By lifting weights in a series of ultra-slow movements that last 10 seconds each, you can stimulate lean muscle formation far more efficiently and safely than regular weight lifting or aerobics. Together with a nutrition plan and a new focus on rest and relaxation, it is so effective that in as little as one 20-minute workout per week you can build muscle.
It's based on the simple principle that you can build lean muscle mass, the body's most effective metabolizer of fat, by simply lifting weights in slow motion. Rather than using fast movement to do the exercises, you make each repetition last 20 seconds (10 seconds lifting, then 10 seconds lowering).
When you call upon a muscle to lift a given weight, the small, slow twitch riders respond first. It the weight is light, they can 'tote the note' for many repetitions without fatigue. With more weight, however, these smaller fibers begin to fail and the intermediate ones step up to the plate; they, too, can hang in for many repetitions with a lighter weight, lifted quickly. Only when the weight is heavy enough to fatigue both these fiber types, do the fast-twitch fibers come off the bench and join the workout.
If you want to improve your performance in sports that require quick, explosive, powerful movements ... or you'd just like the simple strength-dependent activities of life to be simple again, you'll need to strengthen your big, fast-twitch fibers--however many you may have--and there's no quicker or more effective way to do that than by joining the Slow Burn Fitness Revolution."
How is it done? Perform each exercise in perfect form with a weight heavy enough to fatigue the muscle in just a few repetitions. During a typical Slow Burn workout you spend 60 to 90 seconds doing a single set of three to six repetitions. Hahn warns that if you can continue slow reps in perfect, slow form for longer than 90 seconds, the weight is too light. He suggests setting a metronome to 60 BPM and a timer to 100 seconds. Then, try getting into position for 10 seconds or beats of the metronome and completing each of the three repetitions in a 30 second pattern.
In one exercise (squatting on and off a stool while holding onto a doorknob), I had an incredibly difficult time doing the required three-second rise for the first inch off the stool. It seems others do, too, since one of the "commonly asked questions" Hahn addresses is for people who can't rise off the stool. Read on. He has many suggestions for gradually stepping up to the Slow Burn. Once again, it's so tough, the week off between workouts is most welcomed.
The program focuses on a deliberately slow and controlled, repetition. Since each repetition is one up-down cycle, a complete 'rep' takes 20 seconds. Moving at this speed eliminates any chance of cheating by using the weight's own momentum. During this time we focus on correct body/motion form. Therefore, your muscles do 100% of the work. You spend about 90 to 120 straight seconds working into the deepest layers of muscle fibers to achieve total muscle failure. Your work is finished for that specific muscle group in one set! Five to six more sets gives you a total body workout.
Between the ages of 20 and 50 the average individual loses approximately 15 pounds of muscle and gains over 30 pounds of fat as a result of the decrease in metabolism associated with muscle loss. In addition to improved strength and endurance, regaining or building muscle tissue also increases metabolism, and improves body shape, bone density, cardiovascular efficiency, and joint stability.
Each new pound of muscle that you gain will raise your metabolism by as much as 50-calories-per-day.
Power of 10 is based on the premise that eliminating momentum from an exercise forces the muscle to do all the work. Because the muscle is never able to rest, fatigue comes faster. When muscles are brought to failure during strength training, tiny tears occur, creating blood flow to the site, which helps build the muscle.
The protocol is to lift the weight with a 10-second cadence -- 10 seconds up and 10 seconds down -- "until you hit that wall," says Zickerman. At this slow pace, muscles will "fail" somewhere between five and eight repetitions. When you cannot complete another repetition with perfect form, you're finished.
A Power of 10 workout lasts 20-25 minutes; includes five to seven exercises hitting all the major muscle groups; and can be done using free weights or machines.
Zickerman says you can do the program as much as twice a week, but only once a week is needed for results. For a time-starved society, this sounds like a fitness solution like no other.
Zickerman recommends that you start with twice-a-week routines because it gets you comfortable with the form and cadence of Power of 10.
Zickerman says there are 10 commandments to his program:
1. Speed: 10 seconds up and 10 seconds down
2. Breathing: Freely and evenly
3. Motion: Weights up and down should be smoothe and constant
4. Number of Reps: Do number of reps it takes to run out of gas, until you can't do another (then try to push for 10 more seconds)
5. Number of Exercises Per Workout: About 6 different exercises or sets
6. Correct Weight: Choose a weight where you reach your limit at about 6 to 8 reps
7. No Stopping: Move from exercise to exercise until the workout is done
8. Focus: Concentrate on form, motion and speed
9. Number of Workouts Per Week: One or two if you feel like it
10. Equipment: Machines and/or at home
| Exercises | Session |
| leg extension | 1 |
| leg curl | 1 |
| squat against wall with dumbells | 2 |
| pull over on bench | 1 |
| rowing | 2 |
| arm raises to side | 1 |
| dumbell overhead press | 2 |
| pushups with weight stapped on back | |
| dips | |
| bicep curl | 2 |
| crunches on machine | 1,2 |
| back extension on machine | 1,2 |
| bench flies | 1 |
Use tennis ball or equivalent to massage back between shoulder blades
Try basketball for squats
http://www.ultimate-exercise.com/
http://www.seriousstrength.com/fred.html
http://www.informfitness.com/power-of-10.htm
http://www.ageless-athletes.com/index.shtml
http://www.superslowzone.com/Page.asp?PageID=294
"Find yourself in a maniac's mind: carnivorous, lusting and fulfilled by the the atrocities you commit. Be assured in your dominance. Lick your canines and incisors, and smile. Now lift those weights !"