A primary goal of grapplers over 35 is to avoid pain and injuries to stay on the mat for as long as possible.
Each week I write about exercises to fortify your body, programming to build resilience, and high-value methods for BJJ longevity.
But there is a simple, often overlooked strategy that can help build resilience and get more from every exercise you do.
Slow down.
Specifically, slow down your reps.
It’s not glamorous or exciting or new, but damn, it’s effective.
Here’s why.
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More Control And Stability
When you slow down your reps you create stability and control at every angle in your joint’s range.
The tendency for most people is to move quickly though exercise to simulate speed and power like you would during athletics or grappling.
Speed also makes you feel like you’re getting a hard workout. It increases the heart and lungs and makes you sweat.
It’s natural to move quickly to feel like you’re “working out.”
But, speed comes at the expense of control.
The old coaching queue, “slow is smooth, smooth is fast” holds true. Smooth means in control, and once you’ve built control by moving slowly, then you can add speed.
If you are blasting through your reps you are not building control in each angle of the motion. When you lack control or stability you are more likely to get hurt.
Slow down your reps to build control and resilience in the full range.
2. More Awareness
For years I never considered slowing down my reps. I played between the 1 to 3 second tempo ranges for nearly all exercises.
By the time I was 35 I was riddled with pain and dysfunction, yet never understood why.
Many would chalk it up to getting older, or “wear and tear” from decades under the bar and on the mat.
There were a number of factors that lead to my pain, but some of it was simply due to poor neurological connection to my muscles.
In other words, my brain wasn’t connecting to my muscular system as well as it could. This can lead to poor force transference throughout the system, weakness, and ultimately, pain.
Once I slowed down, I was able to make a much better connection to my muscles. I became more aware of how my muscles work together in chains, and which muscles should be active during a move and which shouldn’t.
This was a powerful transformation that led to less pain, more strength, and overall feeling better in my body.
I also became painfully aware of muscular asymmetries and where I needed to give more attention.
Ultimately, this will lead to a more resilient body and better output from every exercise.
3. Build More Strength And Muscle
There is no better way to add “time under tension” than by slowing down your reps. TUT is a tried and true method for building muscle.
As we age our muscle loss compounds each decade starting at age 40.
Which is why you should find a smart way of preserving and building muscle without increasing your chance of injury.
Slow reps are the way.
Specifically, slowing the eccentric portion of a movement will effectively build muscle.
Force production is also on a continuum.
The force-velocity curve is a physical representation of the inverse relationship between force and velocity. Meaning, you can produce more force the slower you go, with the most force generated with no motion, aka isometrically.
So if strength is a goal, which is should be, you’ll create more of it by going slower.
4. Reducing & Rehabbing Injuries
Most injuries occur when the load placed on a tissue is too great or done too quickly.
Simply put, fast movements lead to higher rates of injuries.
You can reduce this dramatically by slowing down.
Also, slow tempos are often used in rehab to build back better control, stability, and awareness.
I have found that if Im battling chronic pain, I can often work around it by slowing down my reps and focusing on keeping the tension on the correct working muscles.
If you’re injured or have beat up joints, use slow training to come back stronger.
Programming Slow Training
There are many ways to effectively slow your reps for the mentioned benefits.
If you’re new to slow training, start with bodyweight exercises and make an intentional effort to connect to the working muscles.
A simple 5 second eccentric and 5 second concentric tempo will quickly make you realize the effectiveness of slow training.
Then, just add time to each phase of the movement, working up to sets of 10 seconds for each.
Super Slow Training is a very effective protocol that uses 100 to 240 seconds of time under tension to reach complete fatigue.
You perform just one set of each exercise with the 10-10 tempo, doing as many reps as you need to accumulate up to 4 minutes of work. Use bodyweight squats, push ups, rows, and pull ups.
This will not only challenge your muscles, heart, and lungs, but your grit and mental toughness.
Try 4 minutes of pushups at a 10-10 tempo and then tell me slow training is for “old guys.”
Final Thoughts
My friend and movement expert, Ryan Hurst, turned me on to the idea of “slowing down” when I was 35, and I wish I would have taken his advice earlier.
Slow training provides so many benefits for the aging grappling, but the truth is, anyone at any age can benefit from slow training.
And for those concerned, slow training will in no way make you slow on the mat or in sport. If anything, it will make you faster due to better neurological connection to your muscles.
Slowing down is some of the best advice I’ve ever received, and I can’t recommend it enough to every grappler.
Get more from every workout by simply slowing down.
WHENEVER YOU’RE READY, THERE ARE 4 WAYS I CAN HELP YOU:
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