Taking ‘SuperSlow’ approach to exercising

The benefits of exercise are undisputable. Documented research shows that it improves people’s health, and also makes people feel and look better.

But achieving those benefits requires time and energy to put into an exercise routine, making visits to a gym a few times a week, and then spending about an hour each time to increase the heart rate and work up a sweat.

However, that’s not the case for those who employ the “SuperSlow” method to achieve physical improvements. The time demand for exercise drops substantially, as proved by Russ Wakefield, who says he guides 40 to 60 clients in this method of exercise at his Trigger-Point Personal Training in Toledo, Ohio.

“My total workout time is about three hours a year,” Wakefield said about his own routine that requires him to put in less than 10 minutes a week, about the same amount of time most put just into a warm-up.

“This is a form of exercise that’s precise and doesn’t allow the muscles a chance to recover” in the same session, added Wakefield, a personal trainer since 1975.

In SuperSlow, the muscles are exerted in slow resistance training; there’s nothing fast about any of it. After these intense sessions — maybe 30 minutes each for beginners, then around 15 minutes or less once a person gets into shape — people don’t return to work out for several days to allow their muscles to recover. That’s why a routine is necessary only about once a week.

This type of exercise is contrary to what most people believe is required to achieve a healthy body. When many think of using weights to exercise and build muscles, the image is of someone doing a number of biceps curls or leg lifts in steady succession.

While there are other exercise routines that are similar but have different names, Wakefield said SuperSlow was developed almost three decades ago. He said there are only 50 studios like his and about 200 practitioners in the nation. Awareness, however, is increasing.

“They call us exercise geeks because we are so into the science end of it,” he said.

Wakefield learned about the method when he was 21 and recovering from tuberculosis.

Jerry Bell, 71, a client who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 11 years ago, said SuperSlow exercise has helped him.

“I have been able to maintain my strength,” Bell said.

Using several machines that work on all the major muscle groups, he does six or seven exercises in about 20 minutes.

“It helps my balance and keeps me a lot sharper,” Bell said.

Austin Bueter, a teenager who plays college baseball, believes SuperSlow exercise gives him an edge over his teammates.

Wakefield said: “All we do is about safety. We work slower because it lowers the force on your joints.”

He and another trainer, Beth Dunsmoor, adjust weightlifting principles to fit the age of the client. And while most exercise focuses on repetition, this method targets the amount of time a person is under weight load. For example, the personal trainer said that what his clients achieve in one set of exercises is what those in other routines might achieve in three sets.

“The idea is to make a person stronger, healthier and more fit without spending hours in the gym,” he said. “Why take hours to do what you can do in minutes?”