Best Way To Build Muscle

Its true what goes up, must come down. What goes in, must come out. And a negative, can produce a positive. Especially when it is applied to building lean muscle.



Overloading the negative rep to get positive results

This has to be one of the most overlooked workouts in the gym, everyone is so busy trying to impress themselves, or someone else by how much weight they can lift. Its not their fault, i think its in a guys DNA LOL.

This is how most people have learned to lift, but if you truly want to take your workout to the next level you need to start including the negative reps in your routine.

You may not know that we are all stronger lowering the weight the pushing it. If you doubt this, next time you are on the bench press instead of bouncing the weight off your chest, or using momentum to complete the rep. Try resting the bar on your chest when you start your bench press, then press it up , lower it down and stop again on your chest. Do a set like this, my point should be made by now. This by itself is a great way to change up your routine.

You can and should do this negative routine on all your exercises ever once in a while, to stimulate new muscle growth.

But you want power and size don't you ?

If you did what i just suggested you know that its a lot harder to press up then lower down the same weight without momentum working for you. So now your saying to yourself who gives a shit I'm here to lift weights, but what if i told you that if you included negatives in your routine you will be able to bench more weight ? Get bigger muscles ?

Now that i have your attention ?

When you lower the weight your muscles build up tension that is transferred to the positive work ( pressing the weight up ). This is know as prestretching the muscle. Since muscle is elastic, it can forcefully contract after it has been stretched, think of your muscles like an elastic band.

Simply put, the more tension you apply on the down stroke ( negative ), the more power you can apply on the up stoke ( positive ). Maybe you have seen some of the new high tech equipment that is designed to let you increase the amount of weight on the negative rep.

Now the best way to do this is with free weights and a spotter ( someone to assist you in lifting the weight ),and when first trying this only do it on your last set of bench presses.You will find that due to the greater load your muscles will fail much faster,and you wont be able to push the weight off your chest. Your spotter will then assist you in lifting the weight up so you can enjoy one more negative rep.

If you cant find someone to spot you, here are two options to do this on your own :

1. If your gym has an a adjustable squat rack ( cage rack ) most gyms due, this has adjustable bars that you can place at different levels. Put a flat bench in the cage and set the bars so when you place the barbell across the bars you can slide in and out from under the barbell. The goal here is when your muscles collapse from fatigue the bar will stop on the machine and not your chest, and you can just slide out from under the weight.

2. Use dumbbells on a flat bench this way when your muscles give out you can just drop the weight on the floor. Please use some common sense and make sure no one is on either side of you when doing this, unless you want to break someones foot LOL.

P.S. Let me know how this works for you ? Or have you tried this already ?, did you see results ?.

Want to know more ? see - Mind Body Connection And Your Fitness Goals