On tempo prescriptions
Published: 2022-04-23
(Last updated 2024-11-09)
Using a tempo prescription is a way to describe the tempo of a lift. Traditionally it’s been included in the name of the lift but Ian King, and later Charles Poliquin, created proper tempo prescriptions with their own columns in a typical training plan. I’ll explain them in this article, present an improved version, and briefly discuss their value or lack thereof.
Background
The first tempo prescription I’m aware of was introduced by Ian King. King used a 3-digit system, describing the eccentric phase (or ‘lowering’), a possible pause at the bottom, and the concentric phase (or ‘lifting’).
Example, King style tempo: 303
Using the squat as an example with the above tempo description, the lifter would take 3 seconds to squat down, make no pause (0 seconds) at the bottom, and take 3 seconds to stand up.
While King might have been the first to actually write something like this into his plans, various tempos have been used in training for a long time. Soviet Olympic weightlifting litterature is filled with exercises where pauses and slow lowerings are used (see Medvedev’s programs in particular). Before that Korean pressers, back when the press was an Olympic event, were known to press as explosively as possible. Certainly it couldn’t have escaped any serious trainee at nearly any stage in history that lowering a weight slowly feels different than dropping it.
Back to formal tempo prescriptions. Charles Poliquin, inspired by King, later introduced a 4-digit system for tempo. The idea was similar to King’s, with the difference that you now have a number to prescribe a possible pause at the top of the lift.
Example, Poliquin style tempo: 3032
Again using the squat as an example, the lifter would here lower the weight for the duration of 3 seconds, not pause in the bottom, take 3 seconds to stand up, and finally wait for 2 seconds before doing the next rep. As you can see, Poliquin’s tempo prescription was a solution aimed at how to deal with reps.
A more complete tempo prescription
While Poliquin’s solution is more descriptive than King’s, it still lacks much instruction that could be useful. I will present a more complete tempo prescription. I will explain some basic notation before we dig into examples.
1 (one) is the default number for “lift as you would” without tempo, sort of similar to 0 in older notation. Think of it as "natural" tempo.
0 (zero) means as fast as possible. Traditionally x is used for this but since numbers are less ambiguous and we won’t be moving faster than the speed of light, 0 is considered the better option.
/ (slash) shows a reversal of direction, such as pressing the bar after lowering it to the chest in a bench press or lowering the bar in a deadlift. It’s irrelevant if the lift starts with a lowering- or a lifting phase, / always indicates reversal of motion. If the lift is only lifting or only lowering we can omit the right side of the slash.
() (parenthesis) indicates stop/pause and is only used when there’s a need for it, that is to say, there’s no default number for bottom of a lift or top of a lift. Also we don't add any tempo after a pause unless it's special. A natural tempo of 1 is implied.
: (colon) indicates a change of tempo, acceleration or decceleration. The number of the left is the initial tempo and the number of the right the target tempo.
Now for some examples, I will again use the squat as our lift.
Squat: 1 / 1
The tempo is simply lift like you normally would, i.e., don’t make an effort to slow down.
4s lowering phase: 4 / 1
3s down, 3s up: 3 / 3
The two examples above show how we can manipulate the lowering- and/or the lifting phases.
3s pause squat: 1(3) / 1
(3) indicates the 3s pause. It’s placed before the slash because the reversal of the motion hasn’t happened yet.
As you can see I write spaces before and after the slash to make it clear that's where the reversal of the motion happens. You can write it anyway you want: more compact 1(3)/1, more spaced 1 (3) / 1, etc. This is just my preference.
Speed squat: 1 / 0
Think Westside-style. Lower like you normally would, explode up.
CAT squat: 1 / 1:0
Focus on accelerating on the way up (as opposed to simply “exploding”) starting from normal tempo to as fast as possible.
3 stop, 3s pause squat: 1(3)(3) / 1(3)
This could only be described as pain, I guess.
Lower, pause, lower 4s, pause, reverse, pause, accelerate up: 1(3)4(3) / 1(3)1:0
Now this might just seem silly but it's to prove a point: we can change the tempo after any pause. Where did the 4 and the 1:0 come from? Remember, a natural tempo is implied which is why we didn't care about numbers after our pauses before. Now the numbers after the pause do matter so we include them. Don't be frightened by this example, it's (hopefully) not something you would see in the wild. The most common tempo prescription would be something like 2 / 4 which is very understandable for anyone.
As you can see, this tempo prescription is much more complete than the two before, allowing us to describe the tempo of the lift in much greater detail. The slash is more readable, we can make note of acceleration, as well as include as many pauses as we like. The only thing it doesn’t really describe is where to pause. If that’s important you’ll have to specify it in the description of the lift itself.
Comparison table
| Everlifting | King | Poliquin | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 / 3 | 303 | 3030 | 3s down, 3s up |
| 3 / 3(2) | - | 3032 | 3s down, 3s up, 2s at top |
| 3(2) / 3 | 323 | 3230 | 3s down, 2s pause, 3s up |
| 1 / 0 | 10x | 10x0 | Explosive up |
| 1 / 1:0 | - | - | Accelerating up |
| 1(3)(3) / 1 | - | - | Two 3s pauses on way down |
Should you use tempo prescriptions?
We have come along way from Soviet textbook’s “pause at knee”, via the tempo descriptions of Ian King and Charles Poliquin, and finally created a more complete system. But the question should be asked, are these descriptions actually useful?
I rarely make use of tempo prescriptions in my training programs, rather opting for something like “Squat, with 4s lowering”. It’s more readable to the average person and lifters tend to screw up reading training programs as it is - no need to confuse them further!
While it might have worked well for Poliquin to count tempo up, pause and down, it’s just too distracting to a lot of people and I can’t even remember the last time I prescribed something like a 4s up, 4s down lift at all. If you do it often, then perhaps educating your lifters on tempo prescriptions is a good idea, otherwise I don’t see much point.
With that said, in my view this is mostly a theoretical exercise rather than something I implement practically. Perhaps it will be useful in some type of computer program, and indeed, some of the decisions for the notation of my improved tempo prescription reflects that. As of now it’s mostly me exercising my mind rather than my athletes. However, if you're the person who use tempo prescriptions go ahead and use the Everlifting system.
TL;DR
- Tempo prescriptions are used to explain the tempo of the lift. Old school way is to include it in the lift description, for instance “Squat with slow lowering”.
- Ian King created a specific way to define tempo using a 3-digit system. Charles Poliquin later improved upon it adding a fourth digit.
- I’ve presented an improved version, allowing for things such as acceleration descriptions and arbitrary pauses.
- Despite the above, I prefer to be old school when writing programs for my lifters, simply stating “Bench press, with 3s pause” or “Squat, with 4s lowering”.
NOTE: In the original article published in 2022 I used slightly different notation. -> (arrow) for reversal and _ (underscore) for pauses. I also made use of additional numbers to indicate the start after a pause which is now implied. Still, the semantics are the same, this simply de-cluttered things a bit. If you have ideas on how to further improve the notation, send me an email.