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DEL.ICIO.US“Control the Weight, Don’t Let It Control You!”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When I say, “control the weight, don’t let it control you,” I’m usually talking to a client as they are lifting a weight going too fast. When you do the exercise too fast, you are at a risk of hurting yourself as you do the exercise. As you weight training, you are performing isotonic (don’t stay up late trying to remember that) contractions which involves two phases (two separate contractions).
One of the contractions is known as the positive (concentric) contraction and the other is known as the negative (eccentric) contraction. For example, when doing a biceps curl, as you curl the weight up you are doing the positive contraction. At this time the muscle fibers in your biceps are shortening. When you lower the weight, you are doing the negative contraction and the muscle fibers are lengthening. Unfortunately, it is during the negative contraction where most people will lose good form. (For a related article read Maximize Your Training Efforts.)
This is where the phrase (“control the weight…”) can have a double meaning. It is during the negative contraction that you develop true strength, improve muscle tone and most importantly, the ability to improve your metabolism (thus, controlling your body weight). To give your a real world example, look at any Olympic power-lifter. They are large and even strong, however, they are not lean and don’t have that much muscle tone. Yes, they are extremely powerful, but power has nothing to do with strength. In power-lifting, the only type of contractions involved are positive contractions.
Without getting too technical and talking about things such as the sliding filament theory and cross bridges in muscle fibers, just know that when you take your time in the negative contraction you will create more lean muscle tissue. When you create more lean muscle tissue, you increase your ability to burn more fat. Muscle is the only tissue in the body that uses fat as energy.
So, the next time you lift some weights, take your time. Don’t try to get through it as fast as possible. You will be less likely to hurt yourself and turn yourself into a fat burning machine (so long as you eat right and do cardiovascular exercise too).
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Comments
By jeff
February 16, 2007 10:26 AM | Link to this
would it be a good idea every now and then to do a total work out using negative contraction with very heavy weight? What I mean is, take a curl for example, If your looking to gain tone and size in your arm (man) you and your work out partner could use heaver then normal weight and your partner help you lift (positive) and you safely and slowly lower it. using as much weight as you can stand safely. my question would this be an effective lift on occasion?
By Kelly Huggins
February 19, 2007 01:36 PM | Link to this
Hey Jeff… The answer is YES, so long as your partner has the capability of “going with the flow” of the positive contraction. In other words, they aren’t helping you too much. They can also assist in the negative phase as you approach muscle failure. This is one of the advantages of having a partner.
Also, once you hit the peak point of th positive contraction, “squeeze the muscle.” Don’t bounce it. Judging by your question though, you probably already knew that. Good luck! Kelly