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Outside Magazine December 2002

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Bodywork: Slow Training
What's the Hurry? (Cont.)


	Photograph by Mark Hooper, Prop tortoise (this page and previous) styled by Ann Wilson/Red Chair Props

THE IDEA FOR SUPER SLOW came in 1982, when Ken Hutchins, a 50-year-old entrepreneur from Conroe, Texas, pioneered the technique after conducting a study at the University of Florida Medical School. Armed with $3.5 million from the Nautilus Corporation, Hutchins sought to devise a weight-training regimen that increased the bone density of retirement-age women who had osteoporosis by building their muscles and improving their circulation without harming their joints. On a hunch, Hutchins had the women lift relatively heavy weights very slowly over extended periods. It worked. Some of the women in the study actually dispensed with their walkers and took up ballroom dancing again.

Convinced he'd hit on a breakthrough program suitable for all ages, Hutchins published a 1989 how-to manual, Super Slow: The Ultimate Exercise Protocol, and began building his own custom exercise equipment.

The word spread, and by the dawn of the 21st century athletes of all types (and fitness trend-watchers) had embraced the idea. At the elite level, 20-year-old professional trials biker Jeremy VanSchoonhoven took up slow training during last year's off-season. After three months of slo-mo lifting, VanSchoonhoven had put on seven pounds of lean muscle. "This sounds ridiculous, but my whole workout is only about 15 minutes long, once a week," he says. "But now I can compete longer at a top level, and I make fewer mistakes late in competitions." His increased strength helped him place 16th—the highest finish ever for an American—at this year's UCI World Championships.

Last summer, Jason Watson, 30, a Washington State Patrol SWAT team member, took home seven swimming medals from the Can-Am Police-Fire Games after slow training, sometimes only once a week, under Greg Anderson of Seattle's Ideal Exercise. While such results are tempting, beginners should take note: This efficiency involves a sadistic level of intensity. At first, Watson had to pop a Tums before each workout just to keep from puking.

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