Eccentric exercise question

Cotcha Yankinov

Cotcha Yankinov

Bluelight Crew
Joined
Jul 21, 2015
Messages
2,952
I understand that there is great emphasis on the elongation phase of the rep, I am not debating the validity of this theory but I do wonder how we know about this, is this knowledge from studies that had one group do only eccentric reps and another group do only concentric reps? Or do we know something about the biology of eccentric exercise?

Just how important is eccentric exercise anyways? Sometimes my technique gets sloppy and I'm wondering just how long the eccentric phase should be.
 
Cotcha Yankinov said:
I understand that there is great emphasis on the elongation phase of the rep, I am not debating the validity of this theory but I do wonder how we know about this, is this knowledge from studies that had one group do only eccentric reps and another group do only concentric reps? Or do we know something about the biology of eccentric exercise?

Just how important is eccentric exercise anyways? Sometimes my technique gets sloppy and I'm wondering just how long the eccentric phase should be.
Click to expand...

There is benefit to both concentric and eccentric part of an exercise, although there is some evidence to suggest the eccentric movement could induce significantly more skeletal muscle hypertrophy than the concentric if performed slow enough, 4-6 seconds... Plus there are benefits via strengthening connective tissue...
 
As GF says, the eccentric/negative phase supports the development of stronger, healthier tendons. So having a decent negative rep is pretty critical for long-term health.

It's also shown to improve strength and muscle mass gains (eg: you can handle far more weight doing negatives). But overall it's not necessarily more important than the concentric phase for that. Which means perform both actions with equal effort if you can.

I had to pick only one though, it would be the eccentric.
 
Yes, as others have stated, the eccentric phase is the most important phase for building hypertrophy and strength, however, the concentric and isometric stages are not ineffective, and performing a full range exercise builds a more functional muscle. Source: Exercise and Sport Science student.
 
Okay, thank you guys. But does anyone know how exactly we figured out that eccentric was so important? I was thinking maybe studies involving one group doing only eccentric and another group doing only concentric would be one way. But if there was some biological logic to why eccentric helps so much that would be cool to know.
 
Cotcha Yankinov said:
Okay, thank you guys. But does anyone know how exactly we figured out that eccentric was so important? I was thinking maybe studies involving one group doing only eccentric and another group doing only concentric would be one way. But if there was some biological logic to why eccentric helps so much that would be cool to know.
Click to expand...

There has been considerable research done on the subject over the years... I have papers somewhere I will try and dig them out..
 
I may have been taught incorrectly or it was a mere subjective opinion rather than factual data, but I was told that the isosentric portion of the movement at which the workload becomes the you vs. gravitational pull is considered a legitimate portion..?

Like after achieving true positive failure, forced isosentric contraction for X amount of extra time can equate to more muscle fiber recruitment, however i'd do it at the maximal threshold of the muscular stretch to ensure fiber recruitment occurs. I know stretch-shortening cycle will cause fibers to lengthen, and the initially prestretched fibers before the isocentric contraction would undergo, and additional stimuli from our inverse myostatic reflex. I've always paused at the bottom of the movement as this is what I originally comprehended. Is this completely wrong? I'm trying to dig up where I recall isocentric as a differentiated muscular movement.

I've always paused for a modest few seconds on front and back squats as it helped get my range of movement warmed up and it helped me zone into the proper balancing and body weight distribution.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top