Studies seem to indicate that it's close to the best thing to emerge since sliced bread. What is the general (educated) oppinion on them on this board? I know of atleast one swedish trainer of elite (swedish) powerlifters that incorporate them.
Do you mean "eccentric" training as in lowering heavier loads than you can lift concentrically(I assume you do)? Seriously, not trying to be a smart ass. I do miss a lot of things on the interwebs machine.
If you do mean the above, the how's and why's and maybe's seem to go back and forth. I know some seriously strong lifters have done eccentric deadlift training in the past, Bob Peoples being one of them. Pavel Tsatsouline cited some Russian studies once where it was beneficial in the short term if applied intelligently. The Smolov routine has you doing eccentric squats at some point.
Seems to me working them with an intelligent percentage of your true 1rm, like 110%, where you could lower the weight under complete control would be okay. Could help train you to handle heavier loads in the eccentric portion of the lift. But, man, I can see getting beat up pretty quick if over done.
I don't do complete eccentric training but every third week on my 90+% week, I use Supramaximal holds where I walk out, or hold onto, or unrack, etc.. 120% of my max, do an extra partial rep (a few inches), and then hold it for 8 seconds at the top, then rack it. Then I follow that up with a 90% double 45 seconds after that hold. I read about these on DragonDoor. I really like using them and I definitely feel like they work a lot. I have put a lot of thought into doing a full eccentric movement instead of the holds and might use them on my next cycle.
Note that I only do 2 sets of these holds for bench, squat, and deadlift, and that is it. I only do them once every 3 weeks on my 90+% week. I feel doing them weekly would burn you out very quickly.
I'll see if I can dig up some of the studies that have been conducted. But if I recall correctly: they increase both strength and hypertrophy in a way that is just not possible with any scheme of concentric contraction-training. And what I mean is excentric only; someone lifts the barbell if we're talking about benchpress, and then you lower it slowly. Intensities used tend to be in the 100-150% range with set and rep protocols (of the atheletes I've seen use it) are around 3 sets of 2-3.
The athletes are not your average bodybuilder wannabie powerlifter either. I'm talking about national and better level swedish powerlifters.
I don't do complete eccentric training but every third week on my 90+% week, I use Supramaximal holds where I walk out, or hold onto, or unrack, etc.. 120% of my max, do an extra partial rep (a few inches), and then hold it for 8 seconds at the top, then rack it. Then I follow that up with a 90% double 45 seconds after that hold. I read about these on DragonDoor. I really like using them and I definitely feel like they work a lot. I have put a lot of thought into doing a full eccentric movement instead of the holds and might use them on my next cycle.
Note that I only do 2 sets of these holds for bench, squat, and deadlift, and that is it. I only do them once every 3 weeks on my 90+% week. I feel doing them weekly would burn you out very quickly.
The above basically preps the CNS to accept a larger weight.
It's similar in some respects to the affect Wave Loading has.
Single @ 475 Triple @ 400 Single @ 500 Triple @ 440
- The Triples will *feel* lighter as more motor units has been recruited to handle the heavier weight.
With reference to Eccentric Only (or heavy negs) training, there are a number of good studies kicking around - but they will hammer the CNS/PNS.
