Our slow motion exercise in New Orleans in an effective, efficient method for maximizing your time in the gym. In a nutshell: you can turbo-boost your fitness routine by slowing down your movement. With proper personal training, slow motion exercise typically only requires 20 to 30 minute sessions, once or twice a week.
“There’s a basic principle in muscle physiology: your muscles respond better to the intensity, or how hard you exercise, not the duration, or how long you exercise,” says SMX owner and trainer Emile H. Tujague III. “You can work out hard or you can work out long, but you can’t work out hard for very long. You can’t sprint a marathon ….”
Often, when you watch someone lifting weights in a gym, you’ll notice they’re essentially “throwing” the weights up and “dropping” the weights down more than actually “lifting” or “lowering” the weights. They’re allowing certain aspects of physics (momentum, inertia, and gravity) to do much of the work for them instead of truly engaging, and therefore stimulating their muscle fibers. Unfortunately, their “perceived” goal is to make the weight move, but the real goal in weight training isn’t just moving the weight; the goal is to fatigue and challenge the targeted muscles. That is precisely why we put so much emphasis on slow motion strength training in New Orleans during our training sessions. Depending on the specific exercise and range of movement involved, we instruct our clients to take approximately 10 seconds to lift the weight and another 5-10 seconds to lower the weight. By moving slowly, you’re not allowing inertia to carry the weight up or using gravity to let the weight crash down during the lowering phase of the movement. Our philosophy of slow motion strength training removes these forces from the equation during your workout. This enhanced and more complete muscle fiber stimulation ensures that you’re not simply “spinning your wheels.” This high-quality exercise stimulus will lead to greater results far quicker than more traditional lifting methods.
This is a two-fold explanation: 1) how long it takes to train per session, and 2) how frequently we recommend training. We believe – and basic muscle physiology principles state – that the best way to stimulate a muscle is by short, intense bouts of exercise. Not in long, drawn-out workouts, which simply can’t be as intense. Ideally, a resistance training workout should only last 20 to 30 minutes. Longer workouts are typically less intense and can release catabolic hormones (which we don’t want). When it comes to exercise, “more” is not necessarily “better.” Working out is merely a method of stimulating your results. Your actual gains or improvements occur when your body “recovers” from the exercise. If you exercise before your muscles are completely recovered from a bout of exercise, you’re just … beating a dead horse. You need to find the right “dose” of exercise for you. Too little exercise limits your progress, but too much or too frequent exercise doesn’t allow your body to recover properly and may hinder your progress as well. The ideal frequency of your training may change over time based on things like your specific genetics or how intensely you train. Our clients typically train only once or twice per week, with only a handful ever training more frequently than that. The best way to know how frequently you should train is through very detailed and accurate record keeping. Your personal trainer at SMX will always monitor your training. Once a fair amount of data is compiled by your trainer, we can dial in and fine-tune how frequently and what intensities are ideal for you to maximize your results.
Contrary to popular belief, most injuries in a gym are not caused by “too much weight” (although it is certainly possible). Most gym-related injuries are caused by too much FORCE, not too much weight. Remember: F=MxA (Force = Mass x Acceleration). If you can reduce the Acceleration, you will reduce the Force that your body is exposed to. This greatly reduces the risk of injury. It isn’t necessarily the weight that causes injury, but the person’s “behavior” with the weight that determines the level of safety. With SMX’s slow motion exercise in New Orleans, we lift and lower weight so deliberately, so slowly, that our protocol is one of the safest resistance training programs available.
We not only offer a superior training protocol, SMX also uses state-of-the-art training tools. The majority of our equipment is MEDX Rehabilitative Exercise Equipment, one of the most respected and technologically-advanced fitness, sports, and medical/rehabilitation equipment brands. MedX products are developed through decades of experience and millions of dollars in independent, university-based research. MedX equipment achieves training efficiency through resistance curves matched to tested and proven strength profiles. They operate at a very low level of friction and offer a choice of resistance in 2-pound increments, ensuring a weight that is just right – not too heavy and not too light – for rapid and steady progress. We have also incorporated select Nautilus equipment. Nautilus is considered the gold standard in fitness and a cornerstone of the modern commercial gym.
