I recently listened to a podcast in which Al Coleman was interviewed. It was the High Intensity Business podcast and Al talked quite a bit about using a metronome for workouts. He advocated a 3/3 cadence.
I tried it with a 10-10-10 workout but with a slight modification. I had the metronome set to a 3/4 musical signature which gave me a “click, click, beep” type sound. My goal was to try to be as smooth and steady as possible and make the turnarounds perfect. Given that the total time per rep was 6 seconds I used 6 reps for the middle part to keep it in the range of what Dr. Darden recommends (30 seconds). In order to keep together with the metronome I did 9 or 12 second negatives so I was pretty close to 10-10-10. I used the same exercises I’ve been doing and moved quickly between machines to get the metabolic effect.
My impression from the first workout was that I really liked it. I thought my form was excellent and my training partner concurred.
Has anyone else tried using a metronome on a 30-10-30 or 10-10-10 type workout? Also, does anyone have an opinion on what Al discussed in his interview? He used to be with Renex and was a strict SuperSlow advocate. The reasons he gave for switching to a faster speed made a lot of sense to me.
I haven’t tried a metronome or listened to that podcast, but I have been reading his substack, which I have enjoyed a lot (I can’t get histrionics out of my mind since @simon_hecubus used it to describe a quote from it I posted it however lol).
He hasn’t mentioned a metronome, but I think I will listen to that podcast out of curiosity. I do notice he is charging a pretty penny for the course he is offering. And I do mean pretty.
I’m always curious when I read Darden advocates; how do their physiques look? Would you mind posting a photograph? Cut off your head, be anonymous, don’t care, only want to see what results this type of training produces. Not trying to be weird but, if I’m going to change the way I approach training, I want to feel I’m chasing a worthwhile goal. The appeal of this, in part, are the super-short training sessions.
I’ve dabbled in 30-10-30, 10-10-10, 10-30, etc. I’ve also used a metronome but never 3-3 con/ecc- I’ve gone slower but it aggravates my bicep tendon when doing the concentric phase of the bench press. Maybe 3-3 would be the answer.
Compared with/to exactly who? PED users? Why don’t you silent us all by sharing a pic of your own physique, coupled with a description on how you obtained it? Now’s your chance to flatten the HITers!
I’ve used a metronome on 4/4, 30-10-30, 30-30-30 and 10-10-10. It’s a useful tool to establish a strict form on longer cadences, but I no longer use it on cadences less than 4 secs, as I don’t feel it’s absolutely necessary. When you’ve gotten used to 3/3 or 4/4 it just happens by itself. No need to overdo it.
My very first post on this board was my results with his program from the “New High Intensity Training”. I’ve progressed so far beyond the physiqueI had at this point and my training looks so wildly different from this now, but I enjoyed this routine when I did it.
It was the “Do the Opposite” Routine from “The New High Intensity Training” book which I believe is still available on Amazon. The routine varies a bit every couple weeks but for the most part it’s full body 3x a week, 1 set to failure on 8-10 movements. The only part I didn’t like was the Super Slow Training block. It’s just really boring and I had zero enthusiasm Training that way. I’d recommend either repeating a previous training block or doing the same routine but with a normal tempo.
Al has gone “off the reservation” because he wants to differentiate himself. There is no advantage to shortening rep duration/increasing repetition frequency to that degree.
Stick with cadences between 5/5 and 15/15 if you want to minimize risk of injury and maximize efficiency of muscular loading and control over body positioning and movement.
Don’t hold your breath. These clowns almost never have anything to back up their talk with. Many either don’t look like they’ve ever been in a gym themselves, or they’re the fat guys who mistake their bulk for muscle, and never get lean because they’re afraid to find out how small they really are.
Funny you should say this as @OTay and I have been asking most who advocate this training style (including the op) to post a photograph of themselves so we can see how it’s working for them but have received nothing but excuses.
As Pettersson said earlier in this thread, why don’t you post a picture of yourself? You might want to work on your reading comprehension while you’re at it. I didn’t “advocate” a particular training style. I merely asked about using a metronome. Trying something based on Dr. Darden’s recommendation is not the same thing as trying to get someone else to try it. How you train is none of my business.
