MeIf you want to make the most of your time at the gym, consider making Lil Jon’s “Get Low” your new strength-training anthem.
Please let me explain. Exercises such as squats and bicep curls have two stages. There is a concentric phase, which is the lifting (or curling/raising) portion of the movement that involves muscle shortening.
When we think of building strong muscles, we usually focus on the parts we lift.We often think of lowering weight as putting it back in the starting position in order to lift it again. A study of Eccentric Focused Exercises Build More Strength More powerful than concentric circles, movements involving equal parts of eccentric and concentric circles.
“The benefits of spending more time in the eccentric portion of the lift are well known among fitness professionals (which increases the ‘tension time’),” says certified personal trainer and , ultimate performanceHe says eccentric training can help break through strength plateaus and help with rehabilitation programs. “As a result, eccentric weight training is considered the cornerstone of any progressive strength training program.”
More recently, more evidence has emerged about how influential eccentric training is, especially in terms of efficiency.a February 2022 survey Researchers at Edith Cowan University in Australia three seconds Eccentric movements five times a week for four weeks increased muscle strength by 10%. That’s the equivalent of 1 minute of exercise for her in a month.
In November, the same researchers ran a different method. Comparative study of eccentric and concentric strength training, found that study participants who performed eccentric exercises built similar strength half the number of participants who performed concentric-eccentric moves. Additionally, those who had just done the eccentric exercise gained more muscle thickness than the other groups.
One reason for this difference is that eccentric exercise requires the muscles to activate no matter what, whereas concentric exercise avoids that. supplement power with momentumEccentric exercise also causes muscle micro-tears. This is what promotes growth as the muscle self-repairs.
So how do we implement this knowledge into our workouts? play with tempoFor example, in a bicep curl, lift the weight for 1 second and lower it for 3 seconds. The same formula can be applied to squats, sit-ups, and other focused or eccentric movements.
“By slowing the eccentric part of the lift to, say, three seconds, you’re putting a lot more stress on your muscles, making them bigger and stronger,” says Bohannon. That’s a pretty good reason to go low.
