Focusing on eccentric exercises — where muscles extend rather than contract — builds more strength and muscle while also buttressing your tendons.
By Petra Péterffy
In the gym, it can be tempting to focus on the showiest moves: the impressive deadlift, an explosive bench press. But to build strength and reduce your injury risk, how much you lift isn’t the only thing that matters. Lowering a weight can do as much — if not more — for your health.
Most movements consist of two phases. During a bicep curl, for example, your muscle shortens as you lift the weight and lengthens as you lower it. But if you don’t spend enough time on the second part — called the eccentric phase — you’re leaving significant strength and muscle gains on the table.
Lowering weight builds strength …
Within a muscle, the action of lowering a weight is fundamentally different from lifting it. For one, it feels easier. That’s partly because you’re working with gravity and partly because connective tissues play a bigger role in lightening the load.
As a result, you need less energy and oxygen to handle the weight, said Brent Pekarski, a physical therapist with University Hospitals Drusinsky Sports Medicine Institute in Ohio. Studies suggest you can lower up to 40 percent more than you can lift.
But don’t be fooled — your muscles are working harder than you may realize during eccentric movements. Christoph Handschin, who studies muscles at the University of Basel in Switzerland, described a workout session he had on an eccentric bike, which forces you to push against pedals that spin backward. “It felt very easy, but the next day, I had sore muscles like crazy,” he said.
That’s because your muscles can produce more force extending than contracting. This makes it easier to progressively overload them, because you can increase the weight or repetitions of your workouts with less effort.
Also, some experts say that when a muscle is stretched under tension, it signals different proteins and hormones in the body to grow more muscle. It’s difficult to difficult to say exactly how much more, since experts look at different body regions and exercises. All told, “eccentric training can lead to approximately 20 to 50 percent greater strength gains,” said Lindsey Lepley, a kinesiologist at the University of Michigan.
This “more bang for your buck” feature can make eccentric movements ideal for older adults or people recovering from injury, who may struggle with a traditional resistance training routine, she added.
“If you can’t do a pull-up, say, you can still work on your pull-up muscles by practicing just the lowering down part, which is easier,” said Katy Bowman, a biomechanist and author of “Move Your DNA.”
… and it can help prevent injury.
Like a pulled rubber band, muscles stretched under strain can lead to injury. But eccentric movement can help. Lowering a weight trains our muscles to lengthen with control and strengthens them over time, said Disa Hatfield, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Rhode Island.
A meta-analysis with more than 1,200 soccer and Australian football players, for example, found that 10 weeks of lower body eccentric training resulted in 65 percent fewer hamstring injuries during their seasons. And for people with existing tendinitis, research suggests that eccentric exercises can reduce pain and restore function more effectively than other interventions, like traditional resistance training or rest.
But start slowly. Delayed onset muscle soreness is more common after exercises that lengthen a muscle, Dr. Lepley said. Dr. Hatfield recommends limiting eccentric-only training to two out of every eight to 10 weeks, to break out of workout plateaus, for example.
After all, “in sports and in everyday life, we rarely do half a movement,” said Alena Luciani, a strength and conditioning coach in Toronto.
How to get started
Slow down.
A simple way to start eccentric workouts is to just slow the lowering phase of an exercise you already do.
“Take a squat, for example: Count to three as you go from the top of the squat to the bottom, then come back up in one second,” Ms. Luciani said. Gradually increase the time you spend traveling down to six seconds.
Similarly, you can take a few seconds to bring your chest to the ground in a push-up or to lower the dumbbell in a bicep curl.
Use one arm or one leg.
To reap more benefits, however, you have to increase the weight you are lowering over time, said Dr. Hatfield, who’s also a former competitive powerlifter. Equipment like a leg press machine can help. Use both legs to push the weight up, then lower it down with one. Do three sets of eight to 10 reps and then switch legs.
Similarly, on a seated cable row machine, pull the weight up with both arms, then slowly release the weight with one arm.
Take a page from the Vikings.
Nordic hamstring curls can greatly reduce your risk of injury and don’t require a machine. Start in a kneeling position with your feet anchored behind you (hook them under a couch or enlist a friend). With your arms at your sides and your knees on the ground, slowly lower your torso toward the floor, keeping your body straight. Push up with your arms to reset and repeat four more times. As your hamstrings get stronger, increase to three sets of eight to 10 reps.
Coast downhill.
Walking or running downhill is another great way to build strength in your legs. When your thighs lengthen while controlling your descent, they become better at quickly producing force. Add hills to your route or set your treadmill to a negative slope. To increase the challenge, steepen the slope or speed up.
