How To Keep Your Workouts On Track

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I went for a workout at my local gym the other day just to get out of the house and I was asked by one of the trainers why I was using a timer for my weights workout. Here’s my explanation to her.

When ever I program a workout for either myself or one of my clients, the things that can vary are obviously the exercise, weight, sets, reps, tempo and recovery or rest time. The whole purpose of measuring all of these variables is so that the body achieves the desired physiological response that we are trying to elicit.

By using a timer such as the app on my phone, “Tabata Pro”, you can do exactly that. The set up in the image was used for my barbell back squat routine. I performed 10 sets of 10 reps with a 60 second rest in between each set. The tempo for the set was 3:0:1:0 (3 seconds down, no rest at the bottom, 1 second up, no rest at the top)

In this example, the, “WORK” setting is 40 seconds. If you find that you’re not getting your 10 reps done then you’re going too slow. Maybe the weight is too heavy. If you’re doing more than the required 10 reps, then you’re going to fast.

My take home point is this: If you want the biggest bang for your workout buck, make sure you’re timing your workouts, including the sets, reps, tempo and recovery periods.