Lowering weights slowly makes muscle fibers longer, while lifting them quickly makes them thicker and more angled—both make muscles bigger, but in different ways.

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Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

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Skeletal Muscle Remodeling in Response to Eccentric vs. Concentric Loading: Morphological, Molecular, and Metabolic Adaptations

Narrative Review

2017

This study says that lifting weights while stretching your muscles (eccentric) and lifting while shortening them (concentric) make your muscles grow the same amount, but in different ways — one makes muscle fibers longer, the other makes them more angled.

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According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.

Source Study

Skeletal Muscle Remodeling in Response to Eccentric vs. Concentric Loading: Morphological, Molecular, and Metabolic Adaptations

Score: 1

DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2017.00447

Similar Assertions

If you're new to lifting weights, doing exercises where you lower the weight slowly (eccentric) might make your biceps grow bigger than exercises where you lift the weight up (concentric), after 8 weeks of training.

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Whether you push weights up or lower them slowly, if you do the same amount of total work, your muscles grow about the same size.

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Lowering weights slowly makes the connective tissue around your muscles rebuild and strengthen more than lifting does, helping your muscle adapt structurally.

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Lowering weights slowly turns on different cellular signals and makes your muscle’s scaffolding change more than lifting does—even if both make your muscle bigger.

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If you're new to working out and do leg exercises where you lower the weight slowly and quickly, doing it at a speed of 180 degrees per second might give you the biggest strength gains after 8 weeks — faster eccentric moves might just be the secret sauce for getting stronger.

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