Ever done an exercise and afterwards felt like you just went through the motions? You didn't really feel anything...
Ever wonder if how you're performing and exercise is even correct?
What if I told you that you're doing it wrong. You would think to yourself: How the hell do you know, you've never seen me lift. I know because 99.69% of people in the gym are doing it wrong (if their goal is to build muscle that is...power/Olympic lifters are an exception).
So what the hell do I mean? Lets use a Bicep Curl for illustration.
There are 3 phases of a lift: Concentric, Isometric and Eccentric.
Concentric- is the upward motion of this exercise. The part when you are contracting your biceps to lift the weight upward.
Isometric- is the pause when you reach the top of the movement, just before you begin to lower the weight.
Eccentric- is the lowering phase of the exercise.
Now that we're all clear on the terminology, what's the big deal?
The big deal is Time Under Tension (TUT). Everyone focuses on the Concentric part of the exercise and thinks they are maximizing their potential gains. You know, when you grunt to get the weight up and then let it flop down to the starting position. When in reality, this part of the lift should be the least of their worries. In fact, the ECCENTRIC portion of the lift is where we pack on the gains. This is the part that everyone (99.69%) negates!
In order for us to maximize dem gains, you need to start thinking about TUT. The longer the muscle is under tension the better for building. What I recommend when lifting is to set a tempo. For the biceps curl aim for a 2 second Concentric movement, 1 second hold (contracting your biceps as hard as possible), then lowering the weight for 4 seconds.
Holy burn! You will hate me during the lift, but you will love the outcome.