Excerpt
From Stronger Arms & Upper Body
Negatives
The positive portion of the rep is the primary focus of most trainees, though the negative is
just as crucial in achieving muscular size and strength. In fact, research shows that the
negative portion, more so than the positive, stimulates the production of insulin-like growth
factor-1 (IGF-1), a protein hormone with substantial anabolic effects in adults. This is why
doing sets that concentrate solely on the negative are beneficial to many people.
Doing negatives requires an attentive, trustworthy spotter, first and foremost, since he or she
will actually do most of the positive portion of each rep for you. Choose a weight that’s
heavier than you’d normally use for a straight set of the chosen exercise (you can use
negatives on virtually any exercise). When you train with negative reps, the load should be
about 130 percent of your one-repetition maximum (1RM) for the exercise you’re training.
For each rep, perform the negative on your own, lowering (or raising, depending on the
exercise) the weight very slowly. It should take you three to five seconds to complete the
negative rep. If you can resist the weight for longer than five seconds, add more weight. If
you can’t resist the weight for at least three seconds, reduce the weight. Perform three sets
of four to six negative reps on such major lifts as bench presses, overhead presses, lat pull-
downs, and barbell curls. Follow the negative sets with two sets of regular reps using a
weight that’s about 75 to 80 percent of your 1RM.
You can also perform negatives unilaterally (one arm or one side at a time), which promotes
balance (because a strong arm won’t be able to compensate for a weak one) and provides a
means of doing negatives without a spotter. Dumbbell exercises are ideal for unilateral
negatives. On a dumbbell curl, for example, select a heavy dumbbell and lower it slowly
through the negative with your right arm, then use your left arm to lift the right arm and the
weight through the positive portion. You can do the same on any number of dumbbell
exercises, such as one-arm rows for back, lateral raises for shoulders, and one-arm
overhead extensions for triceps.
Machines work well for unilateral negatives too. For example, on Smith machine presses you
can lower the bar through the negative using only one arm, then lift through the positive with
either the opposite arm or both arms. The same applies for cambered machines for chest,
back, shoulders, or arms. You can even use cable exercises, such as rows for back or press-
downs for triceps.
Both dumbbell curls and Smith machine presses present a novel approach to negative
training, a variation called split-rep training, where for each rep both the negative and
positive are accentuated, albeit by opposite arms or sides. Going back to the curl example,
one complete split rep would consist of lowering the dumbbell slowly with the right arm,
transferring it to the left hand, then curling it up with that arm with a normal-speed rep. As a
result, you’ve just done a negative with one arm and a positive with the other. After
completing a set, you would alternate arms, doing the negative with the left and the positive
with the right.
As with any advanced technique, use negatives in moderation, not in every workout. Limit
your use of them to the first two sets of an exercise, and don’t do negatives in every workout.
Instead, do them as an occasional tool for sparking increases in muscular strength and
growth.