In a number of recent newsletters, I’ve mentioned the term “garbage negatives.”
It basically refers to the negative, or eccentric, stroke on a standard-tempo set. Lowering slowly is easy thanks to “friction” in the muscle—actin-myosin pairings “dragging” across one another…
Those negatives provide very little resistance-stimulating hypertrophy but considerable trauma within the muscle—hence the term garbage negatives.
So perhaps a lot of slow negatives are not necessary and only cause excessive damage…
Remember, damage must be repaired after the workout before hypertrophy can occur, so damage is something you want to minimize. It leeches recovery energy away from growth…
One solution is Speed Sets, as seen in the Old Man, Young Muscle workout. You perform about half the sets in each workout with 1.5-second reps instead of the standard 1/3 tempo…
Less damage from fewer garbage negatives at each workout means more recovery goes to hypertrophy instead of repair.
But there’s another unique benefit of Speed Sets: heightened fast-twitch fiber activation…
It’s becoming more and more clear that the stretch portion of each rep is most important for mass. With a Speed Set, the turnaround at stretch is more abrupt, which can trigger the myotatic reflex…
That quick-but-controlled reversal from negative to positive helps activates more high-growth fibers. The reflex is a protective action from the nervous system, but you benefit with more growth stimulation.
If you’re into building muscle, that’s exciting stuff. I’ll have more on this in future newsletters.
Note: For a chart of stretch-position exercises for each muscle, as well as the ideal and contracted-position moves, see pages 42 and 43 of Old Man, Young Muscle.
Sculpt your perfect physique: Get the ideal exercise for each muscle, the best stretch and contracted add-on moves for ultimate mass, complete 35-minute workouts, exercise start/finish photos, and details on building muscle fast and efficiently in Old Man, Young Muscle.
And you still get The Muscle-On, Belly-Gone “Diet” ebook FREE for a limited time when you add Old Man, Young Muscle to your mass-building library. Go HERE.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
–Steve Holman
Former Editor in Chief, Iron Man Magazine
www.X-Rep.com
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