READ TIME: 2 minutes, 13 seconds

Have you ever been stuck on whether you should continue working out with an injury?

Struggling with an injury such as golfer/tennis elbow, torn bicep or strained rotator cuff?

If so, this blog is for you!

Today you’re gonna learn about a scientifically backed method that sounds strange at first. But may help you maintain more muscle or even gain new muscle while recovering from an injury.

Science Daily posted an international study from Edith Cowan University (ECU) back in October 2020.

It’s titled…"Exercising one arm has twice the benefits" that suggests training just one arm can improve strength and decrease muscle loss in the other arm.

One of the professors involved in this study is “Professor Ken Nosaka”.

This is what he has to say about the findings…

"I think this could change the way we approach rehabilitation for people who have temporarily lost the use of one arm or one leg.”

"By starting rehab and exercise in the uninjured limb right away, we can prevent muscle damage induced by exercise in the other limb and also build strength without moving it at all.”

THE STUDY

The study involved three groups with 10 participants. All of them had one arm immobilized for a minimum of eight hours a day for four weeks.

Group 1 was instructed to do no exercise.
Group 2 was told to do a mix of both eccentric and concentric exercises.
Group 3 was only allowed to do eccentric exercises only.

Just so you know, the eccentric part of the exercise is the lowering of the weight (i.e. the descent of a bicep curl or a squat) This is also known as the negative of the rep.

The concentric (or positive) part of the rep is the exact opposite of the eccentric (the lifting of the weight during a bicep curl or the rising up out of a squat).

This is the part of the rep most people are familiar with when they think of weight training.

The result of the study may surprise you. Nosaka notes that the group who used a heavy dumbbell to perform only eccentric exercises on their active arm showed an increase in strength and a decrease in muscle atrophy in their immobilized arm.

"Participants who did only eccentric exercise had the biggest increase in strength in both arms, so it has a very powerful cross-transfer effect.”

"This group also had just 2% muscle loss in their immobilized arm, compared with those who did no exercise who had a 28% loss of muscle. Meaning those people who do not exercise have to regain all that muscle and strength again.”

—Professor Ken Nosaka

CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY:

The future of rehab and muscle maintenance is eccentric training.

If you have an injured arm or leg, try exercising the non-injured limb with eccentric exercises with weights. According to the research done at ECU, this could help reduce muscle and strength loss during the recovery process.

As suggested by Professor Nosaka, eccentric training can be useful for athletes who can begin post-injury recovery sooner as well as stroke victims undergoing rehabilitation therapy.

If you wanna dig deeper into this study you can read the Science Daily article here.

Thank you for reading!

Was this helpful?

If so, comment below.

TRAINING BY DRAKE

Blog

Continue or Discountinue Training with an Injury

READ TIME: 2 minutes, 13 seconds

Have you ever been stuck on whether you should continue working out with an injury?

Struggling with an injury such as golfer/tennis elbow, torn bicep or strained rotator cuff?

If so, this blog is for you!

Today you’re gonna learn about a scientifically backed method that sounds strange at first. But may help you maintain more muscle or even gain new muscle while recovering from an injury.

Science Daily posted an international study from Edith Cowan University (ECU) back in October 2020.

It’s titled…"Exercising one arm has twice the benefits" that suggests training just one arm can improve strength and decrease muscle loss in the other arm.

One of the professors involved in this study is “Professor Ken Nosaka”.

This is what he has to say about the findings…

"I think this could change the way we approach rehabilitation for people who have temporarily lost the use of one arm or one leg.”

"By starting rehab and exercise in the uninjured limb right away, we can prevent muscle damage induced by exercise in the other limb and also build strength without moving it at all.”

THE STUDY

The study involved three groups with 10 participants. All of them had one arm immobilized for a minimum of eight hours a day for four weeks.

Group 1 was instructed to do no exercise.

Group 2 was told to do a mix of both eccentric and concentric exercises.

Group 3 was only allowed to do eccentric exercises only.

Just so you know, the eccentric part of the exercise is the lowering of the weight (i.e. the descent of a bicep curl or a squat) This is also known as the negative of the rep.

The concentric (or positive) part of the rep is the exact opposite of the eccentric (the lifting of the weight during a bicep curl or the rising up out of a squat).

This is the part of the rep most people are familiar with when they think of weight training.

The result of the study may surprise you. Nosaka notes that the group who used a heavy dumbbell to perform only eccentric exercises on their active arm showed an increase in strength and a decrease in muscle atrophy in their immobilized arm.

"Participants who did only eccentric exercise had the biggest increase in strength in both arms, so it has a very powerful cross-transfer effect.”

"This group also had just 2% muscle loss in their immobilized arm, compared with those who did no exercise who had a 28% loss of muscle. Meaning those people who do not exercise have to regain all that muscle and strength again.”

—Professor Ken Nosaka

CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY:

The future of rehab and muscle maintenance is eccentric training.

If you have an injured arm or leg, try exercising the non-injured limb with eccentric exercises with weights. According to the research done at ECU, this could help reduce muscle and strength loss during the recovery process.

As suggested by Professor Nosaka, eccentric training can be useful for athletes who can begin post-injury recovery sooner as well as stroke victims undergoing rehabilitation therapy.

If you wanna dig deeper into this study you can read the Science Daily article here.

Thank you for reading!

Was this helpful?

If so, comment below.