What are "negatives"?

Please Kill Me

Only very new to this stuff, I've seen a lot of lingo thrown around and I can kinda work out some of it. One thing I can't work out though is "negatives". So what are they, how does it work and how is it beneficial?

Cheers.

Brian?

The portion of a lift when you are returning the weight to the starting point.

Controlled negatives are great for lifts like pullups when you can't actually do a pullup. Use a step to get into the position you'd be in if you'd pulled yourself up to the bar and then lower your weight slowly to the bottom, controlling your descent.

Please Kill Me

Ah, ok cool. So for example if I'm doing a shoulder press, it'd be when I'm bringing the bar back down, it'd be a slow, controlled descent?

d'Oracle

Yep.

But be careful.
Negative can make you painful.

Brian?

d'Oracle wrote: »

Yep.

But be careful.
Negative can make you painful.

Did they make you Russian?

rubadub

Please Kill Me wrote: »

Ah, ok cool. So for example if I'm doing a shoulder press, it'd be when I'm bringing the bar back down, it'd be a slow, controlled descent?

It depends on the context they are used in. e.g. some people might just say "negatives" when others would say "negative only" training, meaning you are ONLY doing the negative phase (aka eccentric phase).

So if you stand on a box, grab a chin up bar and do a slow controlled descent its "negative only", as you have done no concentric/upward movement. Some might accentuate the negative phase, so they might rip up into a chinup, possibly using momentum or a slight jump, and then do the slow controlled descent.

You can usually handle far more weight/resistance in the eccentric phase.

Negative only training helped me a lot, it suits bodyweight exercise very well as many are not strong enough starting out, esp. if overweight. Negative dips are also a favourite of mine.

The pain will not be immediate, it will be DOMS, "delayed onset muscle soreness". Go easy if doing negative only training, it can leave you sore for days from what seemed like an easy workout.

Some people might "cheat" to do negatives, they might swing up a dumbbell doing a bicep curl and slowly lower it down. An onlooker might think that person doesn't have a clue and are fooling themselves into thinking they can lift more than they can, this is often the case but some would be knowingly doing it and know full well it is more than they can lift properly concentrically.

Please Kill Me

That's a great explanation rubadub, thanks a mill.