You might be lifting your weights the wrong way at gym, do it THIS way

Muscle contraction is said to be most effective at increasing muscle strength and muscle size and rather than lifting weights. Find out how.

Pic courtesy: Pixabay

New research from Edith Cowan University (ECU) has shown one type of muscle contraction is most effective at increasing muscle strength and muscle size and rather than lifting weights, the emphasis should be on lowering them. The team, which also included researchers from Niigata University and Nishi Kyushu University in Japan and Brazil's Londrina State University, had groups of people perform three different types of dumbbell curl exercises and measured the results. 

It found those who only lowered a weight saw the same improvements as those who raised and lowered weights despite only performing half the number of repetitions.

ECU's Professor Ken Nosaka said the results reinforced previous research indicating a focus on "eccentric" muscle contractions in which activated muscles are lengthened is more important to increase the strength and size of muscles, rather than the volume.

"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," Professor Nosaka said."

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