I just finished reading the book and am really excited to start. It really does seem too good to be true that you only need to train once a week for about 20 minutes but the super slow lifting until muscle fatigue/failure makes good sense. Basically you lift to the count of ten, don't lock out and lower to the count of ten and do not pause. You need to do the weight where you totally fatigue the muscle in under 8 reps and when you are at the fatigue point, continue pushing for a count of 10. It supposedly works the entire muscle - all the deep layers - more so than conventional, quick reps.

Any of you guys tried or heard of this method? What do you think about it?

Thanks for your feedback,

You might be interested in checking out these two threads:

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28187

and

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43660

They talk about the same kind of lifting plan as you're describing.

I trained 2 clients last fall who were very insistent that they wanted to do that plan. We worked together twice a week for 6 weeks. They really didn't need a trainer to do it, and I really tried to talk them out of doing it by the book. However, they really wanted to try it. So we did.

Both of them have since returned to me as clients, and are now training MY way. The conclusions that they reached are that 1) some of the exercises in the book really don't work "super-slow". In particular, crunches and hyperextensions; 2) depending on your size, some of the machines specified in the book won't work for YOU. One of the women I trained is 5'1" and is just too tiny to use a standard bicep curl machine. It will not adjust for her. We had to switch to using a bar or cable curls. 3) Some of the exercises in the book are the least effective for training the muscles that are being targeted. 4) It is really boring and excruciatingly painful for the payoff.

Both women did end up stronger. Neither lost weight or inches, but they weren't dieting. Both agreed that a more traditional approach to weight training, combined with cardio and functional fitness exercises would have yielded more measurable results. Since they have done both, they are speaking from experience.

I read the book and tried most of it before I trained them. The author requests that you send him notes about how you did or any suggestions or changes you would make. I got the feeling that he really didn't try it out on very many people.

If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

Mel

I am so glad I decided to post here about the plan....while it sounded great, somewhere deep down inside kept thinking something about it just wasn't right. I do intend to follow a couple of things he suggested (like the count to ten while the muscle is fatigued and slower reps...albeit not a count of 10, but slower that the conventional throw it up and slam it down). I will do the conventional pyramid method and train each body part twice a week along with interval cardio training.

Meg, thanks so much for the links...especially that article you posted. It was great and also the link to burnthefat.com - very useful info!

Mel, thanks for your feedback as well....I am so glad you are speaking from personal experience. That really hits it home for me.

I haven't read the "Power of Ten" but I have read about super slow lifting before and sometimes you'll see peopole at the gym but more often then not you see the super quick lifters I am more of a moderate speed type myself.

I just wanted to comment in general though is that sometimes I think some people seem to miss the point about weight lifting. I do weight lifting, not only to build muscle so that I can build my metabolism and get stronger but because it burns calories and is exercise! Sometimes when I'm lifting weights, I am doing some major sweating, other times I am sweating but not at much. If I only did 30 minutes a week, sure I'd burn calories for those 20-30 minutes but what about the rest of the week? Would I be stuck doing cardio? eek!

Anyway, that is why I wouldn't be interested in a program like that for myself.