When you're moving through your strength workouts, are you considering how you are training the weight? How much thought do you give to the muscles you target, and how you target them? It can be easy to zone out and do the same old same when you're performing your reps, so let me help you focus!
I assure you that muscle building and the science behind it is complex but very cool! You don't have to be an athlete to benefit from understanding how concentric and eccentric portions of a lift impact your performance and ability. I hope after reading this you can start considering and recognizing these phases when you're lifting weights or doing an exercise, so you're getting the most out of your strength workouts!
Every movement has a concentric and eccentric phase. The concentric phase is when the muscle fibers are shortening, and the eccentric phase is when the muscle fibers are lengthening. That's the basic description of what is happening during the exercise you're performing, but there's a bit more to understand to apply this to your training depending on your goals!
In the concentric portion of an exercise, the muscle fibers are shortening, and working against gravity. This portion of the lift is referred to as "positive". A few examples are: pushing up from a lowered push-up position, standing up in a squat, and pushing the bar away from your chest in a bench press. The benefits of training the concentric portion of the lift are power and speed. Increasing fast-twitch muscles is one of the major benefits of focusing on the concentric portion of a lift. For example, if you're looking to increase your sprint speed, a power clean with good form and a focus on the concentric portion of the lift will contribute to a better sprint time. Always maintain good form to reduce any injury risk when you are adding speed to the equation!
In the eccentric portion of an exercise, the muscle fibers are lengthening, and working with gravity. This portion of the lift is referred to as "negative". If you've ever tried to get your first pull-up, you may have been advised to perform "negatives" to help you gain strength to achieve your first full pull-up. Performing a negative pull-up means, your start position is at the top of the pull-up, and then you slowly lower yourself down to the start position, performing only the lowering (or negative), eccentric portion of the lift.
The benefits of training the eccentric portion of the lift are strength and increased muscle damage (and soreness) which may seem like a bad thing, but muscle damage is what yields muscle growth! Most muscle damage occurs during the eccentric training phase. That makes the growth of skeletal muscle cells, or muscle hypertrophy, one of the primary benefits of eccentric exercises. "Negative" (eccentric) training is seen far more in strength programs because, with a few adjustments, most exercises can be made into eccentric strengthening exercises. This is also why we are seeing negative exercise as a bigger part of rehabilitation programs.**
Knowing which is the concentric and eccentric phase can get a little bit confusing when you start looking at different types of exercises, but you want to remember that it's the load that is going against gravity, and not necessarily your arm, torso, legs, or other body parts that make a contraction concentric or eccentric.
Another consideration when breaking up an exercise in contraction phases with and against gravity to keep in mind is that one movement can be a concentric contraction and change into an eccentric contraction at a stage in the range of motion. Imagine yourself doing dumbbell pullovers. As you lay on the bench you lift the dumbbells against gravity up to your head in the concentric phase of the exercise. But the movement doesn't stop there. Your arms, loaded with the dumbbells continue past your head, and you lower them as far as you can toward the floor. So, from the moment your arms pass your head, they are no longer moving against gravity, changing the movement from concentric to eccentric.
So, which is better? Concentric, or eccentric training? Both are important for a well-balanced program, and depending on your goals, you may not need to train specifically with isolating the concentric or eccentric portion of a load, but more so, focusing on a specific phase during your lift, to increase your performance or increase your gains!
I love helping to educate my clients on their way to their best-self. If you feel like I could be a useful tool in your toolkit, please reach out! I would love to help you reach your goals.
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