Washington Post Features The Perfect Workout

We'd like to thank the Washington Post for choosing us to be featured in an amazing article about Slow Motion Strength Training.


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 Christina Marie Freiheit – Personal Trainer at The Perfect Workout Sunnyvale Studio

Instead of focusing on the scale and losing weight, Christina Marie is all about helping her clients lose inches. “(A client) losing two pants sizes and their body transforming itself – that’s a success to me,” she says.

When you meet Christina Marie for the first time, you probably wouldn’t guess that she used to be a lot heavier, she’s stronger than she looks, and she’s older than she looks (don’t tell anyone that last one). All three are reasons why she is a standout personal trainer Sunnyvale at The Perfect Workout. The story begins in Washington state a little over a decade ago. Christina Marie always had a passion for fitness, and needed to lose some weight. She got involved in competitive body building, lost 42 pounds (and kept it off), and ended up getting fully immersed in that world. Eventually she trained other body builders as well, something she got a lot of satisfaction from.

Once she discovered slow-motion strength training, however, she quickly became a believer as she saw her own personal results and that of her clients. “I saw results come quicker without doing five sets of each exercise. I realized that you could do two workouts per week and keep in shape,” she says. “Slow-motion strength training is a challenge to mentally push yourself. You’re using just the muscle, not momentum. You still get a good core workout with the machines, but it’s safe. You’re not worried about dropping weights on your head, and you can push yourself completely.” The proof?

Christina Marie can now leg press the entire stack of 487 pounds! Not bad for someone who stands just over five feet tall (5′ ¾” to be exact) and weighs less than 100 pounds. Her clients are also seeing great results. Her unique approach as a trainer is to be an accountability partner, encourager, coach, and confidante all rolled into one. She understands life and the personal battles people go through, having been there herself with weight issues in the past.

Her clients say she is “really nice at being really mean,” in other words, she pushes them beyond their own limits in an uplifting way. “I feel like every client is my friend. They disclose things and I keep it confidential.”

Christina Marie is just as amazing outside the gym, too. She’s the Team Mom for her daughter’s club volleyball team, volunteers as a stage manager at her church, and was recently asked to be a strength training mentor for her daughter’s high school. She’s thrilled that she found The Perfect Workout, and absolutely loves it.


“It’s so surreal to be doing what I’m doing. I get to work with amazing people – co-workers and clients. I care about my clients so much and I want to make Sunnyvale a great studio.” With Christina Marie as a trainer and leader, no doubt that will happen.


The Perfect Workout Sunnyvale
1110 Sunnyvale Saratoga Rd B1,
Sunnyvale, CA 94087, United States
+1 408-912-1387