Cut your weights routine in half and get the same result

It may be possible to cut your usual routine at the gym in half – and still get the same results, Australian researchers have demonstrated.

If you struggle to find the time to fit a gym session into your day, you’re not alone.

Now, new research from WA’s Edith Cowan University shows that one type of muscle contraction in particular is mostly responsible for building muscle size and strength.

The research team found that rather than lifting weights to build muscle, it was in fact lowering the weight back down that provided the majority of the workout benefits.

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Professor Ken Nosaka says the results indicate that focusing on ‘eccentric’ muscle contractions (in which activated muscles are lengthened and stretched) is more important to increasing strength and size of muscles than the number of repetitions performed.

“We already know only one eccentric muscle contraction a day can increase muscle strength if it is performed five days a week – even if it’s only three seconds a day – but concentric (lifting a weight) or isometric muscle contraction (holding a weight) does not provide such an effect,” he says.

“This latest study shows we can be far more efficient in the time we spend exercising and still see significant results by focusing on eccentric muscle contractions.

“In the case of a dumbbell curl, many people may believe the lifting action provides the most benefit, or at least some benefit, but we found concentric muscle contractions contributed little to the training effects.”

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In the study, participants were split into three groups and instructed to perform three different dumbbell curl exercises twice a week for five weeks. A control group did nothing.

One training group performed eccentric-only muscle contractions (lowering the weight), another group did concentric-only muscle exercises (lifting the weight) and the third group alternated between eccentric and concentric muscle exercises daily.

All three groups showed improvement in their concentric strength, but only the groups that performed eccentric muscle exercises saw an increase to muscle mass and strength.

Crucially, the eccentric-only group performed half as many reps as either of the other groups – yet had very similar gains in strength. Drilling down even further, the eccentric-only group also saw the greatest improvement in muscle thickness of the three groups.

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How does that look in real life?

It’s all well and good to focus more on lowering weights than lifting them, but how can you lower a weight without having lifted it first, thus performing both eccentric and concentric muscle contractions?

Prof. Nosaka recommends using two hands to help with the lifting phase, before using one arm for the lowering phase while performing exercises such as bicep curls, overhead extensions, front raises and shoulder presses.

Similarly, if you are doing leg exercises such as squats and leg presses, Prof. Nosaka recommends putting all your effort into the eccentric phase of the exercise, but using minimal physical effort to get back to your original starting position (the concentric phase).

How often do you go to the gym? Would you be more likely to go if you only had to do half the exercises? Let us know in the comments section below.