Posted on 02/07/2022 6:54:56 AM PST by ConservativeMind
Lifting weights for as little as three seconds a day can have a positive impact on muscle strength.
A collaboration had 39 healthy university students perform one muscle contraction at maximum effort for three seconds per day, for five days a week over four weeks.
The participants performed either an isometric, concentric or eccentric bicep curl (see definitions below) at maximum effort, while researchers measured the muscles' maximum voluntary contraction strength before and after the four-week period.
Muscle strength increased more than 10 percent for the group who performed the eccentric bicep curl after the four weeks, but less increase in muscle strength was found for the other two exercise groups.
The no exercise group saw no increase.
Lead researcher Professor Ken Nosaka said the results showed people didn't need to spend vast amounts of time exercising to improve their muscle strength.
"The study results suggest that a very small amount of exercise stimulus—even 60 seconds in four weeks—can increase muscle strength," he said.
Isometric vs concentric vs eccentric
These three classifications relate to what the muscle is doing when being activated.
An isometric contraction is when the muscle is stationary under load, concentric is when the muscle is shortening and eccentric when the muscle is lengthening.
Lifting the weight sees the bicep in concentric contraction, lowering the weight sees it in eccentric contraction, while holding the weight parallel to the ground is isometric.
So which is best?
The study shows all three lifting methods had some benefit to muscle strength, however eccentric contraction easily produced the best results.
"Although the mechanisms underpinning eccentric contraction's potent effects are not clear yet, the fact only a three-second maximal eccentric contraction a day improves muscle strength in a relatively short period is important for health and fitness," Professor Nosaka said.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
I should,be healthy as a horse then becausemi have a muscle issue where my muscles constantly tense up for no reason (is no obvious reason- even at rest, I’m constantly catching myself tensing up and have to consciously think about relaxing. The strain from this results in a burning muscle pain - like one gets when running or lifting weights or wh a tver, beyond what th3y can endure, and the muscles begin to burn with pain.
😆
That wins the internets for the whole week 😆
“I get that workout putting on my yoga pants!”
BOL! My wife is back in the lineup for a hip replacement after the Covid backup B$.
She had to give up wearing her yoga pants and go to loose fitting sweat pants.
Getting the Yoga Pants on was a challenge for her and taking them off became a two person challenge.
That was my take. You can usually get very high results, in terms of percentage, when you go from nothing to something. E.g. going from 0 to 1 is an infinite percent increase! ...but then you get diminishing returns as you do more. It seems all the test subjects never did anything. I’d be more curious about somebody going from exercising 15mins/day to 30mins/day, or 20m/day to 1hr/day.
I tend to live by the 80/20 rule...I want 80% of the benefits with 20% cost/effort.
I have had multiple back surgeries and struggle with putting them on and taking them off!!!
One of the funniest movies ever.
L
Now that’s a workout I can live with 🤪
So, do one load of laundry per day carried down and up stairs, instead of several loads on the weekend, alternating with carrying groceries out of the car up stairs into the house, mowing the lawn, and carrying the vacuum up and down stairs.
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