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If the terms; negatives, negative reps or negative training,
don't ring any bells, you may be one of those folks at the
gym that are concentrating only on the actual lifting portion
of your workout, ignoring an extremely important technique
that will not only help beginners maximize their workouts
but can also help advanced lifters break through those frustrating
plateaus. Quite simply, negative training is one of the most
effective lifting techniques to stimulate the growth of muscle.
Using negatives in your workout is essential to your success.
The concept of negative training is fairly easy to understand.
If you're simply dropping the weights like a rock after your
lift, you're missing an opportunity to work your muscles on
the way down. This is one of the biggest mistakes that beginning
lifters make. When performing a lift, you are using the contractile
force of your muscles to produce a “positive”
movement. When the weight comes down, actually resisting the
pull of gravity, will add an entirely new dimension to your
workout. The uncontracting of the muscle is considered a “negative”
movement.
. Concentric (Positive): Contracting the muscle
. Eccentric (negative): Extending the muscle
While a positive movement is actually working the muscle,
a negative movement also puts the tendons and supportive structures
to work. Tendon strength needs to increase exponentially with
muscle strength. Our bodies are amazing. When you think about
this concept, you have to consider that the amount of weight
you can lift is going to be determined by your current strength.
Your body, however, is capable of more strength when putting
something down than it is when picking something up.
Alternate negative training exercises
In that sense, if you can curl 1RM on a 100lb barbell, your
% of power output increases from 100% on the positive motion
to 140% on the negative motion. The reason negative training
is so effective is simply because while we may have the strength
to lift a heavy object, it requires even more strength to
hold it in place. Our bodies, however, have the ability to
control the descent on that particular object so we don't
injure ourselves. The idea behind negative training therefore
is to basically use this ability and actually push it to the
limit. The idea then, is too make the negative movement harder
than the positive movement. There are a few ways this can
be accomplished:
. If working on machines, use both legs or arms to lift the
weight but switch to one leg or arm to release the weight,
doubling the amount of weight on the way down.
. Slow down the pace of the negative. It should take approximately
6-10 seconds to return the weight.
. Use a partner to lift the positive to approximately 10%
heavier than your 1RM and then lower the weight slowly on
your own.
. Complete the positive as you normally would but have a partner
add lean or pull on the weight or bar on it's way down.
Negatives or negative reps, as they may be referred to, are
actually very easy to incorporate into your workout if you're
not currently using them. The key is simply understanding
that to get the full benefit of a lift, you should not allow
the weight to drop but should instead, actually resist the
downward motion with as much, if not more effort that you
put into the lift itself. When adding negatives to your training
regime, it's important to take your time when lowering the
weight and to concentrate on the muscle you're working. You
should actually be fighting gravity on this one, pulling or
pushing against the force that is trying to return the weight
to it's starting place.
While there are lifters who concentrate only on negative training
for their workouts, most experts suggest that this is no better
than simply concentrating on positive training. It is important
to do both with consistency to maximize the benefits. Negatives
can be completed as a part of each lift or as a separate workout
altogether. Since experts seem to disagree on the pros and
cons, it seems safe to say that how to actually incorporate
the negatives into your workout is probably just going to
be personal preference. It would be a good idea to experiment
a little to see which seems to have the most impact for you.
Options for incorporating negatives in a training
program:
. Complete a negative rep for each positive rep. This is a
combination of the two techniques.
. Complete all positives reps normally and set aside specific
training time to concentrate only on negatives.
. Complete focused negatives in the beginning of your workout
when your muscles are the strongest.
. Complete your negatives at the end of your workout or to
push a set past the failure point by having a partner help
lift the weight. Since muscles are already fatigued, the weights
will feel even heavier and muscles will have to work even
harder.
While some trainers believe that negatives are too dangerous
to use with most free-weight exercises, others believe they
should be incorporated into all types of lifts. The important
thing to remember, however, is that it's extremely important
to know what you're doing and what your limitations are. A
spotter or partner is essential to negatives training and
if you have suffered any type of joint problems in a particular
area, you should avoid using negative reps. Negative training
is also very hard on the body and should not be done for extended
periods of time. Many trainers are actually suggesting switching
between negatives, positives and partials for the maximum
benefit.
Related Articles
Forced Reps and Negatives
Negative Reps
When to Use Partial
Reps?
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