A Tale of 'Whoa!'

As she talks to a reporter, Heather Miller Podesta, 34, is on her way to Venice for the Memorial Day weekend. As a lawyer and lobbyist for Blank Rome, she lives life in the passing lane. "I use my BlackBerry while I'm driving," she says over her cell phone.

But, she says, "there are three things I take slowly: slow food, slow burn and my slow husband."

She is married to Democratic operative Tony Podesta, 60. Twice a week they stop by Engineered Exercise, a boutique weight room in Glover Park, where they engage in a newly popular form of slow exercise. "It's an intense muscle-straining, invigorating workout in 20 minutes," she said.

Trainer Karen Brightman, 39, explains how the slow exercise works: The workout consists of six weight-lifting exercises -- three for the upper body and three for the lower. You do four to six repetitions of each exercise very slowly. As you get stronger and the repetitions get easier, more weight is added. You are instructed to do the workout only twice a week. The cost is $50 a session.

The trainers "are constantly pushing," says Podesta, who's been following the regimen for more than a year.

The physical result: greater muscular and cardiovascular strength. "You get your heart rate up very high. You are really breathing," Podesta says.

The auditory result: "It sounds like folks are either having childbirth," she says, "or really enjoying the moment."

The Tantric Track

Speaking of which, the slow movement is also taking hold in the bedroom.

In "In Praise of Slowness," Honore writes, "All over the world, people are warming to the very tantric idea that slower sex is better sex."

The Pointer Sisters may have gotten the ball rolling with "Slow Hand," a song they wrote and recorded in 1981. It goes a little something like this:

I got a man with a slow hand

I got a lover with an easy touch

I found somebody who will spend some time

Not come and go in a heated rush

I found somebody who will understand

When it comes to love, I want a slow hand