By tempo, we don't just mean the entire duration of your rep,
but how the set is split up. If you have a 3 second rep, how much
are you spending in the 4 stages of the lift, at the top,
eccentric, at the bottom, concentric?
Tempo is usually written as a 4 digit number, the 1st digit being
eccentric, the 2nd being pause at the bottom, the 3rd being
concentric and the 4th being pause at the top. The 4th number may
be ommited in many cases because many people tend to take a
breather after every rep where the load is transfered to your
joints, so it's not technically part of TUT.
So for example, a 301 tempo would indicate a 3s eccentric, no pause
at the bottom, and a 1s concentric. An X on the concentric would
indicate an explosive concentric movement where you try to move it
up as fast as you can regardless of the load.
Anyway, as long as your loads are reasonably heavy for your
strength, you should be fine. It's ok to stop 1-2 reps before
failure, but obviously if you still have room for 10more reps when
you stop, then you're not gonna progress. 8 reps is fine for a
beginner. You can even bump it up to 10-12, but as you progress,
you're gonna be bringing the number of reps down.
Anyway, my advice would be to switch to a full body compound
workout, stick with the basics, and cut out the
unnecessary/redundant lifts.
