P.E.D.'s

March 2, 2018

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Eccentric Training (continued...)

In my last article, I spoke about my personal experiences with tempo while training for the Olympic Games. It’s remarkable what an impact this evolution made in my training. Yes, my arms got bigger (side note: My arms did actually increase almost 2.5 inches circumference in about 3 months), but more importantly it increased my overall power output. I could move more weight faster and that’s the secret to unlocking your power. In this piece we’ll take a deeper dive into the nuances of tempo training. However, if you want the cliff note version see below:

  • Tempo training optimizes muscle MMU (Muscle Motor Units)
  • Tempo training stresses the three phases of movement.
  • Tempo training will improve your overall movement efficiency.
  • Tempo training will make you bulletproof or really more resistant and resilient to injury.
 Optimal Motor Unit recruitment is the objective of most lifting programs. Simply put, the more muscle fibers you stimulate during your workout the greater the training response. Tempo (also referred to as Time Under Tension or TUT) is one of the best methods to optimize muscular response. As the TUT increases more motor units are recruited to sustain the effort. Motor units are either full contraction or not. By manipulating Time Under Tension you can train all of your muscle fibers to fire.Proper use of a TUT training program will train the three phases of the lift:

  1. Eccentric: The lowering of the weight.
  2. Isometric: The transition from lowering to lifting the weight (or vice versa).
  3. Concentric: The lifting of the weight.

Eccentric
Training each phase in a specific manner can further specialize your training results. When training for maximum power and strength, you should increase your eccentric loading times. The eccentric loading often occurs when lowering the weight. At a muscular level it means when the muscle fibers are lengthening. Why is this important? As elite strength coach Josh Bryant said in a recent article about squatting:

  “...when you perform the eccentric phase, you're storing up elastic-like energy that, when correctly released from your legs in the bottom position, can propel you upward.”

The cool thing about the eccentric phase is that we are SO MUCH stronger in this phase than in the lifting, yet so few actually train it. By increasing our eccentric loading capacity we can actually improve our concentric strength. That means without doing anything else you can get stronger by simply training the eccentric phase.

Stay tuned for next week's post as I'll be sharing a bit of insight on the isometric, and concentric phases of training.