How was the Body Mastery program developed?

The Body Mastery program goes by many names: SuperSlow®, Power of 10, and 10/10 are among the best known. It is both an exercise philosophy and an exercise protocol. Portions of the theory underlying this program were developed by Nautilus® founder Arthur Jones and were originally part of Nautilus philosophy. Jones' associate at Nautilus, Ken Hutchins, continued developing the theory and refined it into what is now called the SuperSlow exercise protocol.

Ken and Arthur worked together for several years directing a Nautilus-sponsored osteoporosis research project conducted at the University of Florida Medical School. For the study they used Nautilus exercise equipment, which pioneered the use of selectorized weight stacks and "cams" designed to match the machines' resistance curve with the subjects' strength curve throughout each repetition cycle.

Arthur and Ken reasoned that their subjects, having severely weakened bones, would require that particular attention be paid to safety and the avoidance of excessive inertial forces on their bones, muscles, and tendons due to too-rapid acceleration of the weight stacks. Therefore, they instructed their subjects to move the weights very slowly and without any jerking or heaving in order to minimize these forces while providing maximum intensity in minimum time. They also determined that the only way to consistently measure the amount of exercise each subject obtained was to make sure that their subjects' muscles were continuously loaded during each exercise. They had learned that fast repetitions tended to unload the muscles at the top end and overload them at the bottom end of each repetition due to momentum.

The resulting workout program is at once very simple and extremely effective. Do not confuse simple with easy, as the workout itself is quite difficult and will push your mental and physical capacities. However, it is well within the abilities of anyone serious about their fitness, and your instructor is there to support you throughout the process.

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