Quote (RyanDyerProtein @ Apr 24 2016 08:25am)
Are you blind? He lowers it at the speed of gravity. Not 1 ounce of energy is used to lower those deadlifts slower than the speed its falling. Its a complete drop while maintaining contact with the bar
I didn't say all powerlifters should lower their bars slowly because they can. It is easier by far to do than the concentric portion of the rep, you see maybe 70 percent of the neural activity during an eccentric movement compared to a concentric movement at the same force, and eccentric movement is more metabolically efficient. Regardless you're still expending energy on the eccentric portion that could be saved for another (less than full) concentric contraction. Obviously if you're competing strictly for number of repetitions as in crossfit you don't want to worry about the eccentric component when you can let gravity do that work for you but you get the most bang for your buck from eccentric contractions in terms of muscle damage and satellite cell recruitment. They're best for muscle development and generate high levels of tension (much more tension than concentric movement). You should definitely incorporate them into training but depending on your type of performance you can pay variable attention to them