The Perfect Workout featured in Washington Post

Thanks to The Washington Post for featuring us in an article that helps spread the message about Slow Motion Strength Training and its amazing results associated with this scientifically proven method.


Here's the original article:

Slow-motion strength training is hard — and fast

By Rachel Pomerance Berl

One of the newest fitness studios in the D.C. area feels less like a gym and more like a physical therapist’s office. The Perfect Workout, which opened in August in Bethesda and Falls Church, offers clients personal training in a quiet, no-frills space filled with Nautilus equipment and framed testimonials (many from clients of an advanced age). It promises a complete workout in just two short sessions per week.

The drill: A high-intensity, low-impact program known as slow-motion strength training, in which gradually lifting and releasing weights without the aid of rest or momentum brings muscles to exhaustion. It’s extremely difficult. It’s also only 20 minutes.

Though The Perfect Workout, a California-based outfit founded in 1999, is new to the East Coast, the concept isn’t.

The Perfect Workout and other slow-motion training companies such as SuperSlow Zone, which has a location in Sterling, Va., and InForm Fitness, which has a studio in Leesburg, Va., cite principles outlined just over 30 years ago by fitness professional Ken Hutchins. In slowing down movements to safely train women with osteoporosis, Hutchins concluded that the technique builds muscle more effectively than conventional weight training, although others have contested this assertion.

The effectiveness of slow-motion strength training depends on the individual, according to Lee Jordan, a Florida trainer and spokesman for the American Council on Exercise, but it offers a broad range of people a safe and viable program.

Like high-intensity interval training, Jordan says, it seeks to remove the top barrier to exercise: time. But unlike high-intensity interval training (“by its very nature, it’s extreme,” he says), slow-motion strength training is accessible to anyone.

While advocates of slow-motion strength training claim it satisfies the need for cardiovascular activity, Jordan and other fitness experts argue that people require a mix of aerobic activity and strength training.

Still, the key to an exercise routine is sticking to that routine. And some clients say this program works.

“People love to hate this place,” says Nicole Gustavson, owner of Leesburg’s InForm Fitness. “But they keep coming back because they get results.”

At SuperSlow Zone in Sterling, Jannet Anmahian, 83, makes a show of exhaustion from her weight machine — sticking out her tongue and clasping her hands together in a sarcastic plea for help.

“I always complain,” she says, calling it “part of the game.”

Anmahian adds that “there are no words” to describe the value of this program, which she’s followed for more than 30 years and has no intention of stopping.

Mark Ello, 51, of Leesburg, began training at SuperSlow Zone in 2002 to shape up for his 20-year high school reunion. Since then, he reports better body composition plus lower blood sugar and cholesterol.

“It’s like a Chevy,” he says of the workout. “It’s not sexy, but it gets you from point A to point B.”


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Meet Kathryn Prickett, Personal Trainer at The Perfect Workout Carlsbad Studio

While a client at The Perfect Workout, Kathryn Prickett lost 17 pounds and gained strength. Now that she’s been a personal trainer Carlsbad since 2012, she says, “I love seeing clients gain a sense of confidence as their strength and fitness improves. It’s the greatest thing!”

Kathryn Prickett really understands and identifies with her clients. It’s easy since she is in the same age group of many of the clients and up until a couple years ago, she was a client herself at The Perfect Workout. After putting on about 17 pounds several years ago, she realized she needed to do something about it. In the past, Kathryn had done traditional weight training, and even had a Universal machine set up at home, but slow-motion strength training was a new concept to her. “It gave me quick strength,” she says. “I strength trained for six months before climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, and I almost ran up the mountain!” She also got back down to weighing 113 pounds.

After working out for a few years at The Perfect Workout, Kathryn decided she liked the idea of helping other people achieve their own goals in fitness. Certainly her passion for fitness and nutrition, a background in pharmaceutical chemistry and health sciences, and her own slow-motion strength training results were a perfect fit for becoming a trainer, and her clients are glad she did. Kathryn says, “The first thing clients usually notice is their muscles getting stronger, and then they begin to lose inches, usually in the hips and waist area. Their pants fit looser. Losing more weight only happens if they take the next step and really focus on their diet.”

Kathryn has had numerous success stories, including a client who came in for 24 sessions needing to lose a lot of weight. “The client worked very hard during her training and I definitely pushed her to stay focused and push to that point of muscle failure. She lost 10 pounds, and was so motivated by what we did that she lost another 10 pounds on her own.” Kathryn calls slow-motion strength training “a marriage between mind and body.” She listens to her clients, tries to understand their mental strengths and weaknesses and then works hard to push them physically past where they think they can go. “The learning curve in the beginning is tough, it takes a while. Once they get it, I’ll start pushing more. And it gets harder as the weights go up.”

Make no mistake, this is not a casual or typical workout. The results aren’t typical either, and Kathryn is proof of that. She continues to defy her age and keeps in great shape which certainly helps make all her world traveling adventures less difficult. Kathryn’s ongoing professional goal is to continue understanding more about nutrition and fitness, and to continue helping clients at The Perfect Workout achieve their goals.

The Perfect Workout Carlsbad

6994 El Camino Real #210, 

Carlsbad, CA 92009, United States

+1 760-444-2195