This Simple Trick Will Change The Way You Build Muscle

Your muscles are bundles of fibers that shorten to pull bone(s), creating movement.

There are two types of muscle movements. Concentric movements are when your muscle is shortening. Eccentric movements are when your muscle is lengthening.

Muscle growth is maximized during eccentric movements (when the muscle is lengthening). Therefore, it is important to focus on a slow, controlled lengthening since that will grow muscle the quickest.

This means that you need to place emphasis into the lengthening portion of your movement. The most common mistake that people make is using all of their energy during the shortening portion of the movement (ex: the way up on a bicep curl) and then quickly dropping the weight during the lengthening portion (ex: the way down on a bicep curl) due to fatigue. This results in minimal muscle growth.

Instead, try this new technique:

When shortening the muscle, focus on using good form to move the weight to the fully contracted position, squeezing once fully contracted.

When lengthening the muscle, focus on slowly controlling the weight back to the fully lengthened position.