Eccentric Resistance Training and Muscle Hypertrophy

Resistance exercise is a key component of any training program aiming to increase strength or muscle mass, regardless of final training goal (e.g. athletic performance, rehabilitation, healthy lifestyle). Great number of studies emphasizes the importance of eccentric muscle actions as a key component of resistance training programs. Thus, resistance eccentric training programs have been compared with other training paradigms analyzing maximum strength manifestations, metabolic cost, muscle activation and fiber recruitment pattern, hypertrophy, as well perceived fatigue. On the other hand, it is well known that the muscle damage and pain induced by eccentric exercise is higher when compared to other training modalities (e.g. concentric exercise). Besides the higher muscle damage, most studies involving eccentric training programs are suggesting greater muscle mass and muscular strength gains with shorter periods of training. The aim of this brief review is to point out the benefits of eccentric training programs, highlighting its effects on muscle hypertrophy, and to indicate the difficulties that can rise when employing such a model. *Corresponding author: Fernanda de Souza-Teixeira, Institute of Biomedicine, University of León, Spain, Tel: +55-53-81185133; E-mail: [email protected] Received December 12, 2011; Accepted May 25, 2012; Published May 29, 2012 Citation: de Souza-Teixeira F, de Paz JA (2012) Eccentric Resistance Training and Muscle Hypertrophy. J Sport Medic Doping Studie S1:004. doi:10.4172/2161-0673. S1-004 Copyright: © 2012 de Souza-Teixeira F, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.