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TEMPO: THE BREAKDOWN

Welcome to the final piece of the training puzzle: Tempo. As the least critical factor in your training program, it’s also one of the most misunderstood. Hopefully, by now, you’ve been applying the foundational principles we’ve covered effectively, and if so, I’d love to hear about your progress—the entire FTU team would!

Let’s dive into tempo. Although it’s not a top priority for most trainees, it often gets blown out of proportion and overly complicated. Like "rest time," it’s an element many see as highly complex, often due to myths perpetuated by social media, underqualified trainers, misled athletes, and even some corrupt organizations. Today, we’re cutting through the noise with facts so you can maximize your approach to tempo without overthinking.

TIME UNDER TENSION

When it comes to lifting tempo, many people—especially bodybuilders—claim that greater time under tension (TUT) or slowing down reps (often referred to as “negative training”) will result in more muscle activation, greater damage, and ultimately, more growth.

If this theory were true, consider this: the pull of gravity constantly exerts tension on us, yet we don’t grow muscle simply by existing. The missing piece in the “more TUT equals more growth” equation is force—specifically, the load you’re resisting during training.

When you slow down your lifting speed excessively to increase TUT, two things happen:

You sacrifice load. You won’t be able to lift as heavy, which reduces the overall stimulus on the muscle.

You lose effective reps. Effective reps—those performed near failure—are essential for progression. If TUT were the only factor needed for muscle growth, we could all build impressive physiques simply by walking around with ankle and wrist weights or curling pencils all day. But common sense (and science) tells us this isn’t how it works.

The takeaway? Focus on what actually drives progress: the balance of tension, load, and effective reps.

CONSIDERATIONS

Just as with rest time, the simple answer to tempo is this: lift weights. However, to provide a more precise recommendation:

Control the weight. Proper form is critical for muscle activation, progressive overload, and injury prevention.

Focus on the eccentric phase. Control the negative (lengthening) phase of the movement to ensure that gravity isn’t doing the work for you. Your muscles should be engaged throughout.

Aim for pristine form. Lift with the correct tempo for your allocated rep range, recruit the targeted muscles effectively, and progress the load when ready.

By prioritizing control, form, and progression, you’ll handle tempo effectively and see consistent results in and out of the weight room.

Let go of the over-complication, focus on what matters, and train with intention.


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