Masheen

Sets and reps

Tempo

Also called rep tempo, lifting tempo, movement tempo, 3-1-1-0

Tempo is how fast you move through each part of a rep, counted in seconds and written as four numbers: down, pause, up, pause.

TopBottom3Down1Pause1Up0PauseOne rep: 5 seconds under load
Lower the bar for 3 seconds. A squat at 3-1-1-0: three seconds down, one second at the bottom, one second up, no pause at the top. Five seconds a rep.

In plain words

Four numbers, in seconds, for one rep: the lowering, the pause at the bottom, the lifting, the pause at the top. They tell you how fast to move. A 2021 review by Wilk and colleagues describes this notation, written 2/0/3/0, in that order. The numbers always start with the lowering, even in a lift that begins by going up, such as a deadlift or a pull-up. That catches people out. A 2015 meta-analysis of eight studies found similar muscle growth across reps lasting from half a second to eight seconds. Some coaches write three numbers and leave the top pause off, and separators vary. This glossary writes four, with dashes.

An example

Squat at 3-1-1-0. You take three seconds to sit down into the squat, hold one second at the bottom, take one second to stand up, and go straight into the next rep with no pause at the top. That is five seconds a rep, so a set of 8 reps lasts 40 seconds under the bar.

Often confused with

Time under tension Tempo is the speed of one rep; time under tension is the seconds a whole set lasts.
Time under tension Time under tension is the number of seconds a set lasts while the muscle is working: the seconds per rep times the reps.
Eccentric The eccentric is the lowering half of a rep, in which the muscle lengthens under the weight.
Rep A rep is one complete movement of an exercise: the weight travels down and back up once, or up and back down once.
Range of motion Range of motion is how far a joint moves during a rep, from the start position to the end.

Sources

  1. Wilk, Zajac, Tufano 2021. The influence of movement tempo during resistance training on muscular strength and hypertrophy responses: a review. Sports Med 51(8):1629–1650 Read
  2. Schoenfeld, Ogborn, Krieger 2015. Effect of repetition duration during resistance training on muscle hypertrophy. Sports Med 45(4):577–585 Read

Updated . How these pages are researched and corrected: editorial policy. Every term in the glossary.