my opinion . . .
negatice only training works because your actually stronger when the muscle is Lengthing than when it is contracting. It allows you to go much heavier than what you could complete a rep with (duh). This causes much more micro-trauma to the actual muscle tissue
Yes, in negative training (eccentric), you are stronger than in the concentric. This is because of muscular friction.
(Anything that moves encounters friction.) It helps you in the eccentric, ‘hurts’ you in the concentric. That is why
you can lower more weight than you can lift.
I know nothing about “negatives cause more micro-trauma.”
BigMatt:
In my younger days I used the negative only workouts described in Alfresco's comment to break through plateaus and increase strength. It was like a "secret weapon" I could pull out when I was stuck. It did take a couple of dedicated guys to help me, but they just ended up following the leader.
I've no idea why it works. It may be placebo effect for me because I absolutely believe it works. Once I made my breakthrough I never went backwards unless I quit training. Admittedly almost everytime I did it I was "super supplementing".
As a caveat, I never got as strong as most on here. I have pretty long arms and pretty short effort level. As long as I could do 315 8 or ten times I never worried about the rest.
Due to injuries, get older, changing goals, I no longer bench.
Peckerwood
PWood
Thanks for chiming in Peckerwood and for having the maturity and experience to try negative only training.
I think the way you used it was pretty wise.
I have never used negative only training on the bench press because, like I said before, I think it is a very
dangerous, injury producing exercise.
But I have used negative only in chins and dips. Did not need spotters, just something to stand on to eliminate
the positive, concentric portion of the exercise.
Negatives allowed me to, eventually, do 10 reps with 110 lbs. in chins behind the neck using a parallel grip
(I designed and built special handles that attached to chin-up bar) and do 12 reps with 130 lbs. when performing
dips. Both exercises were performed in a positive / negative fashion. And I credit negative only training to getting
me there.
Negative only training will initially make you incredibly sore as it is, with few exceptions, the eccentric portion
of an exercise that produces muscular soreness and it is that portion of the exercise that that is largely responsible
for an increase in muscular size. You will not get the same results utilizing just concentric training.