Importance of Negatives

NEGATIVE THINKING, POSITIVE RESULTS



Dexter Jackson on turning negatives into positives

March 4, 2010
FLEXONLINE.COM

He started competing as a bantamweight. He turned pro, unceremoniously, as a light-heavy a dozen years ago at the North America. He didn’t win a pro show for another four years, but Dexter Jackson has done a lot of winning since then. Of current pros only Jay Cutler has more pro victories, and it’s a close race (Jackson has 12, Cutler 14). Both Mr. Olympias own three Arnold Classic trophies. Here, Jackson highlights the negative halves of reps and serves up a chest routine that includes the slow, controlled reps he’s found so valuable in his journey from bantam to Mr. O.

DEX GOES NEGATIVE


“I wasn’t meant to be a big guy. The way I built my mass was by lifting heavy year-round. I also think it pays to focus on the negative. Never forget that lowering the weight is half the rep. Always control the weight on the negative half of a rep to stimulate maximum muscle growth. If you're just lowering the weight in a hurry to build up momentum to push it up again, you're really shortchanging yourself.”

<TABLE style="COLOR: #000000" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width="50%"><TBODY><TR><TD style="BACKGROUND: #b10b1c; FONT-WEIGHT: bold" colSpan=4 align=middle>DEXTER JACKSON’S CHEST ROUTINE



</TD></TR><TR style="BACKGROUND: #000000; COLOR: #ffffff; FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #ffffff 1px solid">EXERCISE </TD><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #ffffff 1px solid" align=middle>SETS </TD><TD align=middle>REPS </TD></TR><TR><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #000000 1px solid">Bench presses</TD><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #000000 1px solid" align=middle>4 </TD><TD align=middle>10-6 </TD></TR><TR><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #000000 1px solid">Incline dumbbell presses </TD><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #000000 1px solid" align=middle>4 </TD><TD align=middle>8-10 </TD></TR><TR><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #000000 1px solid">Dumbbell flyes </TD><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #000000 1px solid" align=middle>4 </TD><TD align=middle>8-10 </TD></TR><TR><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #000000 1px solid">Cable crossovers </TD><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #000000 1px solid" align=middle>3 </TD><TD align=middle>10-12 </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

since i prefer to train by myself i can't really do forced reps, but i've had good success with super slow negatives on the last rep on exercises that don't require a spotter

Dorian Yates talked about doing "extra negatives" too. But, they would require a spotter. He said to go to failure, then have your spotter help you lift it and then you do several more of just the negative movement, with the spotter helping lift each time.

on machines and dumbell exercises you can still do the last rep superslow (30-60 second negative) and accomplish quite a bit of stimulation with that.....it takes experience to know which rep will be you last full rep though so you know when to do the negative

irish_2003 said:

since i prefer to train by myself i can't really do forced reps, but i've had good success with super slow negatives on the last rep on exercises that don't require a spotter

Click to expand...

That's exactly what I go through with training by myself. On the last of every exercise that I'm able to, I'll do a very slow negative