Lifting weights for as little as three seconds a day can have a positive impact on muscle strength, a new study from Edith Cowan University (ECU) has discovered. A collaboration with researchers from Niigata University of Health and Welfare (NUHW) in Japan 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.

No time to exercise? What about THREE SECONDS a day  

“Many people think you have to spend a lot of time exercising, but it’s not the case. Short, good quality exercise can still be good for your body and every muscle contraction counts.”

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. For a bicep curl, a dumbbell held with an arm by one’s side, before lifting the weight upwards towards the chest and then lowering it back down via the elbow.  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.

Isometric vs concentric vs eccentric 

The eccentric group saw significant improvements in strength across all three measurements: concentric increased 12.8 per cent, isometric 10.2 per cent and eccentric 12.2 per cent.The eccentric group’s overall muscle strength improved 11.5 per cent after 60 seconds of effort in total.

Eccentric Is Best

"We haven’t investigated other muscles yet, but if we find the three-second rule also applies to other muscles then you might be able to do a whole-body exercise in less than 30 seconds"

EurekAlert! Science News Service from AAAS

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