NEGATIVES

NEGATIVES

We like to keep things positive, but today we are all about the negative.  Get it? Hardy har har.  

In the context of the weight room, a negative is the part of a movement where a muscle is being lengthened under a load.  In a squat, the eccentric portion is the “down” part.  In a bicep curl, it’s the part where the weight is lowered.  

It’s during the eccentric part of an exercise that the muscle is stretched and it’s components are damaged.  That damage is what results in DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness).  In other words, doing a bunch of eccentric work in the same session is going to make you sore!

So when and why would we ever do eccentrics?  The first case is when we are going for optimal hypertrophy (muscle size increase).  The three factors of muscle growth are muscle tension, metabolic stress and muscle damage.  Bingo! Eccentrics destroy the muscle fibers.  The other  reason we sometimes prescribe eccentrics is to build strength.  

You can handle more weight in an eccentric contraction than you can a concentric contraction.  Therefore, you are recruiting more motor units in the muscle.  That increase in muscle fiber recruitment leads to the muscle growing larger and stronger (provided you let it recover). 

Let’s look at a real life example.  Tom hasn’t been able to get strong enough to perform a strict pull up.  He’s been using assistance bands for a few months but he’s still not there.  I would program in a few low rep sets of the eccentric portion of the pull-up for him.  He could use a box to get himself up to the top of the pull-up position and slowly lower himself down to a fully extended position.  We’d keep the reps in the 5-8 range per set as not to destroy him for future workouts.

So there you have it! If you’re struggling with strength in a particular lift, consider working in some eccentrics.    And don’t be afraid to throw some into your accessory work for more gains!

Thanks for reading!