If you are in the group that finds it difficult to fit time in the gym into your schedule, there may be some good news hidden here.
According to new research from Australia’s Edith Cowan University, you can potentially cut your strength training in half and still get the same results.
It was found that lowering weights has a greater effect on the structure of muscle mass than lifting them.
The researchers divided the participants into three groups that were made to do strength training twice a week, while the fourth group was a control group that did no training for the five weeks that the experiment lasted.
One of the training groups was made to let the weights sink and thus strengthen the muscles while stretching them. The other group was made to lift weights, which strengthens the muscles as they contract. The third group was made to both lift the weights and let them drop.
The results showed the same improvement in strength in those who only lowered the weights as those who both lifted and lowered, even though the latter group had done the exercises half as often.
And measurements of the groups that had only lifted and only lowered, showed that the diameter of the muscles of people in the lowering group had increased by 7.2%, but by 5.4% in those who both lifted and lowered.
The researchers say the results show that it is possible to achieve significantly more results in the time people devote to training.
“We now know that just one muscle exercise a day, where the muscle is lengthened, five times a week, can increase muscle strength – even if the exercise only takes three seconds. But strength training, which involves muscle contraction, does not produce the same effect,”says Ken Nosaka , one of the researchers.
