Slow Down, Get Stronger
Good things take time
We’ve all heard, “It’s about the journey, not the destination.” Yet we rarely apply this thinking to our fitness goals. We rush. We rush our sets, moving too quickly and not focusing on form. We rush our rest, taking only 30 to 60 seconds before reaching for the dumbbells again — nowhere near fully recovered.
I’ve certainly been guilty of these mistakes. I wanted to feel like I was working out. But rarely is this style of training better for muscle and strength adaptations. Take your time with your reps. Move with purpose. Feel the target muscles. Try using your 15-rep max with better form, slowing the eccentric movement down by 1 to 2 seconds. Most of us will drop down to 12 reps — if that.
Test yourself right now. How many push-ups can you do? Now do them with a 2 to 3 second eccentric and explode up into the next rep. How many can you really do?
Benefits of slowing down the eccentric phase:
Increased muscle strength and hypertrophy
Reduced risk of joint pain or injury
Increased mind-muscle connection
Failure.
The real gains come from taking 75 to 90 percent of your working sets to failure. Most of your effort will be wasted if you’re not coming within 1 to 3 reps of absolute failure. And that doesn’t mean “it feels hard.” For 95 percent of people, it means literally failing reps. Use a spotter if you need to.
Example: You want to bench 315 pounds. Last week, you benched 225 for 8 reps. To progress, you could:
Do 225 for 9 reps
Do 225 plus 1 to 5 pounds for 8 reps
Or move the same weight, for the same number of reps, with better form
Most people choose the first or second option because they’re more measurable. But long term, the third option is the most valuable. It pays off when you’re lifting truly heavy weights — the kind that wreck your body if your form is bad. Suddenly you’re out for two days when you could’ve been training or recovering. You pushed too hard, too fast, and now you’re back to where you started. Same 225 bench, but now with a bum shoulder.
Your body has no idea what weight is on the bar. It only responds to the demand of the task. That’s why it makes more sense to use a lighter weight you can control with perfect form than a heavier one with sloppy technique.
Rest.
Unless you’re truly limited to a 30-minute workout, there’s no excuse for taking less than 2 minutes of rest between working sets. Your sets should be challenging enough that you need that time. Catch your breath. Let your heart rate come down. Your body should feel ready for the next set. Then get back under the bar and attack it with the same intensity as your first.
Personally, I rest at least 3 minutes between sets. I want the target muscle to be the limiting factor — not my lungs or my heart rate, and definitely not a smaller secondary muscle giving out first. Going into each set with focus and quality changes everything.
I used to be that guy doing endless sets of everything. Ten sets of bench, squats, rows, curls. You name it, I did it wrong. And sure, you can make some progress that way — especially if you’re new to training, like I was. You’ll leave the gym exhausted, drenched in sweat, joints aching, and still hit plateaus you can’t break through. The shift doesn’t happen overnight. But once you slow down, lift with intention, and truly take your sets to failure, everything changes. I got stronger. I felt better.
Stop chasing the feeling of working hard. Chase results. Don’t wait until you’re injured or stuck spinning your wheels. Train smart now. You’ll thank yourself in the long run.
Onward.