Document Type
Review
Publication Date
6-24-2019
Description
The purpose of this review was to provide a physiological rationale for the use of eccentric resistance training and to provide an overview of the most commonly prescribed eccentric training methods. Based on the existing literature, there is a strong physiological rationale for the incorporation of eccentric training into a training program for an individual seeking to maximize muscle size, strength, and power. Specific adaptations may include an increase in muscle cross-sectional area, force output, and fiber shortening velocities, all of which have the potential to benefit power production characteristics. Tempo eccentric training, flywheel inertial training, accentuated eccentric loading, and plyometric training are commonly implemented in applied contexts. These methods tend to involve different force absorption characteristics and thus, overload the muscle or musculotendinous unit in different ways during lengthening actions. For this reason, they may produce different magnitudes of improvement in hypertrophy, strength, and power. The constraints to which they are implemented can have a marked effect on the characteristics of force absorption and therefore, could affect the nature of the adaptive response. However, the versatility of the constraints when prescribing these methods mean that they can be effectively implemented to induce these adaptations within a variety of populations.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Citation Information
Suchomel, Timothy J.; Wagle, John P.; Douglas, Jamie; Taber, Christopher B.; Harden, Mellissa; Gregory Haff, G.; and Stone, Michael H.. 2019. Implementing Eccentric Resistance Training—Part 1: A Brief Review of Existing Methods. Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology. Vol.4(2). https://doi.org/10.3390/jfmk4020038
Copyright Statement
© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)