A brand new membership perk + a new finding that could change everything

Every exercise you do has two halves. There's the part where you push, pull, or lift something — the part that feels like effort, the part you count, the part your brain registers as "working out." And then there's the other half, where you lower the weight back down, descend from the squat, or bring the dumbbell back to your side. That's the part most people blow through like it doesn't count.

Turns out, it might be the part that counts the most 😅

A study published this year out of Edith Cowan University reviewed the evidence on eccentric exercise — the technical term for movements where your muscles are working while lengthening, which is what happens during the lowering or descending phase of almost every exercise you already do. Lowering a dumbbell. Walking downstairs. Sitting down into a chair like you respect it, instead of collapsing into it like a building being demolished.

What the researchers found is that muscles generate more force during these lengthening movements while using less energy than they do during the lifting phase. You're stronger on the way down than you are on the way up, and your body burns less fuel doing it. Which means the half of every rep you've been treating as a throwaway is actually where your muscles are doing their most efficient work — and you've been speed-running through it like a terms and conditions page.

The review also found that five minutes a day of slow, controlled eccentric movements — chair squats, heel drops, wall push-ups done with a deliberate lowering phase — produced meaningful improvements in strength and muscle size. Some people might call it working smarter, not harder 🙃

Why this matters more than you'd think 💪

The fitness world has spent decades worshipping effort. If you're not sweating, grunting, or quietly bargaining with a god you don't normally talk to by rep eight, it doesn't count. 🙏 And there's nothing wrong with training hard — intensity matters, progressive overload matters, showing up consistently matters. But this research is pointing at something most people miss entirely: the quality of each rep matters at least as much as the quantity, and the quality lives in the phase you're currently ignoring.

Next time you're doing a squat, try taking three full seconds on the way down instead of dropping and bouncing. On a bicep curl, lower the weight over four seconds instead of letting gravity do it. On a push-up, take the descent slow enough that you can feel every inch of it. You'll notice immediately that this is harder than it sounds — not because the weight changed, but because you're finally asking your muscles to do the work they were built for instead of letting momentum carry you through.

This isn't a new workout program. It's a tweak to whatever you're already doing, and it's the kind of adjustment that makes a disproportionate difference once someone points it out. 👈

Which brings us to something new ✨

We're launching Free Coaching Mondays — a service where our trainersprovide 30 minutes of one-on-one, personalized support tailored to whatever you need. Goal-setting, form correction, a full guided workout, or just having someone watch you move and tell you what you're not seeing. Each member gets two sessions.

And "what you're not seeing" is the whole point. The eccentric thing is a perfect example — it's not something you'd catch on your own, because the rep looksfine from the outside. It takes a trained eye to notice that you're rushing the lowering phase, or that your squat depth changes when you're tired, or that your right side is compensating for something your left side gave up on three months ago. These are small corrections with big payoffs, and 30 minutes is plenty of time to find them.

The first Free Coaching Monday is May 18th. Trainer availability is posted at the front desk, and sign-ups begin next week on a first-come, first-served basis. Visit the desk to lock in your time slot — these are limited and they'll fill up.

It doesn't matter if you've been training for ten years or ten weeks, everyone has blind spots. The difference between people who plateau and people who keep progressing is usually not effort — it's awareness. And awareness is definitely something that 30 minutes with a trainer can give you.

Catapulting you toward your goals, 

Your West Coast Fitness Family

PS: Try the slow eccentric thing on your next set of anything. Three seconds down, controlled, no bouncing. You'll be shocked at how humbling it can be. 🥲

PPS: Happy Mother's Day. For a heartfelt Mother's Day newsletter, you can take a look at one from our archive 💝