Apply Some Negativity To Your Bodybuilding Workout

The other day a friend of mine was telling me about his troubles finding a good gym. He's pretty serious about his bodybuilding workouts so he is particular about the facilities that the gym has to offer. He mentioned that a lot of the gyms he checked out were "fitness" oriented and had minimal free weight equipment. "Some of theses places only had dumbells that went up to 40 lbs!" he told me. I told him, "You can get a great muscle building workout with any amount of weight." He looked at me like I was crazy but I went on to tell him that the key to great bodybuilding workouts is more about the intensity of the movements rather than the amount of weight you are moving. I then went on to tell about a great way to generate more intensity in his workouts: negative contractions.

With any given exercise there is going to be a concentric muscle contraction and an eccentric muscle contraction. The eccentric muscle contraction is also known as the "negative" portion of the exercise or the negative movement. For example, when doing bench presses, the motion of pushing the bar up is the concentric muscle contraction. This is where the pecs and the tris contract or shorten to move the weight. And this is the part that most workout enthusiasts focus on. The motion of lowering the bar is the eccentric muscle contraction and this is where you can really increase the intensity of the exercise.

By slowing down the eccentric portion of the exercise you put even greater stress on the muscle. The human body can lift up to 40% more weight during the eccentric contraction as compared to the concentric muscle contraction. By placing more hight intensity stimuli on your muscles you can significantly increase the muscle development process.

To employ negatives in your muscle building workouts, your should to try and slowly lower the weight for a count of 3-5 seconds. The lowering of the weight should be controlled and deliberate. Be warned however that due to such an extreme bodybuilding workout intensity, it is recommended that you do not overdo it. The greater stress will requireme more rest to allow your muscles to recuperate.