I can’t get my biceps to feel sore anymore! And I hate it! I used to love the feeling of heavy arms after a workout, like blocks of cement were just filling up in there. But, I just can’t seem to leave an arm workout without a feeling of complete exhaustion in my biceps anymore. I also don’t feel like I can lift weight that is much heavier than I do now. So, something else needs to change. I understand that the feeling of soreness is not necessarily a good indicator of an amazing workout (I did glutes on Tuesday and still can’t sit on the toilet!), but I do enjoy that heavy feeling in the muscles after a good workout. I have supersetted them, changed rest time between sets, and switched up my routine some. I think what I am going to do next is focus on the negatives.
When lifting weights, your muscle actually goes through two contractions. Most people think of the actual lift of the weight as the only part of the lift. But, there is a second part. Let’s use the Bicep curl as an example to explain both parts of the lift. The concentric contraction is when you take the weight and lift it up towards the body. The muscle fibers are actually shortening during this phase to pull the load up towards the body. As you bring the weight back down to its starting position, this phase is called the eccentric contraction. The muscle fibers are lengthening to help lower and control bringing the load back down. Most people starting off don’t realize that an eccentric contraction is even happening or the importance of this phase of the lift. If you didn’t have eccentric muscle contractions, you wouldn’t be able to sit down in a chair.
For my Bicep workout I’m going to focus more on the eccentric contraction, which is also called the negative contraction. I’m going to spend more time lowering the weight down to its starting position, and not so much on the lift itself. From everything I have read, this is a good change in your routine, but not something you want to do every workout. It can really exhaust your muscles and you want to give yourself adequate rest. It also takes a little more time because you are spending more time each rep on lowering the weight back down. I’m going to do this next Thursday when I do bi’s and tri’s and I will let you know how it goes. Here’s an informative article from Bodybuilding.com explaining negative training.
SammiFit 