Tips for Building Muscle: Eccentrics

If you have been training in an effort to gain muscle or strength, you know that the goal is usually to lift heavier and heavier weights. While this goal is definitely useful if you are trying to add strength and muscle mass, it should be noted that the actual lifting of heavy weights is not the main cause of muscle building. Instead, building muscle seems to be mainly the result of lowering weights.

You see, most exercises include 3 separate phases:

1. Concentric: This is the actual lifting portion of the exercise. This is when you lift yourself over the bar in a chin-up or push yourself up during a push-up.

2. Eccentric (Negative): This is the lowering portion of the exercise. When you lower yourself after completing a pull-up or lower the dumbbells to your sides after completing a biceps curl, you are performing an eccentric, or negative, muscle action.

3. Isometric: This is the portion of the lift where there is no movement at all. In the majority of weight training exercises this portion of the movement only lasts for a tenths of a second.

The interesting thing is that exercise scientists have found that most muscle damage occurs during the lowering (eccentric) portion of the movement. Since it is known that muscle damage is what stimulates muscle building, this has led many to focus on the eccentric phase in their efforts to gain muscle.

Whether or not this is a good strategy is still debatable, but the vast majority of evidence says that emphasizing the eccentric portion of an exercise, while still performing the other two phases, may lead to faster muscle gains.

There are several ways of doing this. The most popular and easiest (no coincidence there) is to simply slow down the eccentric portion of a movement. It is usually best for the eccentric phase to take anywhere from 2-8 seconds. The exact length of time will depend on your specific goals and the movement you are performing.

Another option for prioritizing the eccentric portion of the exercise is to use eccentric-only repetitions. For example, in the biceps curl you would have a partner assist in lifting the weight and then lower it by yourself. A useful fact to keep in mind when doing this is that you are stronger eccentrically than you are concentrically. What this means is that you can use more weight for an eccentric-only lift than you can for a traditional lift which includes all concentric and eccentric muscle actions.

The benefits of this method are great, but so are the downsides. Eccentric-only lifts can lead to rapid strength and size gains, but the potential for injuries is great since you are using such heavy weights. For this reason, it is not recommended to use eccentric-only lifts with more than you can safely lift in a traditional exercise, unless it is part of a scientifically designed training program under the guidance of a professional strength coach.

There are many other ways to incorporate eccentrics into your training program, but I think you get the idea. But keep in mind, if you are struggling with how to gain muscle as fast as possible it’s not just how much you lift, it’s also how much you lower.

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