The arm extending half of a repetition is called the eccentric contraction because the action lengthens your muscles. It’s been shown to produce greater increases in muscle size and strength because force production is greatest during this part of the exercise. That force production can be increased with speed. The faster you do your reps, the more stress you place on muscle fibers. A study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Researchsuggests that performing a workout of slow-speed eccentric movements as far out as 14 days before a high-speed workout can protect muscle fibers from excessive damage. The slow eccentric contractions produce protective proteins that blunt the degree of stress your muscles will endure in future workouts. True Strength Moment: Every session of weight training subjects muscle fibers to some degree of stress. The fact is bigger, stronger muscles are built through a rebuilding process that begins after muscle fibers are broken down. But you don’t want to subject them to too much stress. This research offers a handy tip for those planning a workout change involving an increase of intensity through greater speed. The branched chain amino acids (BCAAs) in whey protein enjoyed right before training can provide additional anti-catabolic support. Coach Jack Eyer CSCS always starts out new clients with Endurance Training and slower movements in the exercises to assist with the injury prevention needed for more serious training later on. But when trained up, he prefers a 6 Week Cycle of Fast/High Velocity of repetitions to build Power and Speed in the muscles. WOMEN GAIN & LOSE WITH LIFTING There probably isn’t a very good mix of ladies and men in your fitness center’s weight room. That’s an area typically dominated by males. But research published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise suggests that women can get a lot out of resistance training. Specifically: muscle toning and fat loss. For 12 weeks, scientists had young non-weight lifting women work at bench pressing, pull-downs, leg presses, hamstring curls and other exercises, drinking 500 mL of skim milk an hour afterwards. All of them toned whole body muscle mass while losing significant amounts of body fat. True Strength Moment: There’s a misconception among many women that weight lifting won’t help with weight loss. Another popular myth is that dairy products are fattening. This study disproved both of those assumptions. For those who are lactose sensitive, there are dairy basedproteins you mix up easily with water to produce tasty shakes that are sugar, cholesterol and lactose free. Pre and Post workouts protein is recommended which feed the muscles at the most opportune times… For the most part, women have been mistrained by most trainers, and thus cheated of a lot of development they could have experienced, most likely because of the misnomer noted above.
