I never used to think the concentric portion needed to be different than the eccentric part of the exercise. I figured you’ve got to go up and down on each rep so what’s the big deal.
Actually, it’s very important because we have so much more power on the eccentric than we do on the concentric. Consequently, it’s best to find exercises that start each rep with the concentric and finish with the eccentric. Good examples are calf raises and tricep press downs. A reverse example is bench press and squats. Problem is … they’re all good exercises and should be included in your routine.
Here’s how to make them even better.
To accommodate the increased strength on the eccentric you need to change the … body position … the arm position … the wrist position or whatever in order to give better mechanical advantage to the concentric portion and lessor mechanical advantage to the eccentric portion of the exercise.In other
words the body position should be different on the way up than it is on the way down.
Let’s take Preacher Curls for example. To fully tax the muscle on the way down you have to get creative. First, extend the wrist more, slow down, scrunch down a little lower on the bench. you’re trying to make the exercise harder on the way down.
However I must tell you if the Preacher Bench isn’t designed correctly, it won’t work. The face of the Preacher bench is the single most important factor. It has to be a rounded face … not a flat face. Also the face of the bench should be no more than 9 inches long, so the dumbbells don’t hit at the bottom of the exercise.The padding should be high density so your elbows aren’t grounded into the metal.
Once your elbows get injured, you can kiss big arms good-bye. Finally, if you don’t offset the post away from your pelvis, your groin slams into it and … you can forget about building arms … at least until your eyes stop running.
Your Preacher Bench should be the most wonderful exercise for building biceps of anything you do and … once you get one of these beauties, here’s how to use it.
Start at the bottom of the exercise with your armpits not quite all the way down on the bench. Slowly curl the wrists and with no cheating at all raise the barbell all the way to the top. Right at the top lean further over the bench and flex the biceps for all you’re worth.
Then as you start down, uncurl the writs and slide down with your armpits fully down on the crown of the bench. Extend the wrists out as far as possible and slowly return to the full bottom of the exercise. Take 10-20 seconds going down.
Then slowly curl the wrists and start up again with no cheating at all. Using this form and changing your body position during each rep builds the “look at that guys arms” part of the bicep. Soon your arms will leap out of your shirts even when your arms are hanging relaxed at your side.