New study says 3 seconds a day of weight training is enough to boost strength

3 seconds for muscle strength?

This fresh study had 39 healthy university students perform one muscle contraction at maximum effort for three seconds per day, for five days a week over four weeks.

The participants performed either an isometric contraction (muscle length doesn't change, ie, just holding the weight by your side as if you're about to do a curl), concentric contraction (lifting the weight up), or eccentric contraction (lifting the weight down).

Specifically, their contraction was in the context of a bicep curl. All lifts were at maximum effort.

The researchers measured maximum contraction strength before and after the four-week period.

The control group, another 13 students, performed no exercise during the time and were too measured before and after.

So what did they find?

Muscle strength increased more than 10 per cent for the eccentric bicep curl after the four weeks, but less muscle strength was discovered for the other two exercise groups.

And obviously, the no-exercise group saw no increase.

Now, all three lifting methods (letting the weight hang, lifting it up, and lowering it down) all had some benefit for strength, but the eccentric (lowering it down) produced superior results.

Despite which group they were in, the researchers measured their eccentric, isometric and concentric strength at the end anyway.

The concentric lifting group improved a little bit (6.3 per cent) in their isometric strength but had no improvement elsewhere. The isometric group only saw an increase in eccentric strength (7.2 per cent).

But the eccentric group walked away boasting significant improvements in strength across all three measurements:

And the eccentric group saw an increase in muscle strength to the tune of 11.5 per cent.

And this was after just 60 seconds of effort at the end of the four weeks!

What I love about this study is how it can motivate people who think they can't get strong (or even lift weights in the first place) to get started.

Also, when people say they don't want to train or aren't motivated, I tell them to do one thing:

Go into the gym and do ONE rep. If you want to stop, then stop, turn around and go home.

But none of them do.

Because one rep turns into two, two into three, which turns into motivation and a finished workout.

But this study still has another two applications for the resistance-trained gym-goer, one of which is to remember to focus on the eccentric contraction. Because:

You produce greater muscle forces in the eccentric phase, up to 20-60 per cent more than during the concentric phase!

Also, other research has found that eccentric actions may have the greatest effect on skeletal muscle growth.

So it's critical we control our weight on the way down for maximal muscle growth, and this study is a good reminder of this!

But there's more...

Not many trained lifters know that whilst 3 seconds might improve strength in untrained subjects, they might only need 13 minutes a week to maintain their muscle gains!

A recent study examined 34 males who were frequently training with weights and found one set per muscle group (more sets for legs and back) per workout, was enough to maintain muscle mass.

The following is the regime the study authors had the subjects perform THREE times per week:

Note: All sets are performed to muscle failure (muscle failure means performing a certain amount of reps until you cannot do another).

Now, there are no triceps or hamstrings in here, so we should add some in...

So, if you're happy for your workout to be about 15-17 mins, take the below into the gym with you with this in mind:

So if you’re a trained subject, the above workout three times per week is enough to maintain muscle mass…

That’s pretty incredible!

The bottom line on 3 seconds per day

Is that in untrained subjects 3 seconds per day of weight training and thus 60 seconds at the end of four weeks is enough to increase muscle strength. One would need to perform ONE rep only and focus on the eccentric contraction. All of us should focus on the eccentric contraction during our workouts and this study is a great reminder. Moreover, for trained subjects, 13-17 minute workouts three times per week is enough to maintain muscle mass. Sometimes less is more, but those aiming for optimal muscle growth should far supersede these aforementioned training approaches.