When I drop something, I’m likely to remark, “Gravity still works!” (This is a more acceptable reaction than, say, swearing loudly.) I am always right. Gravity does still work.
Interestingly, when we change our body position, gravity works in different ways. Lifting a leg, for example, is different when we’re standing up versus when we are lying on our backs.
In a similar way, the direction we move changes the way gravity works. When we are working against gravity, our muscles have to contract to do the work. This is called a concentric contraction. But in the lowering phase of an exercise, we are working with gravity and our muscles need to control and stabilize the motion. This is called an eccentric contraction. (Note: in a fitness context, eccentric is pronounced with a long initial e. This bugs the heck out of me, but I am not in charge of fitness terminology. On the other hand, it does distinguish an eccentric contraction (long e, lowering phase) from an eccentric contraction (in which we do it in a weird way unique to ourselves).) (Apparently I am in a parenthetical mood.)
One consequence of the long e eccentric contractions is that we might be doing a good chunk of work and seeing little to no movement. That’s all right; we’re still getting stronger.
Bonus: Schoolhouse Rock for the Win.
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