Slow Continuous Muscle Tension
Slow Continuous Muscle Tension (SCMT) is a term used to describe the type of extremely safe strength training used in your weekly 30 minute session. Properly instructed SCMT strength training, will not only increase your strength over time, but also stimulate your cardiovascular system in the same way fast running or sprinting does and therefore improve your stamina.
The experience you will have by the end of your workout, is equivalent to the feeling of having sprinted flat out, your heart rate will be elevated and you will be trying to catch your breath. This type of training is very joint friendly, because it eliminates the high impact forces that are associated with sprinting, which could potentially damage your joints.
Watch a Slow Continuous Muscle Tension workout here


Maintain your muscle mass and strength

Sarcopenia is the progressive and generalised loss of muscle mass and strength due to aging and can be further accelerated by inactivity due to illness, injury or a sedentary lifestyle. As your muscle loss progresses, so too does your ability to move about as independently as you might like, this could manifest itself over time, as not being able to walk up stairs or having to rely on a mobility scooter to simply move about.
By strength training safely and effectively just once a week, you are sending a strong signal to your body, telling it to prioritise muscle and strength maintenance above all else. Because your muscle mass is very energetically expensive to maintain, your body will downsize it to a bare minimum according to how much it is used. In other words, you need to use it, otherwise you will lose it over time.


Maintain your bone mass and strength

Osteoporosis is a condition which causes your bones to become thin, weak and fragile, so that even a minor accident or fall can cause a bone to break or fracture. The risk for Osteoporosis accelerates with aging, especially if you don’t take steps to keep your bones strong.

Hospitalisations, due to the break of weak and brittle bones in both men and women, as early as in our late thirties, are all too common in today’s society. However, this can largely be prevented and even reversed by heavy resistance training, very akin to the type of training you will receive during your weekly 30 minute workout.
Lose body fat and stay lean
Your body is built for survival and by producing a deep level of fatigue once a week, you will simulate a high stress survival situation. Having received this survival signal, your body will adapt by increasing muscle and bone strength, because these tissues are what will make you stronger in order to survive.
It will also start to release your body fat, as it’s presence in excess would otherwise inhibit your survival ability. The result over time will be a leaner physique, providing you keep stimulating your body on a regular basis with a high stress survival signal, such as your 30 minute session done once a week.


One of the biggest misconceptions regarding exercise and losing body fat, is that you are literally burning off your own body fat as you are training, but this is simply not how your body works. In fact, the more effort and intensity you put into any type of exercise, the more sugar you will burn and the less fat.
On the other hand, going for a slow leisurely walk at low intensity, will allow you to burn almost 100% body fat while walking. Leanness as a result of high intensity exercise, is due to the survival signal your body gets from the activity and not from directly burning body fat during the training itself.
Recommended next read – Staying Lean