The Power of Lowering: Why Eccentric Exercise Matters After 60
Most of us think about strength training as the lifting part: curling a weight up, pressing a bar overhead, and pushing ourselves out of a squat. That's called the concentric phase, when muscles shorten under tension. But there's another phase that gets far less attention, despite being significantly more powerful: the lowering part. This is an eccentric exercise, and for people over sixty, it might be one of the most valuable forms of training available. What Makes Eccentric Exercise Different Eccentric exercise focuses on the controlled lowering phase of movement, when your muscles lengthen under tension. In a biceps curl, it's lowering the weight back down. In a squat, it's the descent to the bottom position. During a step-down, it's controlling your body as you lower yourself from a platform. Here's what makes this remarkable: your muscles are actually 20% to 60% stronger during eccentric movements compared to concentric ones, meaning you can handle sig...
