Negative training

[ron79]

What is negative training? Is this something that a newbie should be doing?

[BendtheBar]

No, newbs should not worry about negatives.

To explain it simply, look at bench press. The act of lowering the bar to your chest is a negative. The act of pushing the bar away from your chest is a rep.

Slow negatives are nothing beginners should worry about.

[MVP]

I'll get into some physiology here to prove a point.

There are three contractions a muscle can make and two of these contractions (eccentric and concentric) are in bench pressing; the other contraction, isometric, can be in bench press, but it's pointless and dangerous.

During the eccentric phase (negative phase) the bar is being lowered. While the bar is being lowered, gravity is assisting pulling the bar down. The bar is the motive force, and your body is the resistive force, so your bodies job during this phase is to move with gravity and only resist the loading. The muscle at this point is lengthening.

During the concentric phase, these principles are reversed. Your body becomes the motive force and the loading becomes the resistive force. The bar resists your body and you are not working against gravity instead of with it. During this phase, the muscle shortens and exerts the force necessary to drive the weight up.

As mentioned above, negatives really don't have any place in a novice training. Your goal should be to continue adding weight to the bar and continue adding weight to the scale. You want to get bigger and stronger.

[Off Road]

Nice explanation MVP