HMMR Podcast Episode 284: Eccentric training (with James de Lacey)

Eccentric training has gained a lot of attention over the past few years. The benefits of eccentric training have always been clear; what has been difficult is finding ways to practically implement it. On this week’s podcast James de Lacey joins us to discuss some easy ways you can implement eccentric training into your program, ideas on flywheel training, preparing for combat sports, concussions, and more.

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Notes and quotes

James de Lacey is a performance coach with an extensive background in rugby and fighting sports. He previously worked as the head of strength and conditioning for Romanian Rugby, as well as with other clubs on three continents. He currently runs the Sweet Science of Fighting website and podcast.

• 0:00 – Introduction.
• 3:15 – What James is up to now.
• 5:00 – The benefits of eccentric training: “There are many benefits to eccentric training: it has a low metabolic cost, increases stiffness, high speed power, fascicle length, length-tension relationship, and much more.”
• 8:00 – Eccentric for explosiveness and fast eccentrics: “With concentric training higher forces means lower velocity. But eccentrics can flip that: you can have high force and high velocity.”
• 10:00 – Practical tips to implement eccentric overload and eccentric training.
• 12:30 – Eccentrics in training for Olympic weightlifting.
• 14:45 – Nick Garcia and ideas on tempo variations.
• 16:00 – Flywheel tricks for eccentric overload.
• 21:45 – Motorized eccentric overload.
• 23:15 – Hip thrusts.
• 24:45 – Olympic lifts and replacing exercises: “Can you imagine doing eccentric overload training only for the whole year? The stimulus has to be fun too. You need variation. Part of the reason I like Olympic lifts, even if the benefits are replicable, is that there is a coordinative skill element. That makes it a fun challenge.”
• 30:45 – DOMS and eccentric training.
• 32:15 – Fighting sports and drug use and peptides.
• 38:00 – Football injuries, concussions, and rethinking neck strength.
• 44:30 – Final thoughts.

To hear more on these topics, listen to the full episode above. Also be sure to subscribe to our podcast and review it on iTunes.

Further reading

• This episode is brought to you by HMMR Plus. Become a member for full access to our videos, articles, and podcast archives.
• You can follow de Lacey on Instagram (@jdelacey90). Also visit his site Sweet Science of Fighting or follow them on Instagram (@sweetscienceoffighting). He also runs Eat Big Eat Big (@liftbigeatbig).
• We discussed the Exerfly flywheel device on the podcast. Recently James de Lacey wrote an article about developing explosive power with creative solutions for eccentric overload using the flywheel. He also mentioned the work of Professor John Cronin who has a course on flywheel training and resources on his site.
• De Lacey is a frequent HMMR contributor. was also a guest on Episode 168 on rethinking rugby training and Episode 230 on preseason planning. He also put together this 8-week rugby preseason plan for members. His wife is a world class weightlifter and was a guest on Episode 194.
• Angus Ross has been a huge influence on our approach to eccentric training. He was our guest on GAINcast 83. You can see some of his notes on eccentric training in these slides from his 2016 SPRINZ presentation.
• We also discussed some of the work on concussions by Gary Turner, covered more in an interview de Lacey did with him.