Concentric exercises are exercises that require you to change the position of your joints and shorten the length of your affected muscles. They get their name because they rely on a specific type of muscle contraction, called a concentric contraction. Common exercises with a concentric component include weightlifting and any sport or activity that requires jumping.
Understanding Concentric Contractions
During a concentric contraction, your muscle works against a resisting force, overcomes that force and grows shorter. Factors that influence the difficulty of this type of contraction include gravity and the positions of your bones and muscles in relation to one another. The speed of muscle shortening during a concentric contraction depends on the number of muscles involved in your exercise or activity and the amount of resisting force you're attempting to move. The lesser the resisting force and the greater the number of muscles involved, the easier it is for concentric contraction to occur.
Exercise Examples
You perform a concentric contraction whenever you lift a barbell or dumbbell toward your body. You also exercise concentrically when you push upward and straighten your knees during basketball or any other sport or exercise that requires jumping. Exercises that feature concentric contractions also often feature offsetting contractions called eccentric contractions. You perform an eccentric contraction when the force you're resisting surpasses the strength of your muscles and causes them to lengthen instead of shorten. For instance, your muscles contract eccentrically when you lower a weight away from your body or land back on the ground after jumping. Together, concentric and eccentric contractions form a larger class of muscle contractions called isotonic contractions.
Benefits and Risks
The concentric and eccentric components of isotonic exercises allow you to work your muscles throughout their entire range of motion, BrianMac Sports Coach explains. You can also alter isotonic exercises and use them to fulfill the specific training requirements of a sport or activity. However, because of the stress caused when your muscles shorten, exercises with a concentric component can lead to soreness in your muscles following your workout, competition or training session. You also have a risk for injury during these types of exercises because you gain most of your strength at a point in your contractions where your muscles are at their weakest.
Considerations
You can only contract your muscles, not lengthen them, according to the text "Fundamentals of Anatomy and Physiology." To overcome this limitation, your muscles commonly operate together in combined groups or pairs. For instance, concentric contraction of your biceps muscles allows you to bend your arms, while concentric contraction of your triceps muscles allows you to straighten your arms. Gravity and the natural elasticity in your muscle fibers also help you return your body to a neutral position following a muscle contraction. Ask a certified fitness instructor for more information.
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