Imagine a gym where instead of the rapid repetitions, quick tricks and fancy footwork, you moved at half speed for half the time. You still huff and puff and you’ll see results. “Every moment of the exercise your muscle is under constant tension or a constant load, it’s a much higher quality stimulus therefore you get much more benefit from it,” says Emile Tujague Owner of SMX Training Studio.

Slow motion exercise only takes 20 to 30 minutes, once or twice a week. “There’s a basic principle in muscle physiology that states that your muscles respond better to the intensity or how hard you exercise, not the duration which is how long. You can work out hard or you can work out long but you can’t workout hard for very long, you can’t sprint a marathon you got to pick or choose.”

Ten seconds never felt so long. That’s the ideal length of each motion, ten seconds out, ten seconds in with enough weight that after about two minutes you reach temporary muscular failure. “Most of your benefit comes from lowering the weight. The positive stroke is when you lift, the negative is when you lower. Don’t get me wrong they’re both very important but if you had to pick or choose you would want to focus more on the negative, the lowering aspect. We’re not forced to pick and choose we can capitalize on both ends of the movement.”

Slow motion exercise is also celebrated for being safe. “Most of your injuries in the gym are actually caused by too much force, not too much weight. If you can reduce acceleration you’re going to reduce the force so although this activity is high in intensity its low in force therefore your risk of injury is greatly reduced,” says Tujague. That’s why clients of all ages and skill levels are taking it slow.