Hey REP team! Coach Christmas back with another article to help you, your students and athletes become the best version of themselves!
There's more to strength training than just picking up a weight and putting it down.
Each lift you do actually has three distinct phases or contractions: the concentric phase, the eccentric phase, and the isometric phase. Knowing the difference between them all can help you push past plateaus, assist with muscle rehabilitation, and improve overall performance in lifts and in life.
CONCENTRIC CONTRACTION
Any contraction where the muscle shortens under load or tension is known as a concentric contraction. For example, the quadriceps muscles in the thigh contract concentrically (shorten) during the upward phase of the squat movement.
ECCENTRIC CONTRACTION
Muscles not only ‘shorten’ but can also lengthen under load or tension. An eccentric contraction refers to any contraction where the muscle lengthens under load or tension. So in the squat exercise, the quadriceps muscles will contract eccentrically (lengthen) in the downward phase of the movement (the opposite direction of the arrow), as can be seen in the adjacent picture.
ISOMETRIC CONTRACTION
Muscles don’t actually need to move (shorten or lengthen) at all to contract or develop tension. An isometric contraction refers to any contraction of muscles where little or no movement occurs. If during the squat the person stopped moving at a certain point (say halfway up) and held that position for 10 seconds, the quadriceps muscle would be contracting isometrically, it would still be under load/tension but no movement would occur.
Many skeletal muscles contract isometrically in order to stabilize and protect active joints during movement. So while the quadriceps muscles are contracting concentrically during the upward phase of the squat, and eccentrically during the downward phase, many of the deeper muscles of the hip contract isometrically to stabilize the hip joint during the movement.
Concentric and eccentric are also terms used to describe the phase of a movement. The concentric phase is the phase of the movement that is overcoming gravity or load, while the eccentric phase is the phase resisting gravity or load. So for push ups the concentric phase is the up phase where gravity is overcome, and the eccentric phase is the downward phase where gravity is resisted.
SO COACH, WHICH ONE SHOULD I DO?
Do all of them! All 3 have a place in your training and REP has over 1000+ exercises that leverage these muscle contractions to better help with overall health and performance!
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