If you are in search for a new workout routine, you may not need to do a new set of exercises. You can completely change your existing workout program simply by adjusting your repetition speed.
Everyone has a comfortable pace they naturally follow when lifting weights. When you change that pace, it challenges your body in an entirely different manner. By using a smartphone metronome app like MetroTimer, you can set a specific pace for each repetition to get a totally different workout, using the same exercises you are already using.
Here are three suggested paces to put to the test:
Slow: 45 Beats Per Minute
It is easy to think going slower means going easier, but moving resistance slower can actually be even more difficult. By slowing down the pace of each repetition, you increase intensity and decrease momentum.
Set your metronome for 45 beats per minute. In a very robotic fashion, only move the resistance when the metronome beeps, making sure to move in a full range of motion. Move the weight up on the first beep and back down on the next beep. If your exercise has several movements, like a burpee, you will perform each separate movement to the beat. Force yourself to stick with the pace and not get ahead of the tempo. Continue for a predetermined number of repetitions or for a set amount of time.
Medium: 90 Beats Per Minute
This pace will likely feel normal and natural. However, after doing the exercise for a few repetitions at a slow pace, even a normal tempo can become more challenging.
Set your metronome for 90 beats per minute. Begin each movement at the beat, staying with the tempo for the same repetitions or time.
Fast: 135 Beats Per Minute
The faster tempo will be extremely difficult to keep up with and will challenge your endurance, power, speed, and coordination. Try your best to stay with the set pace. Depending on the exercise, you may not be able to do each repetition in a complete full range of motion, but do your best.
Sample Metronome Workout:
For a sculpting workout, do each bodyweight exercise for ten repetitions slow, ten repetitions medium, and ten repetitions fast. Take little to no rest between exercises, resting only after all three paces are done. Turn the same workout into more of a conditioning circuit by doing all the slow exercises first, followed by the medium-paced exercises and finishing with the fast exercises. Take little to no rest in between exercises during this entire workout to increase intensity even more.
Simple Metronome Full Body Workout
10 Push Ups Slow
10 Push Ups Medium
10 Push Ups Fast
10 Sit Ups Slow
10 Sit Ups Medium
10 Sit Ups Fast
10 Burpees Slow
10 Burpees Medium
10 Burpees Fast