The Power-of-Ten Workout
Minimal time investment for optimal results.
By Raphael Danziger
As I wrote in a previous Medium story, I’m an enthusiastic outdoors guy. At age 80, I average more than 13,000 steps per day, run up 350–400 outdoor stairs daily — all in my beautiful San Francisco Bay Area senior community — and do two 20-mile bicycle rides per week with my cycling group. All these activities keep me in good shape, and I greatly enjoy doing them.
Yet something is missing in this picture: strength exercises. I need a strong upper body to perform daily functions like carrying heavy groceries from the carport up 27 stairs to my co-op. All the walking, stair-climbing, and cycling in the world won’t prevent the slow deterioration of my upper-body muscles unless I exercise them as well. Enter the gym.
Fortunately, our community has a beautiful, top-of-the-line gym. That’s where I do my upper-body workouts.
About ten years ago, a trainer in a previous gym in Northern Virginia taught me the Power-of-Ten method. In every strength exercise, you go ten seconds up and ten seconds down. The idea is that this slow-motion workout gets much deeper into your muscles than the usual, much faster exercises.
Here’s what the trainer taught me: Pick seven or eight exercises that work all your major muscle groups; do only one set; in each exercise, go ten seconds up and ten seconds down for six reps; you must keep going until total exhaustion; if you can do more than six reps, increase the weight, and decrease it if you can’t do six reps; of course, as in all exercises, you must maintain excellent form and engage your abs. Last but not least, wait a week between sessions — that’s how long it takes the muscles to recover from a Power-of-Ten workout.
Combined with my outdoor workouts, the Power-of-Ten method has revolutionized my life. As is well known, muscles slowly deteriorate with age. But thanks to the Power-of-Ten technique, my upper-body muscles are stronger today than ten years ago. I started working out at gyms three decades ago, but I have made more progress during the last decade than during the previous two decades.
I use exercise machines rather than free weights because they are less likely to cause injuries. However, the Power-of-Ten principles work equally well with free weights.
Here are the machines I use during each Power-of-Ten session; I cite the weights I lift with each machine as a baseline to motivate the readers, most of whom are much younger than me, to lift more—much more—than me.
· Bench press — chest, shoulder, and tricep muscles (I currently lift 105 pounds).
· Back extension — multiple muscle groups in the lower back, hips, butt, and shoulders (my own weight plus 25 pounds).
· Crunch machine — abdominal core muscles (345 pounds).
· Pulldown — mostly the lats in the back and other muscle groups like the biceps (120 pounds).
· Chest press — pectorals (chest), deltoids (shoulders), and triceps (90 pounds).
· Standing tricep curls — isolates the triceps (84 pounds).
· Standing bicep curls — isolates the biceps (90 pounds).
I also use three machines that provide lower-body benefits I can’t get outdoors: leg extension, which uses quadricep muscles located at the front of the thighs (175 pounds); REACT, Rapid Eccentric Anaerobic Core Training, which helps improve lower-body and core strength while also increasing endurance and stability; and the challenging step mill, on which I climb 300–400 stairs against very high resistance.
There is a downside to my Power-of-Ten workouts at the gym. They are excruciatingly arduous. As of the very first rep, you must be challenged to get to total exhaustion after just six reps. If the first rep is easy, it means that you can do more than six reps, so you must increase the weight. Thus, you suffer from the first to the last rep in each exercise. That’s why I call the gym, as wonderful as it is, my “torture chamber.” But unless I am sick or away, I never miss a weekend of a gym workout.
Here’s the good part: Given that this workout method requires a whole week for the muscles to recover, I go to the gym only once a week. Since I dislike working out indoors, this is a HUGE benefit for me. It gets better: As I wrote earlier, this method requires only one set per exercise; that’s a considerable time saver. Also, my previous trainer explained that the ultra-slow down movement takes care of both warmups and cooldowns, saving even more time. Indeed, I haven’t had any acid muscle pain, which often accompanies avoidance of warmups and cooldowns.
Bottom line: Investing less than 45 minutes per week (including rest between sets), my upper body muscles keep getting stronger despite my advanced age. Life is good!
DISCLAIMER: My entire academic and professional career has focused on the history and politics of the Middle East. I have no professional expertise in fitness or health, so I can’t scientifically explain why the Power-of-Ten method is so effective — at least for me. Nor can I say that it works for everyone. I would recommend that before embarking on this demanding technique, consult with your trainer or physician.
