The Power of Negative Reps

Most strength training exercises can be split into two phases - the concentric phase, commonly called as positive reps is where the muscle contracts and the eccentric phase, also referred as "Negs" or "Negative reps", is where the muscle lengthens.?

Consider a bicep curl as an example. During the positive rep, you curl the bar upwards, contracting your bicep muscles. The negative rep occurs as you lower the bar back down, allowing your biceps to stretch and lengthen.

Similarly, in a bench press, the positive rep involves pushing the bar up from your chest, activating your pectoral muscles, while the negative rep entails lowering the bar, elongating your pecs.

The negative rep is slower and lacks the visual flair of the positive rep. After all, the explosive movement of pushing a bar up appears far more impressive than the seemingly ordinary act of lowering it down.

Most people pay more attention to the positive rep of the movement than the negative rep, putting more effort into curling the bar during a bicep curl before dropping it back down with little? control. This is because of the misconception that muscle growth primarily stems from the positive rep, with the negative rep being a necessary evil to get in position for the next positive rep.?

The truth is that negative reps lead to bigger, stronger muscles. They also help make connective tissue such as ligaments and tendons more resilient, protecting? against strain and injury. The negative reps do the grunt work so that your positive reps can shine.?

Most things in life are like that - a prolonged, slow grind of preparation followed by an explosive moment of execution.?

As a student, you grind through an arduous semester in preparation of the final exam.?

As a real estate investor, you carefully plan every single detail of your transaction for months before reaching that final moment at the closing table.?

As an athlete, you dedicate months to training and proper nutrition, all in preparation for that race, that game - that moment of execution.?

Successful people understand it’s the negative reps that lead to growth, that make the positive reps possible. They take pride in the negative reps even though there are no bragging rights and no Instagram likes for negative reps.?

Slow, mundane, grinding, sweaty, ordinary, exhausting, consistent negative reps are where foundations of great achievements are laid.?