One of our four Exercise For Life Principles is to Move Slowly when you strength train.
You see this principle carried out in many of the workouts within the Exercise For Life Membership and throughout much of our content on our podcast, blog, and social media accounts.
But why is moving slowly so important?
There are two big reasons.
First, moving slowly while you strength train will make it less likely that you use too much motion and move into ranges and positions that cause injury.
In fact, one of the top reasons why people feel achy and sore from their workouts is because they move too fast, which causes them to move too far.
Just like approaching a stop sign with too much speed in your car makes it more difficult to stop behind the line, when you move too fast while you strength train, it is more difficult to stay within the amount of motion that is appropriate for your body.
Second, moving slowly while you strength train will make it easier for you to maintain your focus on squeezing your muscles during the exercise.
This focus is not just so you can “feel the burn”; it will actually help you get better results from your workouts!
When you focus on squeezing your muscles, more signals get sent to them telling them to work and contract. These signals are one of the biggest drivers behind building your strength, building muscle, and building your health. The more of these signals your muscles receive, the more benefits you get!
When you move fast, your mind will naturally drift away from squeezing your muscles and towards doing the motion. This may seem like a subtle shift, but within your body, it creates a completely different response to your workouts.
Now, moving slowly is not necessarily an easy thing to do, especially if you are used to moving fast.
Within the Exercise For Life Membership, this is a principle we place into almost every program, but there are two in particular we invite you to check out if you want to really dial this in.
The first is “Full Motion, Full Strength, Full Function” and the second is “Targeted Tempo Training”.
The 16 workouts in these two programs will help you really dial in the “moving slowly” piece so you can get more of the strength- and health-building benefits you want with minimal chances of injury or soreness.
You can get access to both of these programs for the next 30 days for free by signing up for the Exercise For Life Membership.
Just click here to get started and dive right into your first workout today!
In strength and health,
Julie & Charlie
