From: Lyle McDonald Newsgroups: misc.fitness Subject: Negatives.info.Part1 Date: Wed, 19 Jan 94 15:14:59 EST Hi guys. Well, last time I talked a little bit more about muscle fiber types, so I thought I'd sort of continue on with muscle physiology and talk about how muscle grows. First, let me say that scientists don't really know exactly how muscle fibers actually get larger although some recent studies do provide a starting point. Very possibly, what I'm going to outline will be completely invalid a year from now. But for now, this is sort of the state of the information about muscle growth. Well, if I wanted to make this essay really short, I could sum up muscle growth in one word: NEGATIVES. Yeah, negatives. As a recap, remember that the negative portion of a movement is the lengthening portion of that movement. For example, in a biceps curl, lowering the weight towards the ground is the lengthening or negative portion. Well, so what?? Let me digress a bit and talk about how the body seems to adapt to stress. In most cases, the body adapts to a given stress by strengthening the particular system stressed. Apparently, the body reacts to any kind of damage (for lack of a better word) by strengthening the damaged system so that it can withstand more damage next time it is stressed. For example, when you get sick, your body notices this and builds up anti-bodies so that you won't get sick next time. So, how does this apply to muscle growth?? Well, it seems that weight training has the potential to cause a significant amount of microscopic muscular damage. When this damage occurs, the body reacts by laying down more muscle so that the muscle will not be damaged by that load again (this is what adaptation and progression are all about). Well, negatives tend to cause the greatest amount of muscle damage for some really boring physiological reasons. As another aside, Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) has been found to be maximized by negative muscular contractions. Well, the time course of DOMS (peaking at about 48 hours) matches the time course of a compound hydroxyproline almost exactly. Well, this substance is a biochemical marker for muscle damage indicating microscopic damage to the fibers. Anyway, so it seems that the negatives are the most important part of a muscle building regimen. This led some bodybuilders to experiment with negative-only routines which, in theory, should cause the most muscle damage and, thus, the most growth. Well, in practice, it doesn't really work that way. Some studies have found that negative+postive movements cause both greater damage than either negative or positive only regimens. Some have suggested that the negative seems to "prime" the muscle for the positive movement and a type of synergy is realized. So, the upshot of this is that, if muscular growth is your goal, make sure to emphasize the negative portion of the movement. In the second part of this essay, I will talk a little about incorporating negatives into a workout and also give some real world examples of negative versus positive only athletes. From there, I will talk about power training versus strength/mass training and the implications that it has for women (i.e. the "I don't want to get too big syndrome"). For a catalog of previous posts, send mail to lylemcd@delphi.com. Also send questions/comments to the same address. Lyle From: Lyle McDonald Newsgroups: misc.fitness Subject: Negatives.info.Part2 Date: Wed, 19 Jan 94 15:16:49 EST Hi. This is the second part of a two (or three) part essay on negatives and their implications for the exercise enthusiast and competitive athlete. Last time I talked about some of why negatives seem to be very imprtant for muscular growth. This time I will start with some real world application of this and (hopefully) segueway into a discussion of power training. Although the mnechanisms of muscle growth have not been totally elucidated, recent research, as we saw last time, seems to point the finger at the negative, or eccentric, portion of the movement as the primary catalyst for muscle growth due to the amount of muscular damage caused by negatives. Well, that's all well and good in the lab, but, as we know, what the researchers think and what happens in the real world are frequently not the same. Well, for a good example of negative+positive versus postive only athletes, we can examine Olympic style lifters and compare them to bodybuilders. Olympic lifters perform almost exclusively positive only movements. This sport requires extremely explosive strength requiring the athlete to move a very heavy weight quickly from the floor to either the chest or above the head. The weight is then dropped with no negative being performed. This occurs both in training as well as in competition. Bodybuilders, on the other hand, tend to stick with "traditional" weight training performing both positive and negative movements. Well, if you compare similar weight bodybuilders to Olympic lifters, you will notice that the bodybuilders have a much larger amount of muscular mass then the Olympic lifters . Presumably, this is due to the lack of negatives in the Olympic lifters training. There are other differences in training as well which I will address below. So, as a real world example, we can see that, as far as maximum growth is concerned, the negatives play a huge role in the development of muscular mass. But, how do you incorporate negatie movements into your workout regimen?? Well, for the beginner and intermediate exerciser, it is probably sufficient just to make sure and do the negative at the end of the repitition. Rather than letting the weight flow down, control the lengthening of the muscle to somewhat emphasize the negative. Generally, a 2 second postive is recommended followed by a four second negative. This is a good general guideline to follow in the beginning. More advanced bodybuilders may opt to include negatives at the end of a set of normal repititions. Recall that positive strength is always less than negative and your muscle will be able to perform negative only movements even after positive strength is exhausted. Normally, a spotter (or momentum) is used to raise the weight again so that more negatives can be performed. In a biceps curl, after you had reached postive failure, you would either have your spotter raise the bar/weight up so that you could lower it down slowly. Alternately, you could cheat curl the weight to your chest if you are working out alone. Also recall that negatives are responsible for the majority of post workout soreness and that the should be moderated accordingly. Finally, let me say a word about some of the home exercisers out there. From time to time, you may see a machine offering soreness-free exercise. Well, this is due to the lack of a negative movement. But, although you may not get sore, you will also probably not reach your full muscular development if that is what you desire. As this is getting long, I will continue into a third part and address the other differences between the training of Olympic lifters and bodybuilders and the applications for exercisers. For a catalog of old articles, send requests to lylemcd@delphi.com along with comments and questions. Lyle From: Lyle McDonald Newsgroups: misc.fitness Subject: Negatives.info.Part3 Date: Wed, 19 Jan 94 15:18:35 EST Hi. In this third and final part on negatives, I would like to discuss the differences between power training and standard mass/strength training. Previously, I discussed why negatives seem to be responsible for muscle growth, some guidelines for incorporating negatives into your workouts, and some real world examples. Last time I talked about the differences between Olympic style lifters and bodybuilders with regards to the style of lifting employed: positive only versus negative+positive respectively. Well, there is one other major difference between the style of lifting used. I would like to differentiate between them by calling the style of Olympic lifters power training while bodybuilder's style of lifting I will call mass/strength training. But, first some physics (yeah!!). Recall from mechanics that work is defined as mass times distance written as W = M * D. Regardless of the speed of movement, the same work will be done (incidentally, this is why walking a mile and running a mile have more or less an identical energy cost. Speed is irrespective, more or less, as the same mass is moved the same distance. It's just faster to run than walk a mile.) Well power is defined as the amount of work done in a given amount of time written as P = W / T. (again running requires more power than walking but the work is still identical). Ok, enough of that. Well, one of the primary differences between power and mass training is in the speed of movement. Generally speaking, bodybuilders tend to use a rather slow speed of movement. Thus, although their workload is very high (due to the use of heavy weights) the power output is very low (due to slow movement speed). Olympic lifters (and powerlifters to a degree) tend to use lighter loads but they are moved very quickly. Thus the power output is high (short movement time) while absolute workload is lower (lighter weights). Well, so what?? Well, depending on your fitness goals, you will generally want to choose one type or another of these two choices. If mass is your goal, slow movements with heavy weights and an accentuated negative is part of the prescription. But for athletes who want strength and power without a lot of mass (i.e. cyclists and other endurance athletes who occasionally need bursts of power for hills and sprints), power training without a negative movement seems to be indicated. Note however, that the lack of a negative should not be interpreted as a suggestion to sloppily lower the weight. The weight should still be lowered in a controlled manner, it's just that a slow negative is not necessary. Also, note that power training should not be incorporated into a workout until a sufficient strength base is developed and tendons and ligaments are strengthened as well. Generally no fewer than three months at least of standard resistance training should be performed before including power training. Also, when power training is first begun, weights should be lowered to no more than 70-80% of maximum and then brought up slowly as power and skill is developed. Well, this is getting longer than I had intended, so I will finish up by addressing my biggest pet peeve in the whole world: that is the female notion of "I don't want to get too big". No offense is intended at all but, generally, it just doesn't happen that way. But before I start ranting, let me sign off. For a catalog of previous posts send email to lylemcd@delphi.com along with flames and comments. Lyle