Power of 10 - Slow cadence weight training secrets revealed

I think maybe I should have named this blog the Human Guinea Pig Review, given that so many of the non-fiction/how-to books I read inspire me to shrug my shoulders and say, "What the heck, I'll try anything once."

So it is with Power of 10 - The Once a Week Slow Motion Fitness Book by Adam Zickerman. The book's been out since 2004, but I just checked it out the other week, having read a hint on a web site about slow-cadence weight lifting and wanting to give it a try.

I'm just back from my third session in twelve days (Zickerman encourages newbies to work out once every four days as they get the hang of things), and am feeling that familiar rubber-chicken feeling in my arms, legs, and stomach muscles that I got from the weight-lifting class I took with a former Marine, BUT it took less than half the time.

To early to tell yet what the results will be, but the workout is strenuous. You're supposed to keep at a particular exercise until your muscles fail - basically, until you can't push the weight any more. The first time I tried this, I could still push the weight with my muscles, but was getting a blinding headache and feeling as though I might pass out. So I decided that discretion was the better part of valor and took that as my sign to stop and move on to the next exercise.

This program might be better for people who are already fairly fit, and want to maintain that level of fitness without sacrificing hour after hour per week to the gym gods.

For me, I suspect I'll need to supplement this with some cardio sessions, at least at first. But the book gets bonus points for very explicitly explaining the exercises. Zickerman even shows the "cheating points" - places in a particular exercise where bad form can impede results. And his writing style is breezy and readable and substantially less annoying than the average perky aerobics instructor.