Obtain Awesome Strength
Isotonic Movement
Isotonic movement can itself be broken down to eccentric and concentric muscular activity. Simply put, eccentric muscular actions create a lengthening of the muscle, concentric a shortening. Curl a barbell to your shoulder and you are achieving a concentric contraction of the bicep, lower the bar to its starting position and you are achieving and eccentric movement of the same muscle. Why do you need to know this? Because when you become aware of the functional capabilities of your muscles you can get more specific with the way you train and really devise optimum strength development programmes.
Look around next time you`re in the gym, chance are you`ll see a predominance of concentric lifters. They guy on the shoulder press pushes the weight up and then lets it return to the starting position with little effort (particularly if he is training on machine). The net result is that the muscles are being strengthened predominantly in the concentric, not the eccentric plane. It`s similar to cycling hard to the top of a hill and then coasting down the other side. When training with weights there`s always tendency to literally coast the bar back to its starting position. Less gravity and inertia has to be overcome: the result -you are short-changing potential for overall strength gain.
Eccentric training as a means to awesome strength
Eccentric training, then, should not be neglected if the whole of the strength map is to be fully explored -especially when research has indicated that this method of training should not be overlooked if optional strenght gains are to be achieved. Plan your next training phase with this in mind; emphasize both the raising and the lowering of the weight in order to mobilize more muscles fibers and work your muscles in a more all-embracing manner- and don`t coast.
Yup, you can make your self strong