Eccentric Exercise In, Strength Training Out

     What do you know about eccentric exercise?  The following article was written by Jim Rollince of Gym Source, a vendor of fitness equipment, including bikes, arc trainers, treadmills, ellipticals, and more!

    How do you approach strength training?   It may not have to be as vigorous as you thought. Recent studies are showing that very simple, low key exercise is demonstrating real benefits!

    Some people consider these the easiest of exercises to do.   They consist of exercises to support lengthening the muscles, for example feet extensions or leg extensions.   Concentric exercises are the exact opposite; an example is when you are contracting muscles in order to lift something heavy.

   Finally, there is some corroboration that eccentric exercise is advantageous for those who want to stay in shape.

     There was a study that appeared in the January 2011 issue of the journal of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise in which twenty women participated in various exercise groups that performed either concentric or eccentric movements once a week for eight weeks. At the same time each exercise group had to perform leg extensions which targeted the quadriceps. They got some very interesting results.

     According to the researchers conducting the study, the eccentric group displayed the following:

• improved blood lipid profiles
• increased muscle strength and performance
• decrease insulin resistance *

     Every single category of improvement was far higher for the group that performed the eccentric exercise.  Most surprisingly of all was that there were even better results which showed up 2 months later!   After 2 months the group this group had actually increased their metabolic rate (BMR) by 5 percent.

      This is quite remarkable!  You would think that this would occur only after many months of regular endurance training or regular aerobic exercise.

     What is so great about these results is that these exercises are so simple to add to anyone's normal exercise routine. You do not have to be into extreme gym workouts.

      Even so, even athletes and competitive sports people will be benefiting from adding eccentric exercise to their workouts. When they are not actually competing they can still keep up the metabolic pace necessary to keep in shape.

     Sports doctors and examiners have agreed that adding this low key exercise on a regular basis makes sense on the basis of this study and that doing so can be even more beneficial than the usual concentric exercise regime.

* Lifetime Fat Loss notes: What I find so fascinating is that apparently these test results showed actual measurable improvements for insulin resistance with these simple exercises.  Keep walking but consider adding extension exercises to your daily routine.

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