The eccentric I am talking about is the one that involves muscles.
There are 2 major kinds of muscle contractions in training: eccentric and concentric. Now an understanding of these is important as both types are necessary to obtain optimal fitness. So, what is the difference?
Concentric contractions are contractions where the muscle is shortening during the movement. Bringing a dumbbell from your side to your shoulder by doing a curl would be a concentric contraction which would indicate the muscle (the bicep) is shortening. Just as critical is the eccentric contraction where the muscle is lengthening. In the case of the bicep curl it would be lowering the curl back to the starting position (lengthening the bicep).
Now most exercises worth their salt have an eccentric component, but there are 2 specific techniques designed to really work the eccentric contraction: plyometrics and negatives.
Plyometrics defined: a plyometric exercise is an exercise in which an eccentric muscle contraction is quickly followed by a concentric muscle contraction. In other words, when a muscle is rapidly contracted and lengthened, and then immediately followed with a further contraction and shortening, this is a plyometric exercise. This process of contract-lengthen, contract-shorten is often referred to as the stretch - shortening cycle. Example of this is a depth jump or even repeated leaps (each time you land you will be performing an eccentric contraction to avoid crashing down to the ground - see below).
Life on earth requires the ability to perform plyometric type movements. Eliminate gravity up in space somewhere and it might not matter so much.
A negative would be a movement where you overload the muscle during a lengthening contraction. for example, say your bench press max is 185lbs. You might get one of the qualified staff at Athlon Elite to help you LOWER 225lbs thus overloading eccentrically. Negatives can be a positive!
Get your negative reps as well as your plyometrics at Athlon Elite. Another great day for some outdoor work. Maybe a set of plyos to wrap up your routine is in order? Oh yeah, don’t forget your recovery Fluid as eccentric contractions are thought to be the contractions that cause DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), but that is a topic for another day!
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