Sabido R, Hernández-Davó JL, Botella J, Navarro A, Tous-Fajardo J. Effects of adding a weekly eccentric-overload training session on strength and athletic performance in team-handball players. Eur J Sport Sci. 2017 Jun;17(5):530-538.
In the study a weekly eccentric overload session were added to the regular training schedule of a handball team for 7 weeks. The eccentric overload group (11 people) added 1 session per week with 4 sets of 8 repetitions with bilateral half-squat and unilateral lunge exercises compared to the control group (7 people).
The eccentric overload group showed an increase in triple hop distance performance. Additionally the eccentric overload group showed higher improvements in eccentric and concentric power of the half-squat (increases between +6.5% and +22%) and lunge exercises (increases between +13.1% and +24.9%)
In summary, important pro-sports related performances like functional jumping performance, power output can be improved with eccentric overload training. Already 1 additional eccentric overload session per week can result in optimizing the professional athlete’s performances and can win key plays and key games for your team.