Use Tempo to Make an Exercise More Challenging

Many of us are exercising from home right now which means you most likely have access to a limited selection of weights and equipment. One way to make any exercise more challenging is to change the tempo while performing the exercise.

In the exercise above I am demonstrating a negative kettlebell deadlift , focusing on the eccentric portion of the deadlift. The timing I used is a 1/1/4/1. Meaning I used a 1 second concentric (lift) phase, a 1 second pause at the top, a 4 second eccentric phase (lowering), and a 1 second pause in the bottom.

While I am demonstrating this with a deadlift, this tempo could be applied to many exercises such as squats, lunges, push-ups, chest presses, rows, etc. Try mixing up the tempo on your home workouts for an extra challenge and let me know how it goes!