With our more advanced athletes, we look for ways to push the ‘needle of performance’ forward without resorting to gimmicks. Eccentric force producing capacity is critical for athletes. It plays an important role in both performance and injury prevention. To train this quality in experienced, highly trained athletes requires special methods because we are significantly stronger eccentrically than we are concentrically. . A common technique to develop eccentric qualities is performing repetitions with a slow eccentric descent using sub-maximal loads. This can work well for less experienced athletes or as a lead-in to more advanced methods, but likely doesn’t reach stimulus threshold for developing eccentric strength and power qualities in more advanced athletes. For experienced athletes to develop eccentric capacities in the weight room, they will need to use loads that exceed an athlete’s concentric maximum. . In this video, the athletes perform an eccentric descent with about 105% of ...