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Updated: May 22, 2025

Isometric and Eccentric Force Generation Assessment of Skeletal Muscles Isolated from Murine Models of Muscular Dystrophies
Published on: January 31, 2013
Influence of various types of muscle contractions on subsequent bench press volume
Mohammad Izadi1, Guglielmo Pillitteri2, Ewan Thomas2
1Unit of Sports and Exercise Research, Department of Psychology, Educational Sciences and Human Movement, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy - ma2016if@gmail.com.
Background:
The aim of this study was to examine the effect of different conditioning activities (concentric-only, isometric, eccentric-only, and eccentric-concentric) on the volume of bench press exercises.
Methods:
Ten male collegiate athletes performed three sets of bench press exercises at 75% of their one-repetition maximum, with a 4-minute rest between sets, until they reached concentric failure. This was done either after one of the four types of contraction activations (concentric-only, isometric, eccentric-only, and eccentric-concentric) or without any conditioning activity, with the order being counterbalanced and randomized across different days. A two-way repeated measures ANOVA was used to assess differences in the number of repetitions, time under tension, and total work across conditions.
Results:
The results showed that concentric-only contractions significantly increased the number of repetitions and time under tension compared to the control. Moreover, concentric-only contractions resulted in more repetitions and total work than eccentric-concentric contractions. Additionally, the time under tension was longer for concentric-only contractions than for isometric contractions.
Conclusions:
These findings indicate that concentric-only conditioning activities may improve the volume of subsequent bench press exercises.
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