The speed in which you execute a certain movement refers to term tempo or rep speed. The tempo being used can determine the after effect the lift has on the muscle group. The movement can be of two things when you lift a weight. It can be mere work that tires out the muscle or it can be a means of stimulating more muscle mass. The main difference between these two movements is the rep speed. For now, we’ll concentrate our interest in the dangers of what tempo you use during your workouts.

When you are simply just working out and not training for muscle growth is when your main interest is satisfying your ego of lifting a heavy weight, or even finishing a particular number of repetitions for a given set. This type of training is dangerous as poor form while working out can cause a lot of injuries to your muscle tissue and connective joints. Poor form during exercise includes, swinging, jerking the weight around, using body momentum to get the weight up any way you can.
And last but not least, let’s get down to the training aspect of applying rep speed to your exercises. You might not think it, but it’s important to know how you apply rep speed to your exercises as it can determine whether or not you meet your goals that you are seeking out. If you want to train for power and strength, then you want to generally apply an explosive type of rep speed. Let’s take the bench press for example. When you are in position to go down with the weight, you want to go down with the weight in a controlled and slow manner. And then once you touch your chest, push the weight back up in a explosive manner.

To be more specific, we can use a time ratio for your workouts. For the example I have just set, you can use the ratio 3:0:1. The first number 3 represents the number of seconds it takes for you to go down. The number 0 represents the number of seconds when you touch your chest. And the last number represents the number of seconds it takes for you to push the weight back up. As you can see, applying the right tempo for your exercises is very important when going about achieving your goals.

So let’s say you want to apply a ratio that promotes size while bench pressing. You can use the ratio 2:0:2, or even 2:0:3. The concept of it is the slower you go while repping out, the more muscle fibers you’ll contract which will result in more damage to the fast twitch muscle fibers. At the same time, you have to pay attention to how much weight you’re using. That general way of thinking or saying does not always result in muscle mass, as you still need to apply a certain stimulus to your muscle when trying to gain muscle mass. As training for power also results in muscle size. Finding the fine line of gaining muscle size and strength is not something you can figure out on the first workout. It will take a lot of trial and error as you find out soon within your training.

Having a pull-up bar can prove to be one of the best and cheapest investments for the fitness value. They can be one of the best fitness tools to have on hand because pull-ups and chin-ups are one of the best exercises to do when it comes to body weight training. Right now, they have all kinds of pull-up bars, and cheap too. Right now I’m using a pull-up bar made by Iron Gym. For the amount of pull-ups I have already done since buying it and the shape I have already gotten into, it has been a $30 well spent. It’s cheap, well structured (sturdy), and also easy to set up. As opposed to being permanently attached, it simply slides securely over the door frame. And don’t worry, you wont fall and bust your bottom. Trust me, I’ve already tried. Let’s just say it uses leverage to stay put.

ProSource Heavy-Duty Easy Gym Doorway Chin-Up/Pull-Up Bar List Price: $39.99 Price: $27.98 Read Reviews

The Pull-Up: If you’re just starting out, you can place your hands anywhere where you feel most comfortable doing them. Typically, you would want to place your grip a little bit wider past your shoulders. If you’re using a pull-up bar at home, make sure the bar is set up high enough so that you bend your knees in a hanging position without your feet touching the floor. If they do, trying to get a workout with your feet touching the ground can be a nuisance. Alright once you get to working out, if you find out that you can’t even do one pull-up, here’s a few techniques you should incorporate.

Don’t get frustrated, just follow my directions. This time around, I want you to grip the bar with your palms facing you. This is called a chin-up. Or if you can’t do one chin-up with your palms facing you, here’s another method you can try doing. Get a stool or chair and place it near under the pull-up bar. Step on the stool and grip onto the pull-up bar. While you are standing on the stool and gripping the pull-up bar, pull yourself up until your head is over the bar completely. Next, let off the stool and and come back down as slow as you possibly can. These are called negatives. Do a set of 10 repetitions, for 3 sets total. As each week passes, keep testing yourself until you can do a pull-up and keep adding more repetitions for negatives.

You can still make good use of a pull-up bar even if you’re not interested in getting into shape with an exercise routine. Here’s something you can do to increase your pull-up strength. About 3-4 times a week, place your pull-up bar between the door of your room and leave it there for the remainder of the day. Now every time you pass it, do one pull-up. Or if you can’t do a pull-up, perform a set of negatives. In no time, you’ll be doing 10-15 pull-ups by the set. Trust me, with hard work and determination, you can reach that goal. But it all depends on you. As mentioned, pull-ups are a great way of to get into shape and can even be used as a solo type exercise to improve your upper body strength and core. Even if you can’t do one pull-up by yourself, use the methods I mentioned above. With hard work, you’ll be doing pull-ups like a navy seal!

If you are looking to add on some real muscle for power results, I have included three steps below about doing so. These steps will help you build serious strength and power. These are the basics for serious strength training and should not be taken lightly. If you train and eat right, the world and beyond can be yours. With that said, your lifts are what you make of it.

Progressive Overload: When it comes to building strength, this is a pretty much basic principle to follow. This is where you start with a certain resistance or weight that you can handle with good form and slowly increase the weight and resistance over time. As time passes, your strength gradually goes up as you start to increase the load to lift more heavier weight. As an example: If you rep out 200lbs on deadlifts for a set of a set of five, add 5 more pounds each week to gradually lift heavier weight. So if you’re repping out 200 one week, rep out 205 next week, and build up from there. See where I’m getting at? Don’t try to overdo it and add 30-40 pounds each week. By overdoing it and pushing yourself beyond what your joints can handle, you’ll up with more injuries than anything else. Remember, the keyword here is progressive. So just keep that in mind.

Maximizing Body Tension: One of the keys to successful strength building is maximizing tension during your lifts. Your body’s production of tension is the definition of strength. Muscular tension equals force and force equals tension. Maximizing tension during your lifts adds more strength and force. When it comes to body weight training, you might be good at doing 50 pushups, but try doing 5 one arm pushups. It might be less reps, but more tension for your body to output more force. The more force your body creates, the more strength you’ll gain. This is one of the reasons why powerlifters and strongman competitors are so strong. This is the basis of strength training.

Compound Movements: When you want to build muscular power, doing compound exercises is a definite rule for sure. Don’t waste your time with those single isolated lifts like dumbbell curls or tricep extensions. That’s for bodybuilders. Instead of just doing dumbbell curls, try doing pullups instead. Not only do your biceps get worked, but your lats, traps, shoulders are getting worked out as well. By working out multi-joint type exercises, you trigger the natural growth of anabolic hormones and well as stimulate the nervous system.

By dumbbell press I’m referring to all versions of the chest press (incline, flat and decline) as well as shoulder presses. The difference in spotting dumbbells as opposed to a barbell is that because the weight is more concentrated, strength discrepancies will be much more apparent. Meaning that as a spotter, you’ll have to be even more attentive when someone is working with dumbbells to ensure that both sides go up evenly. Giving too much assistance to one side is almost guaranteed to cause the lifter to lose control of the weight, so be careful. Speaking of which, the biggest mistake I see spotters make during dumbbell presses is spotting from the elbows. True, pushing on the elbows allows you to give the lifter an incredible amount of assistance, problem is you also run the risk of them losing control of the weight and getting a dumbbell across the face. I’ve seen it happen and trust me, it ain’t pretty.

To properly spot any version of a dumbbell press, lightly grasp the person around the wrists as you guide the weight up. This will enable you to offer enough of an assist while at the same time protecting them from the possibility of the weight falling in on them. As far as how you should position yourself, during both shoulder presses and incline chest presses standing directly behind the lifter is acceptable. For flat and decline chest presses though, you’re best off kneeling down behind them to get better leverage.