excentrics

[Nemesis7884]

i am thinking about - if you do the excentric part of an exercise, should you release the weight for the same speed at every point of the excentric motion or should you be slower at the beginning when intensity and muscle contraction is at its peak and then becomming slower

for example - upright rows, if you go down with the weight right after you hit the top of the exercise, the first few cm are the hardest with most shoulder work involved - should you do the first halve of the excentric slower then ther second halve?

 

[BIZ]

Quote[/b] (Nemesis7884 @ Feb. 03 2005,5:40)]i am thinking about - if you do the excentric part of an exercise, should you release the weight for the same speed at every point of the excentric motion or should you be slower at the beginning when intensity and muscle contraction is at its peak and then becomming slower
for example - upright rows, if you go down with the weight right after you hit the top of the exercise, the first few cm are the hardest with most shoulder work involved - should you do the first halve of the excentric slower then ther second halve?

I wouldn't recommend slow eccentrics on upright row at all actually. Your rotator cuff will take a beating. On other exercises, like the bench press for instance, the slower the eccentric in the greatest ROM would be ideal, i.e. the bottom of the movement, with a quick reversal of direction at the bottom of the movement.

 

[vicious]

During a row, you want to slow down as you approach stretch during the eccentric in order to increase strain. Conversely, you want to slow down as you approach contraction during the concentric in order to increase metabolic stress. However, doing the latter increases a lot of fatigue, and so it's something you'd do carefully, if at all.

Most people won't want to do this kind of rep micromanagement. Counting the normal way is fine too.

If you do the hitch Biz is bringing up, you'll initiate the myotatic reflex. That is good for generating additional strain, particularly with pulling movements.

cheers,
Jules

 

[Tom Treutlein]

Are upright rows bad for the rotator cuffs? I've noticed that when these are done with an EZ Curl Bar, hands at a medium-width grip, palms facing slightly in towards one another, it causes less strain on the shoulders. Couple that with raising the bar to the lower chest and I don't see much risk of injury.