Pavel at T-nation

[Robb Wolf]

Eccentrics are how most gymnastics skills are developed. Seems to work!

I used loads of partials, isometrics at sticking points and walk outs when I PL'ed. All good stuff.

[Gary John]

For a double written article, you had to know most of what they were talking about before reading.

I love partials and real heavy. Can't throw the discus after doing them, cuz I slow down too much. Mix and match, not good before big comps.

I think this was a toe in the water thing. Somewhere in a deep hole is a huge hatchet.

[Pierre Auge]

I feel like crap --- Here's my take basically fortifying Robb's statement mention eccentric training to a gymnast and they will basically laugh in your face saying "how else are you going to do it dumbass?"

I think the value with complex relative motor skills is greater than with gross external skills like the big lifts but that mainly conjecture on my part...

I'm basing that on my observations but as I said mostly conjecture at this point.

[Mike ODonnell]

For sport specific stuff I would rather do "plyo" movements like squat jumps...you get plenty of eccentric work trying to decellerate your body plus decelleration/change of direction/acceleration is more what an athletic movement would require. Other than that....used negatives here and there in the past...more for adapting the CNS to a heavier weight than I can normally do concentrically....

[Dave Van Skike]

So, If I am groking this, eccentrics=different than overloads movements. Both overloads and eccentrics are CNS intensive (that I get, did rack pulls early in the day yesterday and slept like a rock from 9-7, which for me is the gold standard of sleep). Both can be used to break through a tough patch but at some risk of burning out.

[Steve Shafley]

There's a continuum

stability ----> mobility

So, it could look like:

squat supports --->short ROM movements---->full ROM movements

The eccentrics fall into that probalby after you acquire enough strength to handle some sort of short ROM movement.

There's a reason why powerlifters don't do much in the way of eccentric squatting. What do you think that is? In fact, most PLs do every little specific eccentric work. Unless you count bands...then you are talking dynamic and overspeed eccentrics.

If it worked well, and worked often, then you'd see it used much, much more.

[Ron Nelson]

I can speak to the "fries the CNS" part of the practice. I did rack pulls backed with heavy push presses followed by box single-leg squats and weighted pull ups. All, except the push presses, could be considered "overload" or "partials," or even eccentric in a way.

Later in the day, as I'm coaching my softball team, I felt like crap. I thought it may be the IF, but I had purposely downed some choco milk to help with the heavy lifting, so I was OK from a glycogen standpoint. I think the heavy lifts/partials/eccentrics called for some big adaptations; thus, I was slow and lightheaded whilst hitting ground balls for infield and throwing batting practice.

Bottom line: Interesting. I'll probably mix them in every so often. I won't be doing them every week.

[Dave Van Skike]

I hear that. What has helped me is that I'm really on a low dosage. I'm limited to three sessions a week, H/L/M and a couple of days of active rest. A day a week of overload seems to be fine.

[-Ross Hunt]

Originally Posted by Dave Van Skike

I'm on a heavy/light/medium I pulled straight out of Practical Programming.

Monday is a high intensity/relatively high volume day for squats, presses and dead lifts. At the suggestion of Peter Puetz, I started subbing in partial dead lifts on Monday. Current sorta max is 405 from the floor. So today I pulled 3 sets of 3 at 570 from the 6th pin, just above the knees. it seems to really help me focus on completely focused contraction. I also like to do walk outs and 1/4 squats with about 100 pounds over my max squat to help me warm up for a big squat.

Right. Thanks. The only overload work I've done is jerk drives (jerk-technique quarter squats) to make jerks feel light. They did their job... but I don't have a hard time increasing my split jerk, so it's not a really good barometer of their effectiveness.