Endocrine alterations from concentric vs. eccentric muscle actions: A brief review

Resistance exercise has a positive effect on many tissues, including heart, bone, skeletal muscle, and nervous tissue. Eccentric muscle actions offer a unique and a potentially beneficial form of exercise for maintaining and improving health. During resistance exercise, the effects of gravity, and mechanical properties of the sarcomere and connective tissue in skeletal muscle allow a greater muscle load during an eccentric (lengthening) muscle contraction than a concentric (shortening) muscle contraction. Consequently, older patients, patients with muscle or limb movement limitations or injuries, as well as cancer patients may be able to benefit from isolated eccentric muscle actions. There are specific physiological responses to eccentric muscle contractions. This review will describe the effects of different eccentric muscle contraction protocols on endocrine responses that could have positive effects on different tissues and recommend direction for future research.