Everyone often hears this suggestion when they go to the gym, which is to slow down when lowering.

No matter what kind of fitness enthusiast you are, whether it's street fitness or equipment bodybuilding, you'll often hear the advice to go down slowly.

This advice is actually called eccentric control.

Anyone who masters eccentric control will see faster progress in their fitness than others.

What is eccentric control?

When we exercise and do fitness, we are actually controlling the contraction of muscles to complete various actions.

There are three main forms of muscle contraction, which are isometric contraction, concentric contraction, and eccentric contraction.

Isometric contraction is the way in which the muscle maintains a static, length-constant contraction, such as when we maintain a plank position, most of our muscles are in a state of isometric contraction.

Concentric contraction is the way in which the muscle contracts while shortening.

For example, when you lift a dumbbell with a barbell, the muscle contracts while shortening, but it also counteracts the load, so this is called concentric contraction.

Muscular eccentric contraction refers to the way in which the muscle contracts while lengthening.

For example, when doing pull-ups, as you go down from the highest point, the back muscles stretch, but they also counter the self-weight, so the back muscles are in an eccentric contraction state.

Eccentric control refers to specifically feeling and controlling the eccentric contraction of muscles. Eccentric control is also commonly known as reverse control in the field of bodyweight training.

Eccentric control has two requirements, one is to slow down the speed, and the other is to feel the muscle contraction.

What are the benefits of eccentric control?

Why do so many people highly praise eccentric control, not just in the field of equipment bodybuilding, but also in the field of bodyweight gymnastics?

In fact, eccentric control has many benefits, whether it's for muscle growth, movement, or even strength improvement, it has good effects.

1Strengthening muscle stimulation

For muscle growth players, we all know that the more muscle fibers that are damaged during training, the better the muscle growth effect will be.

However, it's a fact that muscle fibers will only break more easily when they are in an eccentric contraction process.

Because the muscle fibers are stretched, it's easier to break, just like a rubber band.

When the muscle is in an eccentric contraction state, the muscle stretch is lengthened, at this time the muscle fibers will apply a certain load, so the muscle stimulation will increase.

Therefore, eccentric control is beneficial for muscle stimulation in bodybuilding and muscle growth.

For example, when doing bicep curls, you can go faster when you lift, but slower when you lower, so the biceps can get better stimulation.

2Strengthening muscle coordination

For bodyweight training enthusiasts, there's also a principle, the stronger the coordination between muscles, the better the action can be completed.

For example, the action of pull-ups, in addition to the strength of the back muscles, you also need the cooperation of the shoulders, arms and chest muscles to complete the pull-ups.

So this muscle cooperation is called muscle coordination or body coordination.

When the muscle is in an eccentric contraction state, all the muscles involved in the pull-up will be awakened, so the pull-up ability will naturally increase.

Therefore, when practicing pull-ups and dragon flag exercises, you can directly go down from the highest point to the lowest point while feeling the force of the involved muscles, so you can quickly learn these actions.

3Strengthening muscle recruitment

Here we also mention a fact, that is, when the muscle is in an eccentric contraction state, the strength is the largest.

For example, if you can't lift 15kg of dumbbell when doing bicep curls, but you can slowly lower it from the highest point.

Using the principle of strength training, the more the weight, the more muscle nerves can be recruited.

If you use eccentric control effectively, your strength will become greater.

For example, when doing bench presses, if you can't push 100kg, you can find someone to assist you when pushing, and let them help you lift it, and when lowering it, you control it to the lowest point yourself.

Of course, eccentric control is not only about improving fitness effects, but also about allowing the muscles to withstand the load during movement.

In this way, the risk of joint injury will be greatly reduced. Therefore, eccentric control is applicable to any training.