When you slowly lower a weight (like letting a dumbbell down slowly), your muscles get bigger because special proteins called Titin send growth signals when your muscle is stretched under tension.
Evidence from Studies
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Contradicting (1)
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Influence of exercise contraction mode and protein supplementation on human skeletal muscle satellite cell content and muscle fiber growth.
While the study tests eccentric vs concentric exercise, it doesn't examine the Titin mechanism mentioned in the claim. More importantly, it actually found that concentric training led to greater increases in satellite cells and type II fiber hypertrophy compared to eccentric training, which contradicts the claim that eccentric contractions significantly contribute to muscle growth.
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