- According to new research, lifting heavy objects for only 3 seconds a day can improve muscle strength.
- The results suggest that beginners may benefit from short daily training, especially quirky exercise.
- However, evidence shows that it takes more than a few seconds to grow larger muscles.
Especially if you’re just starting out, you may be able to improve your fitness with just 3 seconds of intense weight training a day. This suggests a small study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports on February 1st.
Researchers at Edith Cowan University in Australia and Niigata University in Japan examined 39 healthy college students over a four-week exercise period. The other 10 students did not work, but were monitored as a control group.
Participants performed one of three different biceps curl variations five days a week. Isometric (keeping weight parallel to the ground), concentric (gaining weight), or eccentric (lossing weight).
Each exercise was an effort of up to 3 seconds using a special resistance machine. Researchers measured participant strength for each exercise type before and after 4 weeks.
At the end of the study, participants were on average about 10% stronger by exercising for a total of 60 seconds during the month.
According to Kazunori Nosaka, a co-author of Edith Cowan’s work and a professor of exercise science, the results suggest that small amounts of exercise may help improve muscle strength, but beginners benefit most. You may receive it.
“‘I don’t have time to exercise’ is the most common excuse for not exercising regularly, but three seconds of exercise may not have much of an impact on time,” he told insiders.
Especially as a beginner, you don’t have to spend hours in the gym to get fit
According to Nosaka, a follow-up study found that once-daily muscle contractions were surprisingly effective in improving muscle strength, and more than six times a day muscle contractions were even more effective.
“This suggests that frequency is important, so we should do a small amount of exercise every day,” he said.
However, there is a caveat that it is difficult to do maximum effort lift with barbells and dumbbells. Researchers are still investigating whether less intense efforts are effective, and whether other muscles beyond the biceps can be strengthened with a 3-second protocol.
Previous studies have suggested that short, frequent exercises such as fields and HIIT can benefit from aerobic (aerobic) training as well.
It takes more time to build muscle
However, 3 seconds may not be long enough to build muscle. Study participants became stronger, but their muscle size did not increase significantly. This suggests that the increase is neurological.
Muscle growth is a slow process no matter how you train, and evidence suggests that longer, higher weight sessions may help. However, with proper training, evidence shows that you can build muscle in about two days a week.
Eccentricity or prolongation may have unique benefits
All exercise groups in the study improved, but one exercise stood out.
The study participants who performed the maximum effort eccentric exercises involving stretching the muscles (similar to lowering the dumbbells from the top of the curl) were significantly stronger. They improved by an average of about 11.5% compared to the first effort and improved with all three types of exercise. The other groups were stronger with just one type of exercise.
Previous studies have also suggested that eccentric exercise may be better at improving muscle strength.
According to Nosaka, eccentric exercises are easy to challenge yourself with almost maximum effort with dumbbells. To give it a try, choose a weight that you can’t lift with one arm, but you can lift with two arms. Use your other arm to place the weight on top of the curl and slowly lower it with your work arm to cause severe eccentric contraction.
Trainers have previously told insiders that eccentric exercises can also help improve other challenging movements such as deadlifts, push-ups, and pull-ups without compromising good shape.
