Get it up there

Today I performed a 7 set, one rep maximum of Push presses. A push press is a shoulder (overhead) press that uses a small dip in your hips to get the weight you are pressing up into the air.




One of the benefits of a push press is that you are able to lift a little bit more weight than you would with a strict shoulder press. One more exercise that will allow lift you even more weight is a push jerk. Here is a video comparing the three:




You can see that the with the push jerk you actually push your body under weight as you perform a push press.

So why would you use these different exercises instead of sticking to a regular shoulder press? I'm glad you asked...

While the shoulder press uses solely the shoulder muscles for a concentric contraction (or the raising of the bar over your head) as well as the eccentric contraction (or the lowering of the bar), the push press and push jerk allow you to get more weight up by using other muscles (hips and core) therefore lowering more weight with the eccentric contraction of only your shoulders.

Here are a couple of benefits on eccentric contractions from LifeFitness:

1. Greater increases in Strength

When eccentric only training has been compared to concentric only training, several researchers have discovered that eccentric training yields greater increases in strength than concentric.

One study looked at 6 weeks of eccentric vs. concentric training in women. Hortobagyi et.al. (1996). After the training, the concentric group improved strength 36% while the eccentric group had a 42% increase. This difference was significant (P<.05). The authors concluded that training eccentrically yielded greater strength adaptations faster than concentric training in women.

The superiority of eccentric training versus concentric training for developing strength has also been reported by Farthing and Chilibeck (2003), LaStayo et.al. (2003), Seger, et.al. (1998), and Hortobagyi et.al. (1997).

Greater muscle hypertrophy (increase in muscle size)

It is well accepted that the stimulus for muscle growth is microtrauma to the muscle following exercise. The process of lengthening during a contraction increases the amount of microtrauma experienced by the muscle. In turn, this stimulates the muscle to rebuild and add and increase muscle fiber size in order to handle the load. While concentric training can induce some microtrauma, over the same period of time, eccentric training is more effective for promoting muscle growth.

Numerous studies have reported that eccentric training is superior to concentric training for inducing muscle hypertrophy. Farthing JP and Chilibeck PD (2003), Higbie (1996) and LaStayo et.al. (2003)

References

American College of Sports Medicine Position Stand on Progression Models in Resistance Training for Healthy Adults.(2002) Med Sci Sports Exer.34(2):364-380.

Bird, SP, Tarpenning, KM, & Marino FE. (2005) Designing resistance training programmes to enhance muscular fitness: a review of the acute programme variables. Sports Med , 35(10):841-51

Colliander EB and Tesch PA (1990) Effects of eccentric and concentric muscle actions in resistance training. Acta Physiol Scand, 140 (1):31-9.

Gur, H, Cakin, N, Akova, B, Okay, E, Kucukoglu,S. (2002) Concentric versus combined concentric-eccentric isokinetic training: effects on functional capacity and symptoms in patients with osteoarthrosis of the knee. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 83(3): 308-16.

Hilliard-Robertson PC, Schneider SM, Bishop SL, and Guilliams ME (2003) Strength gains following different combined concentric and eccentric exercise regiems. Avait Space Environ Med. 74(4):342-7.

Hortobagyi T, Barrier J, Beard D, Braspennincx J, Koens P, Devita P, Dempsey L, and Lambert J (1996) Greater initial adaptations to submaximal muscle lengthening than maximal shortening. J Appl Physiol. 81(4):1677-82.

Farthing JP and Chilibeck PD (2003) The effect of eccentric training at different velocities on muscle hypertrophy. Eur J Appl Physiol. 89(6):570-7.