual exercises are concerned, however , it is vital that we go through this. We are currently working on muscle and joint stabilization, which will prove crucial as we begin the season and progess into much more complex fitness levels. If there are any questions in general or you need help connecting this with you own fitness goals, feel free to ask. Hope you have a great day and enjoy!!!

J