The Positives About The Negatives
Article by Luke Weal
Matt Roberts Chelsea
November 2011
If you consider yourself to be a committed gym disciple then you may have often heard phrases like ‘work the negative’ or ‘slowly down’ coming from the free weights section. Some of you may have even ‘worked a negative’ in your own workout routines, but what does that actually mean?
Put simply, any free weight exercise employs a concentric and eccentric contraction from the working muscles. During the concentric phase force is produced while the muscle shortens and during the eccentric segment, it is produced as the muscle lengthens. It’s this eccentric contraction that is referred to as the negative phase. So if every rep has one, what do we use it for and how do we make the most of it?
There are several benefits that can be gained from using an eccentric method in your training program. By adjusting variables like tempo and load the eccentric phase can transform a basic exercise into an intense muscle builder, help brake through strength plateaus and also rehabilitate damaged or injured tissues.
Mass building
Personally I feel that when it comes to building mass, eccentric lowering can be a great tool. Each individual muscle is composed of billions of complex units made up from protein filaments called Myosin and Actin. Muscle growth happens on a microscopic cellular level. This growth is a result of stimulation that occurs during muscular system overload. Forcing muscle cells to work against resistance will create micro traumas, leaving small tears in these protein filaments. With adequate rest and nutrients, the micro tears will heal thicker and stronger than before, thus resulting in mass and strength increases.
Applying slow negative repetitions to a mass building phase will mean you to keep the muscle under resistance and tension for a pro-longed amount of time, without exceeding your desired rep range. This will drastically increase the amount of micro damage caused to a particular tissue, creating more potential for growth.
The important part of this method is therefore the time the muscular system is under tension. For example, if you were to complete three sets of ten reps of an exercise using a rep speed of 1second down, one second up, then the total time the muscle is under tension is 60 seconds and this is often separated by rest periods where the tissue can begin to recover. If you were to complete one set of ten reps of the same exercise, but use a rep speed of 5seconds down, 1 second up, then not only will the time under tension equal 60seconds, but it will be constant, not allowing the muscle any rest and recovery.
So if you’re short of time this will ensure you get an effective workout with equal overload, or allow you could complete a 2nd set and therefore increase the total work load resulting in increased potential for growth.
Breaking strength plateaus
In practice the eccentric phase of a movement will feel easier than the concentric phase e.g. the lowering phase of a bench press movement. In some cases the negative phase of any given lift can be up to 30% stronger then that of the concentric. The logical conclusion from this is an individual can improve strength by using heavier loads and working the eccentric segment of the movement by itself.
Everybody hits strength plateaus at some point in their training. These plateaus are most commonly caused by a lack of neuromuscular facilitation and muscle recruitment. Using heavy loads on the eccentric phase can help break these barriers as the body will have to neurologically adjust to the stress of the increased resistance. The knock on effect of this will be more muscle fiber recruitment and more strength gains.
This method does have its limitations in that it requires one or more spotters to assist on the concentric phase of the movement, as the resistance being used will be too high to lift alone. It can also be physically and psychologically wearing and individuals may experience muscle soreness due to the high tensions provoking muscle damage.
Injury rehab
As well as being a good method for building muscle and improving strength, eccentric training can also be used as an effected treatment for tendon injuries or tendinopathies. Tissue strengthening is a key element of injury prevention and rehabilitation. Overuse of tendons is very common in running related sports where the Achilles tendon can often be affected and racket sports where the tendons of the elbow can be injured.
The eccentric method here requires that the negative part of the movement is still slow and controlled and the concentric segment is assisted, but the load is lighter. Regardless of body part, load and volume should be progressed gradually and dictated by the amount of pain an individual feels. For example, lowering one heel slowly off the edge of a step and using both feet to push back up is a good eccentric exercise for the calf and Achilles tendon. It is believed that because the eccentric movement results in less oxygen consumption, more force production, and less energy consumption than the concentric part, the strength and structure of the tendon can be improved with less aggravation. In addition to this both tendons (that join bone to muscle) and ligaments (that join bone to bone) are made of collagen and are very fibrous in nature. Tenoblasts and ligamentoblast are the cells which repair damage to these tissues. Overloading through eccentric lowering has been shown to cause the most microtrauma and there for activation of these cells.
These are a few simple examples of why and how you can get something positive from your negatives. Even if you don’t decide to put these into practice at least you’ll understand a little more of what the folks in the free weight section are talking about!
