Be Eccentric

Four ways to incorporate eccentric training and fast-track your gaining potential.

- Lee Boyce, CPT, AND Lara McGlashan, MFA, CPT

The classic directives of “exhale on the way up, inhale on the way down” and “use a slow, smooth tempo” may be acceptable for some lifters, but as you become more advanced, so should the directives. And while counting reps and sets and tracking weight lifted are good ways to gauge progress for some, lifters who master the ability to make a lighter weight feel heavier simply by manipulating the variables means he’s cracked the code to greater gains. This is where eccentric training comes in.

The eccentric, or lowering, phase of a lift is the most overlooked by lifters, likely because no one ever got a killer pump from doing negatives. However, targeting this lengthening phase could be the key to greater gains. Here’s why:

The eccentric phase produces 20 to 60 percent more force than the concentric phase, and while many studies confirm that eccentric and concentric actions both elicit a hypertrophic response, many report that eccentric contractions have the greatest effect on muscle growth. Eccentric training preferentially recruits fast-twitch muscle damage that ultimately calls for greater protein synthesis and leads to more cell growth. In one study, fast-twitch Type II fiber increased 10 times more in lifters who only performed eccentric contractions as compared to those who did concentric only contractions.