Why Eccentric Loading

Emphasis on eccentric training or more widely known as “negative training” is one of the biggest bang for your buck modalities that a strength coach, trainer, or gym goer can use to increase strength, muscle size, stability, flexibility all while also lowering the likelihood of injury.

So that we’re on the same page, let’s briefly look at the different types of muscle contractions.

ECCENTRIC: would be defined as a muscle contracting while lengthening, or the lowering motion, “yielding” in a movement such as the bench press, bicep curl, and squat.

ISOMETRIC: would be defined as muscle contraction without actual change in muscle length. In other words the muscle is producing enough force to control the weight or stimuli to a stop. It would be the point at which the weight is stopped after the eccentric movement and before being lifted back up.

CONCENTRIC: This would be defined as a muscle contraction that results in shortening of the muscle length. It would be the time when the weight is being lifted, “overcoming” back to the original starting position.

YOU ARE STRONGER ECCENTRICALLY

That’s right. You are a lot stronger in the eccentric, “yielding” phase of the lift than in the concentric, “overcoming” phase. Knowing this is important when trying to induce strength and hypertrophic gains (muscle growth) during training because it shows that you need to put an extra emphasis on the overload of the eccentric phase. One way we could increase this demand would be by doing Eccentric tempos.

ECCENTRIC TEMPOS

An easy way to increase the stimulus of the eccentric movement without adding weight would be by increasing the amount of time spent during the lowering or “yielding” phase. This will induce greater stress on the muscle as it is holding the contraction through the lengthening phase for a longer period, as compared to a normal routine movement. A simple example of this would be on the lowering of a pull up, However, this concept can be applied to the squat, bench press, military press, deadlift and many more.

BENEFITS OF ECCENTRIC LOADING

Though there are tons of benefits to eccentric loading from a performance standpoint such as increase concentric movement and deceleration capabilities, some things I like to remind people about are:

1. Controlled Movement Leads to Movement Competency
2. Slow Controlled Movement Aids in Tendon Health
3. Promotion of Flexibility
4. Greater Muscular Stimulus

CAUTIONS OF ECCENTRIC TRAINING

Things to always be considerate of with Eccentric training is:

1. With Increased Stimulus Placed on the Muscle Means Increased Time for Recovery.
2. Tempo Increases, Volume Decreases.
3. Weighted Compound Movements will induce greater fatigue as opposed to isolated upper body movements such as pull ups.

This has really just scratched the surface of what can be done with eccentric training. Also, the manipulation tactics and modalities that can be used is almost endless. However, simply putting a tempo on your lifts can be a great start to getting the desired results you want. Give it a try, and let us know how it goes!