Grandma's Ninja Warrior Diary: Why Slow Beats Fast
One of the first things I learned as part of my fitness training -- and am still learning -- is that when it comes to physical fitness development of any sort, slow is better than fast. That came as a surprise to me, especially since I have been impulsive and near-hyperactive my entire life. Doing things fast comes naturally. Doing them slowly does not--and frustrates me as well. However, I now understand that I MUST do fitness activites slowly for a number of reasons: to avoid injury to let your muscles fully experience the activity not to confuse cardio training with muscle training to get the full benefit of each activity to build muscle faster -- more time under tension Try it. Lift 20 pounds rapidly 20 times. Then lift 20 pounds slowly 20 times. Slowly is harder to do; it taxes your muscles more; it build muscles faster. (Though with faster, you can live more weight or do more repetitions.) A length of 2-6 seonds between repitions seems to optimal. What you...