Note: If you are unable to do negatives on some or all exercises, you simply use your 5RM (the load you used in your 6th and last workout of the 5s block with) for another 2 weeks. I.e. the load should be kept constant for the last 2 weeks of your HST cycle. If you have gained a lot of strength, you may increment the load further for a couple of workouts - but avoid going to failure.
Eccentric lifts, or sometimes called "negatives", are when you use more weight than you can lift. Eccentric reps/negatives should be done in a controlled fashion. Aim for a lowering cadence of 2-4 seconds. Negatives begin AFTER the last 5-rep week. This is where Hypertrophy Specific Training differs from traditional routines. Never fear, if volume is kept low and training frequency kept high, you will experience breakthrough growth.
If you train alone, there are many exercises you can't do negatives on simply because you would need a partner to help you lift the weight first. If you do train alone - or if you feel any particular strains or aches - I would suggest that you just continue using your 5 rep max for each exercise for an additional 2 weeks after finishing the first 2 week block of 5s. You should see good results using your 5 rep max for an additional 2 weeks.
Exercises suited for negatives if training alone are any unilateral exercise using dumbbells, machines, or cables - aiding the concentric by using both hands or legs. On other exercises like dips and chins you can do the concentric by pushing yourself up with your feet.
There are two approaches to the progression.
- Select a load which is approximately your 2-rep max and do 1-2 concentric+3-4 eccentric reps for all 6 workouts of this phase. This is the easiest way and should be followed for your first try with the program.
- After your last workout of 5s, continue the progressive increments for each workout until you can no longer control the weight on the descent for 2-4 seconds. You may also vary the concentric:eccentric rep number ratio. E.g for the first workouts in the negatives microcycle, you may do 3-4 regular concentric/eccentric reps+1-2 eccentric-only reps. On the last workouts of negatives you may do 5 eccentric-only reps. This is for more advanced lifters, as the injury potential would be greater from the heavier loads that will be lifted.
- Blade
For HST, you are adding negatives at the end of the 5s. So how long does it take you to lower the weight when you are repping out the last workout of 5s? Don't forget that the point of doing "negatives" in HST is to continue to increase the load while keeping the volume the same (number of reps and sets). If you are using a reasonable weight progression I doubt that you are going to have all that much control over how fast the weight lowers. When I'm doing heavy 5s I lower the weight the best I can just in order not to hurt myself.
I'm not counting in my head or anything. If I am, then I haven't really reached my 5RM yet. When you are at your 5RM it should be heavy... So, when I start my negatives it doesn't all of a sudden get lighter. It should be heavier than the 5s were. That being the case, let the weight "stretch" the contracted muscle. Its not about fatigue or fighting gravity. It's about stretching a muscle that is contracted. The harder you contract it the more weight it will require to stretch it. Simple as that. How fast you stretch it usually comes naturally to most lifters. Why? because it is about the same speed as they have done all their other reps. Simply lower it in a controlled fashion.
From a physiology point of view, lower a heavy weight too fast and you get golgi-tendon organ interference. The golgi will actually block muscle contraction to prevent tearing, and you aren't really making the muscle engage properly.
Go too slow and the muscle is just fine, but the CNS is, in a manner of speaking, burning through its fuel so fast you can see the gauge moving. It becomes a test of isometric-strength endurance. This will make you better at doing really slow negatives, but it won't necessarily make the muscle bigger at that point.
- Bryan
Eccentric lifts, or sometimes called "negatives", are when you use more weight than you can lift. Eccentric reps/negatives should be done in a controlled fashion. Aim for a lowering cadence of 2-4 seconds. Negatives begin AFTER the last 5-rep week. This is where Hypertrophy Specific Training differs from traditional routines. Never fear, if volume is kept low and training frequency kept high, you will experience breakthrough growth.
If you train alone, there are many exercises you can't do negatives on simply because you would need a partner to help you lift the weight first. If you do train alone - or if you feel any particular strains or aches - I would suggest that you just continue using your 5 rep max for each exercise for an additional 2 weeks after finishing the first 2 week block of 5s. You should see good results using your 5 rep max for an additional 2 weeks.
Exercises suited for negatives if training alone are any unilateral exercise using dumbbells, machines, or cables - aiding the concentric by using both hands or legs. On other exercises like dips and chins you can do the concentric by pushing yourself up with your feet.
There are two approaches to the progression.
- Select a load which is approximately your 2-rep max and do 1-2 concentric+3-4 eccentric reps for all 6 workouts of this phase. This is the easiest way and should be followed for your first try with the program.
- After your last workout of 5s, continue the progressive increments for each workout until you can no longer control the weight on the descent for 2-4 seconds. You may also vary the concentric:eccentric rep number ratio. E.g for the first workouts in the negatives microcycle, you may do 3-4 regular concentric/eccentric reps+1-2 eccentric-only reps. On the last workouts of negatives you may do 5 eccentric-only reps. This is for more advanced lifters, as the injury potential would be greater from the heavier loads that will be lifted.
- Blade
For HST, you are adding negatives at the end of the 5s. So how long does it take you to lower the weight when you are repping out the last workout of 5s? Don't forget that the point of doing "negatives" in HST is to continue to increase the load while keeping the volume the same (number of reps and sets). If you are using a reasonable weight progression I doubt that you are going to have all that much control over how fast the weight lowers. When I'm doing heavy 5s I lower the weight the best I can just in order not to hurt myself.
I'm not counting in my head or anything. If I am, then I haven't really reached my 5RM yet. When you are at your 5RM it should be heavy... So, when I start my negatives it doesn't all of a sudden get lighter. It should be heavier than the 5s were. That being the case, let the weight "stretch" the contracted muscle. Its not about fatigue or fighting gravity. It's about stretching a muscle that is contracted. The harder you contract it the more weight it will require to stretch it. Simple as that. How fast you stretch it usually comes naturally to most lifters. Why? because it is about the same speed as they have done all their other reps. Simply lower it in a controlled fashion.
From a physiology point of view, lower a heavy weight too fast and you get golgi-tendon organ interference. The golgi will actually block muscle contraction to prevent tearing, and you aren't really making the muscle engage properly.
Go too slow and the muscle is just fine, but the CNS is, in a manner of speaking, burning through its fuel so fast you can see the gauge moving. It becomes a test of isometric-strength endurance. This will make you better at doing really slow negatives, but it won't necessarily make the muscle bigger at that point.
- Bryan