Super Slow Strength Training: Build Muscle in 12 Minutes Weekly

You can start building bulging biceps, iron strength, or chiseled abs in the time it takes to brew your morning cup of coffee.

It’s not a pipe dream.

I’m skeptical of programs that promise results in minimal time. Titles like Overnight Abs appeal, but rarely deliver. Transformation takes commitment.

That’s the thing.

You have two ways of getting outstanding results:

1. Constant around-the-clock low effort activity
2. Occasional max intensity activity

Super slow strength training minimizes time by ratcheting up the intensity (and also discomfort).

Try just one of these workouts and you’ll see why it’s my favorite minimalist strength-building routine.

Today’s post covers everything you need to know about it. How to do super slow strength training, the myriad health & fitness benefits, and the best exercises to perform.

Incredible Strength in 12 Minutes Weekly

Is it possible to get strong with just one short workout every 7-10 days?

Effective training comes down to two factors: duration, and intensity.

The two are inversely related. The lower the intensity (think walking), the longer time needed to produce effects. Higher-intensity training (think sprinting) brings results in little time.

Slow strength training is a form of high-intensity training (HIT) with a short duration. With HIT, a little goes a long way.

Gym workouts usually consist of multiple exercises. Each with multiple sets of many reps. This might be excessive.

A study of older adults highlighted that ONE single set of exercises taken to failure improved strength equally to a group performing the same exercises twice per week. This suggests that each body part needs only a single set every week to build strength.

Three other studies compared slow to traditional strength training. Two found slow superior and one favored traditional.

A big victory for the time-saving slow training.

But getting similar benefits requires care.

The 3 Keys to Mastering Slow Strength Training

Dr. Doug McGuff noticed that his clients did best when they paid attention to:

• Tension: How long they kept force applied against the muscle.
• Speed: The cadence at which they raised and lowered the weight.
• Failure: Final reps should be a battle.

That’s it.

If you take away nothing else, remember that:

Don’t worry about the logistics yet. I’ll explainexactly how to complete this workout at the end.

Your Muscle Mass Matters

Muscle not only looks good but predicts how long you’ll live. It’s one of the most accurate predictors of healthspan. Adding strength and muscle enhances your life in multiple ways:

1. Makes your current activities easier.
2. Opens up new activity options.
3. Increases your metabolism so you burn more calories when you’re sedentary.
4. Lowers insulin so that you’re less likely to store body fat.

Strength training of any form builds your personal resilience. It is especially useful to mitigate the damage caused by running and chronic endurance activities.

Super slow strength has advantages over traditional training.

Benefits of Super Slow Strength Training

1. Short sessions: You can complete an entire full-body workout in less than twelve minutes if you hustle.
2. Infrequent: Full-body strength training more than once per week had a marginal gain in multiple studies.
3. Safety: Using less weight reduces the chances of injury from poor form.
4. Strength: You can actually build strength and muscle on this abbreviated program.
5. Portability: Perform the workouts in a gym, at home, in the back of a plane, or anywhere in the world.
6. Flexibility: Applying resistance at the safe extremes of a muscle’s range of motion builds flexibility.
7. Adaptability: Some workout plans are very strict, but with Super Slow you can tweak the program as you see fit.
8. Cardiovascular: According to Dr. McGuff, resistance exercise greatly stimulates and strengthens the cardiovascular “aerobic” system.
9. Simplicity: You don’t need any equipment, tutorials, videos or to learn complicated new exercise variations. This makes it one of the best cheap/free alternatives to expensive fitness biohacks.
10. Fat burning: Activates hormone-sensitive lipase which, in the absence of insulin, stimulates fat burning.
11. Break plateaus: Incorporating slow training into your fitness routine will stimulate muscles differently and can help you get through plateaus.

Who Should NOT Use Super Slow Strength Training

Slow strength training is not ideal for everyone.

Especially athletes.

Athletes should instead focus their limited time, energy, and performance on sport-specific and skill-specific workouts. And recovering from those. McGuff believes that recovery from slow strength workouts can take too long and detract from their performance.

Then again, most competitive athletes already engage in some form of strength training.

Regularly going to failure overtaxes recovery. One option would be to quit just before failure. But Doug emphasizes your success in the program comes from hitting failure, so it makes sense to consider a different plan.

There’s one other major issue. The concept of sports-specific training dictates that if you want to get faster, your should train that way. Thus, for many athletes, deliberately training slow may not transfer well to their fast-paced sport.

How to Workout Super Slow Style

Time to get into the nuts and bolts of performing the workouts.

Frequency: Once per week.

I’m far younger than the research groups, and I feel a need to train strength twice weekly. I usually break Doug’s recommendation there. In Doug’s experience, older folks might need up to ten days of recovery between workouts as they advance.

Sets: One set for each exercise.

Weight: 10 to 40 percent of your one rep max. If you exceed 90 seconds, go up in weight next time.

Reps: Not important. Pay attention to the total time your muscles work (see below).

Total time under tension: 40 to 150 seconds performing reps. The optimal time is between 45 and 90 seconds.

Cadence: Five to ten (or more) seconds up, and then the same down. Make each rep as long as you can while maintaining a consistent pace. It should look smooth (but slow). I have a hard time going slower than ten seconds up and ten seconds down.

Variety: When your progression stalls, rotate different positions or exercise varieties into your program. This keeps the body adapting to new stimuli.

In summary:

• One to two sessions per week
• One set per body part
• 40 to 150 seconds performing the exercise

You must go all the way to muscle failure in order for this program to work. That’s what makes it brutal. Your last rep might take 15 seconds or more.

Sample Workouts

You can “super slow” almost any exercise.

Doug McGuff prefers machines over free weight for two main reasons:

1. Safer to go to failure.
2. Similarly effective.

The machine manufacturer matters. Different manufacturers make the weight move (known as cam profile) at different angles. The resistance must vary in accordance with the strength curves of the muscle. Cheaper machines don’t do a good job. Doug recommends those made by Nautilus and MedX (and Hammer Strength as the runner-up).

I skip the issue altogether and either use free weights, body weight, or resistance band workouts.

These workouts balance muscle groups so that you get an even workout, with no weak links.

Super Slow Bodyweight Home Workout

Bodyweight limits your options.

Squats and pushups cover the very basics of an upper and lower body workout. You can perform them anywhere.

Most back exercises don’t lend themselves well to bodyweight workouts. My two favorites are pullups and deadlifts, but neither works well super slow style. You can control the inverted row much easier. You’ll need a little creativity though. Find something that you can hang under.

Follow the above instructions for each exercise:

1. Squats
2. Pushups
3. Inverted Rows

Super Slow Home Workout With Resistance Bands

Resistance bands introduce a different resistance curve.

The easy part of the rep becomes the hardest.

They’re one of the best travel-friendly portable fitness gear options. Bands improve any bodyweight workout. Especially a full resistance band system like Harambe.

Follow the basic protocol for each of the below exercises:

• Banded Squats
• Banded Chest Press
• Banded Pulldowns
• Banded Overhead Press
• Banded Seated Rows

Super Slow Gym Workout With Machines

The original super slow strength workout.

Doug calls these exercises “the big five”. Most gyms have a machine suited to each of these exercises.

Follow the basic protocol for each of the below exercises:

• Pulldown
• Chest Press
• Leg Press
• Seated Row
• Overhead Press

Super Slow Gym Workout With Free Weights

My preferred slow strength training method when the gym is open. There’s little dispute over the efficacy of free weights.

Get a spotter. After all, you’re going to failure. At the very least use the safety pins.

Follow the basic protocol for each of the below exercises:

• Barbell Bent Row
• Barbell Squat
• Barbell Military Press
• Barbell Bench Press
• Barbell Deadlift

Super Slow Strength Training Hack to Get Better Results

Looking to get even MORE?

Try this once you’ve mastered slow strength, and only days you’re feeling great.

I use this combo whenever I’m on the road to get an ultimate workout without needing a gym or fancy equipment.

This is what you do:

1. Choose an exercise.
2. Use less weight than you otherwise would for super slow training.
3. For upper body exercises, place the BFR bands as high up on the arms as possible.
4. For lower body exercises, place the BFR bands as high up on the legs as possible.
5. Perform the super slow strength exercise as normal

It requires a good set of BFR bands.

My recent post about BFR training explains more about this powerful training technique and which bands to get.

Super slow strength in tandem with blood flow restriction training kicks your butt every time.

15+ Underground Tools to Amplify Your Body Transformation

Whether you’re looking to pack on some muscle or torch body fat, fitness gets confusing.

Do I need a monthly gym membership?

Will this hot new technique actually work?

Which supplements can accelerate my results?

How do I continue making progress while on the road?

This is all possible. And remember this…

Injury is the fastest way to derail your progress and lose your hard work. Share on X

Eventually, most runners get injured. As do most weightlifters.

So what do you do?

Use the right tools.

You can get better results fast, without spending 2 hours in the gym, 6 days per week.

So I designed a simple “Body Upgrade Cheatsheet” to handpick the most essential tools the pros use to transform their bodies in minimal time. Download it here…

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Super Slow Strength Frequently Asked Questions

Super Slow Strength Training: An Effective & Quick Workout Program

Don’t let it fool you, super slow strength isn’t easy.

Nor is it for the faint of heart.

You’ll be rewarded if you can handle the “burn” of the last few reps.

Super slow strength works in any situation, with just about any exercise.

Remember the three levers that make super slow strength workouts easier or harder:

• Rep speed
• Time under tension
• Proximity to failure

Once you’ve gotten the hang of it, you can stack SST with other powerful fitness hacks.

Give it a shot and let me know your experience and any questions in the comments below!