Muscles worked
Your chest, triceps and front shoulders do the same job as in standard push-ups, but spend longer under tension. The slow lowering and the pause at the bottom make each rep last several seconds, and without a bounce your chest and triceps have to start the press from a standstill. Your trunk also holds the line for longer per set, so your abs and glutes tire sooner than usual. A variation that normally feels easy can become properly hard without extra weight.
Common mistakes
- The pause turns into a rest. If you lay your chest on the floor and relax, the point is lost. Stop a centimetre or two above the floor with your whole body braced, and press from there.
- You hold your breath through the whole rep. Slow reps invite breath-holding, and then you run out of energy fast. Breathe in on the way down and out as you press up.
- The variation is too hard for the tempo. A push-up you can do 15 of at normal speed may only give you five with a slow lowering and a pause. Choose an easier variation instead, such as hands on a bench, so the tempo holds for the whole set.
Variations and alternatives
- Push-ups at your usual pace suit sets with more reps or endurance work.
- Knee push-ups are a good place to learn the tempo before you can manage it on your toes.
- Deficit push-ups make it harder through a deeper movement rather than a slower one.
- Plyo push-ups are the opposite, built on speed, and alternate well with the tempo version between sessions.
Sets and reps
A tried and tested pattern is three seconds down, a one to two second pause at the bottom and a controlled press up. At that pace, 5 to 10 reps per set over 3 to 4 sets is often enough to build muscle. Note the tempo next to your reps, or your sessions cannot be compared. How sets, reps and rest fit together is explained under sets and reps.
Progress in this order: more reps at the same tempo, then a longer lowering of up to five seconds, and only then a harder variation. That is progressive overload with time doing the job of weight.