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Concentric Exercise
This is the exercise that you are familiar with. When you lift something, anything, whether a piece of paper, a chair or a weight at the gym, your muscles contract and they shorten as you lift the object. Imagine you are trying to push a stalled car. You are leaning into it and pushing as hard as you can. You are contracting your muscles and as you do the car starts to move a little. This is a concentric movement of your muscles. You might not have thought about it, but the only thing that muscles can do is to shorten. When you contract them they shorten. Then they relax. Then they shorten again. That is all they can do. And when you contract your muscles in order to move something or lift something that is concentric exercise. This is the opposite of eccentric exercise. In theory it is very simple. A muscle--any muscle--all muscles--are attached to one bone on one end and another bone on the other end. In between is a joint, like your elbow or your knee. When you contract the muscle there is movement of the joint. That is all there is to moving your arm, or leg, or walking or playing the piano. One muscle attached to two bones and working across a joint. If you do this often enough--concentric movement against resistance, like when you lift weights--the muscles will grow and become healthy and will burn energy and speed your metabolism. This is the use of concentric exercise in weight loss.
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