“Caught in This Hypertrophy Space”: 43-YO IFBB Pro Suggests Avoiding Slow Eccentrics for Optimal Strength and Muscle Gains

People often get confused between hypertrophy and strength. Both have different requirements and purposes. The 43-year-old IFBB Pro and fitness expert Marc Lobliner is here to explain the difference. In his recent video on his YouTube channel, Tiger Fitness, he shared his valuable insights on the same. 

The IFBB Pro had a guest in his video named Bryce Bee from Legacy at Carbon, and Lobliner started by saying, “A lot of us are kind of caught in this hypertrophy space where all you hear from is hypertrophy coaches because a lot of people come on to YouTube or whatever platform you’re watching, and they just want to gain muscle.” 

“A lot of times what you’ll notice is that stronger people are generally bigger, and bigger people are generally stronger,” he explained, further highlighting that these coaches only promote one type of lifting modality. According to him, this was an extremely slow eccentric pause in a hyper-stretch position and then an explosive concentric. 

The 43-year-old IFBB Pro said, “I’m not saying remove slow eccentric because hypertrophy is part of the game, like in order to become as strong as possible as powerful as possible, we need to build muscle.” He further shared a four-week block plan. For this, one needed to do a total of twelve weeks and divide it into four weeks for strength, then hypertrophy, and continuing to move to the fast eccentric program. 

Lobliner shed light on the fact that “getting as strong as possible, progressively overloading allowing your body to adapt to higher loads will equal more muscle in the long term.” “If you’re focusing on hypertrophy all the time, I think you’re going to miss the boat because you will not get as strong as you can, which means less load, less progression less hypertrophy 100%,” he cautioned. This is not the first time the IFBB Pro has touched upon this topic. Earlier, he shared that concentric and eccentric phases have equal significance.  

Does eccentric training lead to great hypertrophy?

In a previous video shared on his YouTube channel, Lobliner emphasized making your concentric phase explosive. “I want to try and move it as fast as possible because I’m pushing as hard as possible,” explains the IFFB Pro. According to the IFBB Pro, explosive movements increase the rate of force development in muscle fibers and are crucial for hypertrophy.

The 43-year-old shared a study showcasing the optimal results for eccentric training. “A study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology found Eccentric training led to greater hypertrophy gains than doing concentric training alone and we use this to our advantage during the season,” shared Lobliner. 

After learning the importance of strength training with fast eccentric lifts, will you add strength training to your regime? Let us know in the comments.