Vary the tempo of each phase of your lifts to develop more
muscle and increase strength. Tempo refers to the amount of time
you spend raising and lowering the weight. It is an essential
component of program development and is just as important as
exercise selection or picking a set and repetition scheme. For
example, a recent study in the International Journal of Sports
Medicine found that if you don’t control repetition speed, you
might not produce adaptation—meaning no results! Researchers
compared the effect of bench press training using an explosive
tempo with a bench press program that allowed trainees to self-
select tempo. After three weeks, the fast tempo group increased
10 percent in maximal bench press strength—very impressive gains
in only six sessions! The other group that self-selected lifting
speed did not gain ANY strength. The point is to always have a
plan for the tempo of your lifts since different tempos make the
body adapt in very different ways. For instance, if you lift
moderate to heavy