A quick way to wake up your workout results involves a minor change that has major results.

Here’s how it works. A muscle contracts concentrically as it shortens. So, when you do a bicep curl, the muscle from the front of your arm from your shoulder to your elbow contracts. In a normal lifting of weights, you would lower the weight while releasing the contraction. If you introduce eccentric contractions to your workouts, you’ll focus on generating tension in the muscle as your muscle lengthens. You sort of resist the lowering of the weight.

You can add small pauses as you lower the weight or on the back side of the exercise movement you are doing. Take around eight seconds to complete the movement and return to the base position. This eccentric contraction enables you to accomplish more in every exercise. It is especially effective when you are working your abdominals.

Eccentric Abdominal Curls

Let’s say you were doing a basic "crunch" for your "abs." Lying on your back with knees bent, start with an exhale, pressing your lower back against the ground. Look at your navel as you curl up, keeping your mid-section tucked in and your ribs pressing downwards while reaching your torso upward in the "crunch." (Hands are locked behind your head with elbows pointing outward.) At the top of the "crunch," instead of quickly releasing the tension in your "abs," take eight seconds to return to your starting position. Maintain the tension in your midsection all the way through the return motion.

You can add all sorts of variations to this midsection work. From the basic position, try reaching upward with alternate, elbow-to-opposite-knee movements. Slow the movement way down, once you are at the top of the crunch. Hold the upright position and alternate elbows to opposite knees.

In another variation, stretch one leg out straight with the other still bent in the basic stance. Stay tucked throughout the upward sit-up phase of the movement. Then slowly return to the base position and stretch the opposite leg out in front. The key words here are, s-l-o-w motion!

Sprinkle eccentric contractions often throughout your workout. If you mix up your workout approach like this, you’ll find your body responds much faster to your efforts.

- Pam Brooks

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