If you’re part of the Shred & Shape Challenge, you would have noticed that we have a new feature… tempo!

Tempo is an absolute GAME-CHANGER for shredding and shaping lean muscle! It’s one of my FAV techniques to implement, but if you’ve never used it before, you may find yourself a little unsure as to how it works!

Here is all you need to know about tempo, how to read it, and how to make the most of it! 

What is Tempo?

Tempo is simply the speed that you perform each exercise! 

By implementing tempo, you are spending more time under tension, which means, your muscles will be under more demand. This increases the intensity of the exercise and helps build lean muscle! 

Why Has Tempo Been Added?

Tempo is a new feature of the SAS challenge! You’ll find the tempo of each exercise written next to the reps and sets.

We have added tempo to help you increase lean muscle mass and continually challenge yourself over the 8 weeks. You will notice a change in the tempo of each exercise every few weeks to keep you on your toes!

Tempo is especially important for the home workouts to increase intensity without having to increase the resistance weight (if you don’t have access to a range of heavier dumbbells!) 

How To Read Tempo

Reading tempo can be super confusing, but I promise, it’s more simple than it seems!

Tempo is written as 4 numbers. Each number represents how many seconds you spend doing each phase of the exercise.

• The first number = how many seconds you spend doing the first phase of the exercise (lowering phase eg. squatting down)

• The second number = how many seconds you spend at the bottom of the lowering movement (eg. pausing at the bottom of a squat)

• The third number = how many seconds you spend coming back up to the starting position (eg. coming back up from the bottom of a squat)

• The fourth number = how many seconds you spend at the top before doing another rep.

So for example, if you were performing a squat with the tempo 3-0-1-0, it would look like this: