Getting strong requires time and effort… or does it? According to new research, it might only require three seconds a day. In the study, published in the Scandanavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, 39 healthy university students performed just one muscle contraction for three seconds a day, five days a week.

After four weeks, students who did an eccentric bicep curl (focusing on lowering the weight from shoulder to waist) had a 12% increase in strength. Those who did isometric (holding the weight) contractions and concentric (lifting the weight up from their waist to shoulder) had smaller strength gains, and the control group who lifted nothing had no change to their bicep strength.

This is in line with what we already knew – studies have shown that eccentric movements do lead to increased strength gains (and, unfortunately, DOMS). But the real question is whether or not three seconds can really be enough to build noticeable physical change?

A new study suggests you can get strong in three seconds – trainers debunk the science of that