Pushing vs. Lowering Weights: Same Bigger Muscles, Different Ways
Skeletal Muscle Remodeling in Response to Eccentric vs. Concentric Loading: Morphological, Molecular, and Metabolic Adaptations
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Whether you lift a weight up (concentric) or lower it slowly (eccentric), your muscles get about the same size—but they change shape differently inside. Lowering weights makes muscle fibers longer; lifting makes them more angled. Your body uses different tiny signals to build muscle depending on how you move the weight.
Surprising Findings
Muscle protein synthesis rates are nearly identical between eccentric and concentric training, despite vastly different force production and energy costs.
Most people assume slower, harder eccentric movements trigger more anabolic signaling—but the study shows your body doesn’t make more protein, it just rearranges what’s already there.
Practical Takeaways
Mix eccentric and concentric training: use slow lowers (3–5 sec) on compound lifts and explosive concentrics on isolation moves to optimize both structural and cellular adaptations.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Whether you lift a weight up (concentric) or lower it slowly (eccentric), your muscles get about the same size—but they change shape differently inside. Lowering weights makes muscle fibers longer; lifting makes them more angled. Your body uses different tiny signals to build muscle depending on how you move the weight.
Surprising Findings
Muscle protein synthesis rates are nearly identical between eccentric and concentric training, despite vastly different force production and energy costs.
Most people assume slower, harder eccentric movements trigger more anabolic signaling—but the study shows your body doesn’t make more protein, it just rearranges what’s already there.
Practical Takeaways
Mix eccentric and concentric training: use slow lowers (3–5 sec) on compound lifts and explosive concentrics on isolation moves to optimize both structural and cellular adaptations.
Publication
Journal
Frontiers in Physiology
Year
2017
Authors
M. Franchi, N. Reeves, M. Narici
Related Content
Claims (7)
Your muscles don’t make more protein faster when you lower weights slowly vs. lifting them up—so growth must come from rearranging what’s already there, not just making more.
Lowering weights slowly makes the connective tissue around your muscles rebuild and strengthen more than lifting does, helping your muscle adapt structurally.
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.
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.
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.