Exercising One Arm has Twice the Benefits
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:
Exercising one arm has twice the benefits:
New research from Edith Cowan University (ECU) has revealed that training one arm can improve strength and decrease muscle loss in the other arm - without even moving it.
The findings could help to address the muscle wastage and loss of strength often experienced in an immobilised arm, such as after injury, by using eccentric exercise on the opposing arm.
In eccentric exercises, the contracting muscle is lengthening, such as when lowering a dumbbell in bicep curls, sitting on a chair slowly or walking downstairs. Previous research has shown these exercises are more effective at growing muscle than concentric exercises, in which muscle are shortening such as when lifting a dumbbell or walking up stairs.
[...] ECU's Professor Ken Nosaka in the School of Medical and Health Sciences was part of the international study and said that the findings challenge conventional rehabilitation methods and could improve outcomes for post-injury and stroke patients.
[...] The study involved 30 participants who had one arm immobilised for a minimum of eight hours a day for four weeks. The group was then split into three, with some performing no exercise, some performing a mix of eccentric and concentric exercise and the rest performing eccentric exercise only.
Professor Nosaka said the group who used a heavy dumbbell to perform only eccentric exercise on their active arm showed an increase in strength and a decrease in muscle atrophy, or wastage, in their immobilised arm.
Journal Reference:
Omar Valdes, Carlos Ramirez, Felipe Perez, et al. Contralateral effects of eccentric resistance training on immobilized arm, Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports (DOI: 10.1111/sms.13821)
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.