Is movement speed important?

When you read a weight lifting magazine or any type of fitness magazine, hell even doing a search online, you’ll likely to come across an array of opinions on this topic. I’d go as far as to say you can find scientific journals on it too (I have)

What I’m saying here like so many others is only going to be my opinion on the matter.

Years ago, a friend of mine brought to my attention the super slow protocols created by Ken Hutchins which evolved from Arthur Jones’s protocols and ideology. For years this way of training made sense to me I even got some good results from it too. I even went and kept this idea when I became a personal trainer and health coach. My clients got good results. Now my friends, I am not saying this is the be all end all way of training. As the saying goes “There is more than one way to skin a cat”.

Throughout my years of training I would study everything I could get my hands on to find the ‘ultimate’ protocol or movement speed. It wasn’t until I was sitting in a coffee shop looking online at gymnastic training and how huge some of these guys got without weights (It’s madness ha) then I remembered how I trained some of my very first clients and didn’t have them follow any kind of speed protocol, all I had done was make sure they stopped and started as controlled as possible and made sure that there was constant progression for them.

Most people, when they are training to become a personal trainer, you come across the American college of sports medicine (ACSM) guidelines. It is advised that you move at a 2/1/2 cadence. What this means (for those in the back) is that your concentric or positive movement takes 2 seconds, you then hold for 1 second and the eccentric or negative is also 2 seconds. Most gym goers throw the weights or their body around at a ridiculous speed, which will produce some kind of injury, then you can’t train for weeks or months, there goes your progress. As a foundation this is actually a great starting point. There is some debate about how fast you have to move and how many sets you need to do and so on. Drew Baye likes 3/3 or 4/4 cadence, and no, I’m not saying this is wrong, in fact this is a pretty tough way to train, my normal cadence through my own workouts is actually 3/1/3 I personally feel I get the most out of my workouts this way, my sets will vary depending on what I am trying to achieve. Also some thing’s will depend on how much time I have too. If I only have 30minutes until a client or whatever I’ll bang out a few super Slow workouts or Drew’s 3×3 style workout, whatever I go and do I wouldn’t move any faster than what has been set out by the ACSM guidelines.

I think a person should play around with their cadence during their workouts see what fits your needs. I wouldn’t recommend going any faster than 2/1/2 get that control and you’ll see some good results.

Photo by Keiji Yoshiki on Pexels.com

If you have been training for years, drop the weight a little and slow down, trust me that weight will feel heavier than what you was lifting before. Your main objective is to not injure yourself. How ever fast you want to move if you can manage to stop and start with as much control as humanly possible, this means no bouncing or jerking in and out of the movements, you should see some vast improvements in your strength and possibly size too.

I see so many “wannabe” body builders or crossfit wannabes moving at such a ridiculous speed, which, lets be real is going to cause some serious joint damage in that person’s future. I myself love doing crossfit style exercises and watching it online, but I have to change them slightly so I won’t hurt myself (being sick is fine though ha)

Pro crossfitters and body builders are professional athletes. Both are amazing to watch. They get into their sports knowing the risk/reward element of the sport, I mean this goes for every type of sport really. The average gym attendees should not be putting themselves at risk of injury unless their goal is to be a pro athlete then ok, risk/reward. BUT not everyone in your gym is a trainer or pro athlete so ignore their “advice’ and take care of your body and listen to the actual professionals. You’re there to be fit and healthy not in and out of hospital beds.

So should movement speed be important? Well if you’re about getting hurt at the gym then no. If you want to be injury free, fit and healthy then answer is a strong yes.