What to Know About Eccentric vs. Concentric and Isometric Movements (2024)

Are you a strength training regular, but feeling totally unmotivated after doing the same moves week after week? Your first instinct might be to add some complicated new exercises to your routine. While, sure, complex exercises can spice things up, you can actually work your muscles in a fresh way if you just pay attention to training an exercise in its various parts.

Believe it or not, every strength-training exercise (whether bodyweight or heavy lifting) can be broken down into three main portions: the concentric vs. eccentric movements, and an isometric hold.

"The concentric portion happens when the muscle contracts, the eccentric portion happens when the muscle lengthens, and the isometric portion happens when the muscle doesn't move at all," explains Grayson Wickham, D.P.T., C.S.C.S., a physical therapist and founder of Movement Vault, a digital movement education platform.

And while you'll almost always be performing the entire squat, deadlift, push-up, or other exercise, training each part of the movement separately does have its benefits. Below, a crash course on concentric vs. eccentric movements, what isometric exercises are, and the benefits of training them together and separately.

What to Know About Eccentric vs. Concentric and Isometric Movements (1)

Concentric Movements, Explained

The concentric portion of a movement occurs when the tension in the muscle increases and the muscle fibers shorten or contract, explains Wickham. The easiest example of a concentric movement is the beginning of a biceps curl: Think about bringing the dumbbell from hip height up to your shoulder. "As the weight gets closer to your shoulder, the biceps muscle is shortening and the tension in the muscle increases," he explains.

The Benefits of Concentric Movement Training

"The concentric portion of a movement lends itself to increased power, speed, and strength," says Wickham. However, this portion doesn't strengthen the muscles as much as the eccentric portion of a lift.

It's helpful to understand that in order for a muscle to get stronger, you actually need to damage that muscle. "You need to create microtears in the muscle that the body repairs and rebuilds even stronger than before," explains Wickham. Concentric movements don't damage the muscle as much as eccentric movements. While this means fewer strength gains per rep, it also means less delayed onset muscle soreness (aka DOMS), faster recovery, and less added muscle mass, he says. (

Should You Work Out When You're Sore?

There's not much benefit to training just the concentric part of a movement, according to Wickham. But there are three instances when you might want to focus on the concentric portion:

Before a competition or race, when you're worried about being sore. Let's say you have a CrossFit competition on Sunday. If your box programs deadlifts on Friday, you might keep soreness at bay by picking the weight up and then just dropping it, as opposed to lowering it back to the floor. (PSA: You'll need to use weight lifting pads or make sure your gym has shock-absorbing floors to do this variation.)
If you're a serious sprinter. Research suggests that the eccentric portion of an exercise is responsible for building more muscle mass than the concentric, so "sometimes advanced sprinters will just focus on just the concentric portion of movements like the deadlift to prevent from building thicker, bulkier muscles," says Wickham. The theory is that bulkier muscles will lead to slower sprint times. However, for the general population of runners, this isn't necessary, he notes. "For most runners, the loss from skipping out on the eccentric portion of the lift is greater than the benefit of just doing the concentric," he says. Translation: not a good enough reason to opt out of the full lift.

If you're trying to dial in your form. It's common for coaches to have athletes focus on just the first half of a lift when they're learning how to do complex movements, such as a squat snatch or power clean. Usually, the goal here is just to safely nail the form, but this is technically giving athletes practice with just the concentric portion of the lift.

The bottom line on concentric training: "Unless there's a specific reason you don't want to be sore the next day, it's best to train the concentric portion with the eccentric portion," says Wickham.

Eccentric Movements, Explained

Also known as "the negative," the "eccentric movement involves lengthening the muscle fibers," says Ally McKinney, an ACSM-certified personal trainer. Usually, this means returning the weight to the starting position. For instance, during a biceps curl, the eccentric movement happens while you're lowering the weight down to hip level.

Typically, eccentric training refers to training that emphasizes that portion of the movement. Think:

During a deadlift, slowly bringing the barbell back down to the floor on a count of three
Lowering yourself from a pull-up bar as slowly as possible
Slowly rolling back during a Pilates roll-up

The Benefits of Eccentric Training

"Eccentric training places a greater demand on your muscles and central nervous system, so it's going to take you longer to recover from doing eccentric movements," says Wickham — but it's worth it. Remember: Eccentrics damage your muscle more than concentric movements.

"There are so, so many benefits of eccentric training," says McKinney. In addition to strengthening your muscles, eccentric training helps strengthen your tendons and ligaments, which decreases your risk of injury, she says. In fact, one review found that eccentrics may help reduce the risk of muscle strain and tears.

"Eccentric contractions can also literally make your muscle fibers grow, making the muscle itself physically longer. Longer muscles means greater flexibility, and greater flexibility means greater injury prevention," says McKinney. Wondering if you would benefit from eccentric training? "The better question is: Who wouldn't benefit?" says McKinney.

Isometric Exercises, Explained

"During an isometric move, you're literally holding completely still at a particular angle so that there is no lengthening or shortening of the muscle," says McKinney. Not every exercise will include an isometric portion — but you can add one to most moves by adding a pause mid-movement.

Return once again to the biceps curl: Image curling your biceps to 90 degrees so that your forearm is parallel to the floor, and then holding the weight there for ten seconds. That's isometric training. "Any movement that entails holding completely still might be considered an isometric hold," says Wickham.

That might look like sitting in the bottom of a squat, holding your weights with arms outstretched for 10 seconds during the arm moves in spin class, or holding chair pose in yoga. There are also some exercises that are isometric by nature. Think:

Handstand hold
High plank
Wall sit
Hollow hold
Hanging from the pull-up bar
Front rack kettlebell hold

The Benefits of Isometric Training

If you've ever done a wall sit or sat in the bottom of a squat, you won't be surprised to hear that even though you're not actually moving, you're still strengthening your muscles. "Isometrics still force you to engage your muscles, and therefore can help make you stronger," says McKinney. Because holding still requires you to really engage your core, isometrics can be used to increase balance and body control, too, she adds.

Isometrics can also help you break through a strength plateau. You're weakest in your end ranges of motion, explains Wickham. Think about a heavy back squat for example: pushing the weight up from the very bottom is typically where most folks struggle. But sitting in the bottom of your squat with a weighted barbell on your back can help you develop the strength you need to stand the weight back up and hit a new PR, he says. The same concept applies to push-ups or bench presses, he says. Holding your body an inch or two above the ground during a push-up will help make the entire movement easier in the long run.

"While you can't only do isometrics from now on and expect to get stronger, isometrics are great for anyone trying to break through a strength plateau or improve their mobility," says Wickham.

So, Should You Train Each Portion of the Movement?

Yes! "If you use concentrics to build strength through the entire range of motion, eccentrics to build stronger and more resilient muscle tissue, and isometrics to increase strength at your end range of motion, you'll be a force to be reckoned with," says McKinney.

Still, you should only do this sometimes. You can't only train the parts — "you need to train the movement in full," says Wickham.