I’ve been playing around with a new workout idea the last week or so and it’s been successful enough that I thought I’d share it. I call it “1,2,3” and it’s a general approach that you can take to just about any exercise(s) you can think of. It can be used as part of a workout or, as I experimented with today, your whole workout. I call it 1,2,3 because it’s literally that simple. 1,2,3 refers to the number of reps you do in a minute and can be used in literally countless ways.

It’s an offshoot of the concepts of time under tension, isokinetic contraction and one minute sets. In this approach every set takes one minute and is a done with a constant speed. This is nothing new as people have been playing around with these concepts for a long time with good results. What I’ve been doing is taking the ideas and giving it a new twist.

1-2-3

1-2-3 is how many reps you do in sets 1,2, and 3.

Set 1 – 1 rep takes one minute. This means 30 seconds to go one way and 30 to return to the start. This is SUPER slow and should be a constant speed the whole time.

Set 2 – 2 reps in a minute. Each rep takes 30 seconds to complete, meaning 15 seconds up and 15 down. Still slow but not super slow.

Set 3 – 3 reps in a minute. Each rep takes 20 seconds, 10 up and 10 down.

Pretty straight forward. You can use it for one exercise or several, your choice. If you choose your exercise/weight correctly, it is VERY difficult to do. As an example, this is what I did today…

Pull, Push, Squat

*1 minute rest between sets

1 pullup

1 pushup

1 squat

2 pullups

2 pushups

2 squats

3 pullups

3 pushups

3 squats

4 pullups

4 pushups

4 squats

12 sets totaling 30 reps (10 each exercise), which took me about 25 minutes to complete and was a nice overall workout. If you haven’t tried a one minute pushup or pullup I suggest you give it a shot. The key is to go really slow. If you can do 1, then try the 2 rep set, and so forth. You might be surprised at the workout you can get in a few minutes with just a few reps. The slow speed really challenges your strength through the entire range of motion and is great for developing muscular control. There are dozens of variations off this concept I’ll share as I experiment and develop more ideas.

If you give it a shot let me know how it goes!