In the early 1970s, Arthur Jones, founder of Nautilus Sports/Medical Industries revolutionized the field of exercise with his Nautilus machines. More importantly his philosophy of“VERY BRIEF, BUT VERY HARD” exercise produced tremendous results.
In 1982, Ken and Brenda Hutchins began supervising the exercise aspect of the Nautilus-sponsored, Osteoporosis research project at the University of Florida Medical School. To safely and effectively exercise the women of this study, they produced the “Protocol for Super Slow Training”. It soon became evident that moving slower was more productive in all cases. Thus, the original Nautilus principles had evolved to produce even greater results. In 1992, Ken Hutchins developed the SuperSlow Exercise Guild and SuperSlow Certification Program. The purpose of which is to create and maintain a level of instructor competence that is the highest in the industry. SuperSlow instructors must represent exercise principles and standards mostly misunderstood by the general fitness industry, and above all, must demonstrate exceptional instructional skills. (As of June 30, 2002, and since 1992, over 400 instructors have been awarded SuperSlow Level-I Certifications. 33 have been awarded Level-II and 26 are Masters.) In 2001, Dr. Wayne Wescott compared SuperSlow strength training to protocols using standard repetition speed and reported a 50% greater strength gain with SuperSlow. The researchers were so impressed; they repeated the study at a later date with the same results. (1)
Wescott, W., J Sports Med Phys Fitness 2001 Jun;41(2):154-8