I ONLY Trained NEGATIVES For 10 Days 

Here are the key points from the video: - he conducted a 10-day experiment training only the eccentric (negative) motion of exercises to see if it would build more strength. - He performed exercises like bench press, pull-ups, and squats by lifting the weight with assistance, then slowly controlling the eccentric motion down. This allowed him to use much heavier weights than normal. - It looked silly having to reset the weights after each rep, but he was able to handle far more weight eccentrically. - By the end he found significant increases in strength on tested exercises like bench press and squats compared to before the experiment. - He felt his muscles were denser and potentially bigger after the experiment. He attributes this to the heavy eccentric overload stimulating more growth. - He plans to incorporate more eccentric training into his normal workouts, as he felt it helped him gain strength back faster than normal training after a layoff period. - Overall, the experiment provides evidence that emphasizing heavy, controlled eccentric training can build impressive strength quickly. He plans to experiment more with intense eccentric exercises.

Do this for longer while showing the results please.

This man really has a gift for making RU-vid videos. Always very educational but still makes me laugh every time with his personality, just enjoying life etc. keep crushing it bro!! One of the best creators out there right now

The strap might be rated for a high weight but if those bolts didnt come with the kit make sure to see what they are rated for. Im sure they came with the kit but its worth mentioning just in case

I remember training with my friend who had never lifted. He couldn't do any pullups. So I had heard you can train someone to be able to do pullups just via negatives and he became able to do normal reps really really quickly. If you think about it going from 0 to like 5 pullups is a huge increase, cant even quantify it since you are starting at 0. I don't think the way you trained here is the best way because it's so time consuming but it shows those eccentric "reps" are really important.

30 days would be a great experiment I’d like to see the gains! If it turns out good I’m going to try it

I love how you stayed natural and did not get affected by social media or fame addiction keep it up bro love your content

This is similar principle to how I got my pullups up and I encourage everyone to do the same. I use to be able to do only 6 strict pullups. Then I started incorporating negatives. I would do my six pullups and then jump up for another 6 negatives. Eventually I got to 12 strict pullups

you should've teamed up with someone doing only positives for 10 days. so they could've lifted the weight for you :D

I think the research that you showed meant you should focus a lot more on eccentric than concentric but you can still do both in one set

It's nice seeing an actual fitness challenge that doesn't throw up 405's like its a joke - I don't feel as bad not being able to bench 300 now (or even close)

I love how he looked around before jumping to pull the bar down 1:32 just incase

i dont get why you actually do this 10 day expetiments, most of these videos you do need at the very least 30 days to showcase actual results and what would happen, and 100 would be an amount of time needed for actual data, what you do is barely "feeling what its like", its fun content i still like to watch them from time to time, but this in no way proves if you should or shouldn't do something, id like it if i saw more of this type of videos from you i really prefer the other types of videos you make that are both fun and actually interesting, like the helmet one. but keep the grind bro do what you think is best

The Nautilus Advanced Bodybuilding book by Ellington Darden has a chapter devoted to negative only training. One set to negative failure of eight to ten exercises is all you need. One also needs two to four assistants to lift the weights on the positive phase for you. It is extremely effective. Tom Laputka a former professional football player (canadian) was able to do negative nautilus pullovers with 700 lbs. 500 lb leg extensions, 300 lb leg curls. On the old nautlus hip and back, Tom was able to use 700 lbs for one leg. Chapter 4, pages 50, 51 outline Tom's training. You were risking injury not using assistants.

Arthur, Mike and Dorian would be proud. Another great video

what I love most about this channel is that it clearly proves that you don't have to be insanely athletic or strong to enjoy a healthy and fit body and make great content. loved every second of this!

To be honest, the results didn't surprise me, I even expected such improvements at least. I still remember when I was at the gym for the first time, training just like you. Before that, I could only do 5 push-ups on my fists. After a week, I wanted to see what a week at the gym had brought. I managed to do 12 push-ups, but I used both arms and supported myself with just three fingers. Stay committed and stay strong! We want to see how the experiment unfolds over one month, six months, and even a year.

So I guess the strength comes from CNS-adaptation over the training: Basically just letting your body know that you can indeed push this hard without injury!

There’s a few different things u could try. Negative accentuated training - take a weight around 70% of normal and lift with 2 and lower with one. Works well on - Leg extensions Leg curl Machine curls Machine triceps extension There is machines out called x-force, made in Sweden if I remember rightly. The weight stack is tiled on the concentric, then it tilts back to vertical thus increasing the load by 40% for the negative . The Colorado experiment was done with mostly negatives If I remember correctly

Mike Mentzer would have been proud of you. The glasses rock; keep em.

Looks like an amazing experiment. I was going to write 30 days would have been ideal to be honest but after watching the whole video your results were amazing. Well done. I loved this video. I can't wait for the Mike Mentzer video! keep up the great content.

There's this Finnish bodybuilder, Utti Hietala, who has experimented with anything bodybuilding-related a whooole lot. Over the course of decades of training, he has ran through hundreds of training programs and tried a myriad selection of obscure exercises and training methods. At some point in his career he experimented training with heavy negatives ONLY. He even did exercises like squats/leg press, and literally always had a bunch of strong spotters to lift the sled for him. I don't remember his exact training block length, but it was 1+ months for sure. Utti was then asked in a Q&A video about what his absolute worst training program for hypertrophy was, and he said HANDS DOWN the eccentric training program. He says he not only felt it negatively impacted his joints, but that it had ZERO impact towards his specific goals of strength and hypertrophy.

When doing the nordic hamstring curls you can just assist yourself with your arms, pushing with as much force as needed to assist, and then you can push yourself up so you can avoid the concentric. you can even use a wooden pole to assist, to slowly climb down it eccentrically.

Best on youtube…always finds something interesting to do and doesn’t take himself so seriously as others- shows results, too… Keep up the good work!!

Mike Mentzer was way ahead of his time.

Thank you for the information. I could see definite improvements. I thought I might share something that recently happened with my training. In my twenties I was a division 1 athlete but could still only do about 60 push-ups. I started hanging for a few minutes a couple of days a week and taking creatine and I can now do over 95 push-ups. I'm shooting for 100. The amazing part is I am 66 years old.

You're essentially training your tendons and joints to get used to the heavier load. Yes, this will make you stronger which is why it's good to occasionally train the negatives but your muscles will not strengthen (or grow) as quick as the tendons or joints will become accustomed to so eventually you will hurt yourself doing this. i.e if your max squat/bench is 315/225 and after 3 months of doing this you're somehow eccentrically 'squating' or holding 500 lbs and 'benching' or holding 335 over your chest, yes you'll be as big as if you were normally lifting 335/250 (minimal changes) but you'll eventually tear a pec, slip a disc, torn rotator etc. doing this, especially if you're nearing or over 30. This can be good for powerlifting leading up to a meet, but for anyone who regularly goes to the gym for years and years (the only way to get bigger and stronger without peds) the old adage 'slow and steady wins the race' is still correct.

From my experience of eccentric training, try using 2 limbs for the concentric and then alternate 1 limb for the eccentric. This helps reduce the need for an active buddy on the overloaded concentrics AND increases safety because the absolute load is lower. Also, mixing together explosive concentrics with slow eccentrics helps up the neural signal strength to maximise fibre recruitment.

This is insanely good, i remember when i was 14 couldnt even do a pull up, so i did negatives after 10 rep negatives sets i managed to do first pull up by 2nd week, so its very likely to break down in phases, excentric, concentric, and isometric, if you want to improve at any given movement. i think im gonna do this for my starters to strength days and also start using isometrics hold after concentric phase. Thanks dude for giving me a new perspective, which i forgot.

Lifting partner for this style of working out is a must for timing!

I made this switch recently. Haven't done heavier weight, just long, focused negatives with burst positives. Fewer reps, but more overall work. It definitely makes a difference. This vid has inspired me to try some heavy negative-only reps. Good stuff!

Congrats, you completed the first phase of triphasic training. Next you have to train Isometrics for 2 weeks. Then concentrics for 2 weeks

I think everybody should do a challenge like this to realise all the potential that's being left out due to focusing mainly on the eccentric part of the movement.

Mike Mentzer is looking down from above like " I told youuuuuu."

For some of the movements i would have used a machine and 2 hands/legs for the concentric movement then switch to 1 hand/leg for the eccentric movement. Might save some time. It works for me for several exercises!

I was waiting for you to mention Mike Mentzer and lo and behold the stache and glasses came out, lets gooooo! I'm trying to improve my abysmal chin/pull ups by just doing the negative.

Excellent video, well done and I appreciate your staying focused on goals. Great example that I have to add to my programs. Thanks!

Thank you for the kilogram annotations

incredible Mentzer variation, it is extremely helpful because you have indeed grown beyond

Thank you for existing pal. Best part of the Saturday is you uploading ;)

I appreciate your dedication to this experiment, even when it might get you on gym fails 😅

GOAT channel! you’re killing it bro

It is possible that he grew stronger over the 10 days just for the fact that by means of the experiment he essentially was forced to de load on all the concentric movements. if you deload. Regardless, you will usually come back stronger if your already due for a de-load. Nonetheless, this was very interesting and entertaining experiment and we can all learn some things from it!

On your next vid, you should combine the static holds you did with these negatives. Static hold up to the point of failure & then do the eccentric portion as slowly as possible. That's what Mike Mentzer & Arthur Jones suggested. I'm curious about your results.

Try only isokinetic exercises next

I answered and said, "If I have found favor in thy sight, O Lord, show this also to thy servant: whether after death, as soon as every one of us yields up his soul, we shall be kept in rest until those times come when thou wilt renew the creation, or whether we shall be tormented at once?" 76 He answered me and said, "I will show you that also, but do not be associated with those who have shown scorn, nor number yourself among those who are tormented. 77 For you have a treasure of works laid up with the Most High; but it will not be shown to you until the last times. 78 Now, concerning death, the teaching is: When the decisive decree has gone forth from the Most High that a man shall die, as the spirit leaves the body to return again to him who gave it, first of all it adores the glory of the Most High. 79 And if it is one of those who have shown scorn and have not kept the way of the Most High, and who have despised his law, and who have hated those who fear the Most High -- 80 such spirits shall not enter into habitations, but shall immediately wander about in torments, ever grieving and sad, in seven ways. 81 The first way, because they have scorned the law of the Most High. 82 The second way, because they cannot now make a good repentance that they may live. 83 The third way, they shall see the reward laid up for those who have trusted the covenants of the Most High. 84 The fourth way, they shall consider the torment laid up for themselves in the last days. 85 The fifth way, they shall see how the habitations of the others are guarded by angels in profound quiet. 86 The sixth way, they shall see how some of them will pass over into torments. 87 The seventh way, which is worse than all the ways that have been mentioned, because they shall utterly waste away in confusion and be consumed with shame, and shall wither with fear at seeing the glory of the Most High before whom they sinned while they were alive, and before whom they are to be judged in the last times. 88 "Now this is the order of those who have kept the ways of the Most High, when they shall be separated from their mortal body. 89 During the time that they lived in it, they laboriously served the Most High, and withstood danger every hour, that they might keep the law of the Lawgiver perfectly. 90 Therefore this is the teaching concerning them: 91 First of all, they shall see with great joy the glory of him who receives them, for they shall have rest in seven orders. 92 The first order, because they have striven with great effort to overcome the evil thought which was formed with them, that it might not lead them astray from life into death. 93 The second order, because they see the perplexity in which the souls of the unrighteous wander, and the punishment that awaits them. 94 The third order, they see the witness which he who formed them bears concerning them, that while they were alive they kept the law which was given them in trust. 95 The fourth order, they understand the rest which they now enjoy, being gathered into their chambers and guarded by angels in profound quiet, and the glory which awaits them in the last days. 96 The fifth order, they rejoice that they have now escaped what is corruptible, and shall inherit what is to come; and besides they see the straits and toil from which they have been delivered, and the spacious liberty which they are to receive and enjoy in immortality. 97 The sixth order, when it is shown to them how their face is to shine like the sun, and how they are to be made like the light of the stars, being incorruptible from then on. 98 The seventh order, which is greater than all that have been mentioned, because they shall rejoice with boldness, and shall be confident without confusion, and shall be glad without fear, for they hasten to behold the face of him whom they served in life and from whom they are to receive their reward when glorified. 99 This is the order of the souls of the righteous, as henceforth is announced; and the aforesaid are the ways of torment which those who would not give heed shall suffer hereafter." 100 I answered and said, "Will time therefore be given to the souls, after they have been separated from the bodies, to see what you have described to me?" 101 He said to me, "They shall have freedom for seven days, so that during these seven days they may see the things of which you have been told, and afterwards they shall be gathered in their habitations." 102 I answered and said, "If I have found favor in thy sight, show further to me, thy servant, whether on the day of judgment the righteous will be able to intercede for the unrighteous or to entreat the Most High for them, 103 fathers for sons or sons for parents, brothers for brothers, relatives for their kinsmen, or friends for those who are most dear." 104 He answered me and said, "Since you have found favor in my sight, I will show you this also. The day of judgment is decisive and displays to all the seal of truth. Just as now a father does not send his son, or a son his father, or a master his servant, or a friend his dearest friend, to be ill or sleep or eat or be healed in his stead, 105 so no one shall ever pray for another on that day, neither shall any one lay a burden on another; for then every one shall bear his own righteousness and unrighteousness." .....2 Esdras 7:75 /////////////////

To improve you squat form, put a resistance band around your knees and go into a deep squat. In this position, try to thrust without engaging the quads. You will not really go up. Rather, you'll just activate your glutes. This will teach you to activate your glutes in that low position. Do this as a warm up to remind yourself how it feels to use the glutes while in a deep squat position. You can also do this as a workout after your sets.

I dont do eccentric only workouts, but i do a 3-5 second eccentric on all my lifts, i do hypertrophy training, and i love it because i dont have to lift 300 lbs to get results, lighter weight with slower eccentric, main focus being TUT, Really gives me such a better mind/muscle connection, not only are my muscles fuller but the striations are crazy, and im hitting PRs every session, doing a push,pull,legs, twice a week with either a rest in between or one rest day a week

Eccentric are great for tendon strength, also I think you do them with shorter range to prevent injuries

Im gonna try this, this might actually be really good for plateau's

I'm into eccentric arm wrestling. It's not going so good. In all seriousness I've started doing some eccentric pull-ups and it seems to be working. The downside is it's less fun because of time under tension. It's just you and your face, can't even read a book or have deep philosophical thoughts. And sometimes a mosquito land on your leg and you can't do anything about for another 15 seconds. Gotta keep good form. One tiny bug on your leg and that's all you can think about.

Machines where both handles are attached/move together make doing eccentrics much easier: first part of motion use 2 hands/feet, then slowly drop (eccentric motion) with 1 hand/foot.

Man this is awesome! I'm looking forward to putting an ecentric week in the next mesocycle :)

as someone who did ecentric curls with a 35 lb kettlebell because that's all I had, be careful. I severely fucked up my tendons and couldn't move my arms for about 2 weeks. I still feel severe amounts of, and I can't stress this enough, springiness in my biceps after doing lots of pull-ups. Doing research on tendon microtears and recovery didnt help either, as for all I know now, my bicep tendons are neglected cords of jute twine forgotton by boy scouts three summers ago

I'd like to see you do a month of "greasing the groove" to see if you get stronger with various exercises

You have one of the best body hacking channel on RU-vid you mix research with comedy and it works! Blessings king 🙏🏿

Curious what Dr. Mike from @RenaissancePeriodization would think of this. Definitely one of the more interesting challenges you’ve done. Wondering if focusing on eccentric is a way to try exercises you can’t quite do yet. I want to be able to do pistol squats but I’m not there so maybe I’ll add some eccentric pistol squats into my routine while I build up that strength.

Idea: make the 10 day or 7 day results video, but then continue the challenge for 30 or 90 days if possible, more content and results from the same challenge💯

Another great video You can do single sided on the way down (1 arm dumbbell press, 1 legged squats) and use both sides to reset. If you are going to try it for a longer time period. Going to start adding these to my routine.

This is gonna blow up, you brought attention to something interesting thats also practical

Interesting results. I'll look at adding similar into my routine too. I'm only benching 20kg at this but i have only been going in for like 8 months now and i had to work through a strength issue in my back/shoulders for bench.

love this content on the Negatives! cant wait to see your content on Mike Mentzer!

Negatives are painful 😂 but be careful! Super heavy negatives are where muscle tears occur!

They say that's why (male) gymnasts have THE biggest biceps, because they train so much with their arms extended, which is very similar to the argument presented here. Cheers!

Come on, man. You’re using different lighting at 19:04. Very deceiving, bro.

I ended up implementing this into my peak cycle for the last month of my peak and it gave me insane results because it got my central nervous system firing. My bench went from 250 to 310 and my squat went from 375 to 500. I ended up hitting a pr in shotput indoors and beat my old pr by 3 meters. I think using it for strength athletes it works for peaking. That’s the results of me so I can’t say it works for everyone but it really helped me

Try Mike Mentzer's program for a month

Mike Mentzer feeling proud

"My wife ONLY trained POSITIVES for 10 days"

i've tried workout based on this vid for 14 day, and so far its real for me, good job 👍

Jesus Christ Loves You All So So Much!

sick video dude !!! Appreciate the things you do!! Cheers

You could make a video titled “I survived ONLY on protein power for a week”

As a Mentzer-following HIT lifter, I LOVE this

Another idea is superslow, like 10 secs up, 5 secs down. Or the 30/30/30 method, normal speed up, BB curl as an example, 30 secs down, 30 secs up, 30 secs down, and that's it. Per body part. That's from Ellington Darden's book.

14:40 my man got some capoeira moves right there xD

Calisthenics truly lends itself tremendously well for this. Lower the dip, then stand back up. Lower the weighted pullup and stand back up. Lower a one-arm pullup. Lower a wall-assisted deficit handstand pushup. Lower a ring chest fly. Lower a ring reverse fly. Lower a ring pelican curl. Lower a pistol squat. Lower a nordic curl. Do high DEPTH jumps. It's almost perfect for eccentric overloading. The triceps machine, bench, latpulldown, and squat were PAINFUL to watch 😂

The way he checked to see if anyone was looking on the pull-down maschine😂

Setting up for the eccentrics looked so wacky😂

This is really interesting! I hope more youtubers get inspired to do this, great video :)

Not sure if anyone else mentioned this but Titan sells eccentric hooks for a barbell which you load up with plates that get dumped off the bar at the bottom of your lift. They're like $70 and work perfectly for eccentric training!

Eccentric works. Back when i couldnt do more than 2 pullups, i would train eccentric only for higher reps. After only a few weeks i was doing normal pullups for for like 8 or 9 in a row. (Not per set, just the total i could do in one go) but thats way more than i had ever done before.

THANK YOU, everybody should know how important eccentric loading is, this was a bit silly ONLY doing eccentrics but this shit is how our body works best!!!!

Great video, I definitely found it to be very informative! My best friend is a competitive strongman who used to compete in powerlifting. We used to do workouts like this once every few months, noting the point where the repetition speed would involuntarily increase. We would later use this for partials and singles, starting out from that sticking point (if you will or bottom of the rep up) working the concentric portion of the lift first. This method gets you very strong and fast, and although it can be time-consuming and tedious, it is amazing for breaking through plateaus.

You did amazing on those squats. You bring about what you speak about, so stop telling yourself you’re bad at them!

Mike Mentzer says in his book that the negative part of the moviment its the most important part. Controlling the eccentric its a S tier tip to improve your lifts

I love the thought of a packed gym just doing eccentric exercises. Would be lovely to see all the people hanging off cable machines 😂

Makes sense. Armwrestling training is all about this literally all of our training is around high reps and eccentrics to hold positions where we are stronger.

Btw recommend you do your HSPU with stomach to wall, allows you to go through a more realistic ROM, tougher, and better for joints

Just for those wondering this does not conclude that eccentric phases are more important for strength gains. it is extremely likely he would have seen similar progress by doing the same load bearing with concentrics.. The huge progress shows how much his muscle activation (nervous system) improved which means you arent training heavy often and thus doing so got you better activation.

I'm excited. I just joined the cult of Mike mentzer about 2 months ago please wear the mustache and big glasses for the video.

I like this video! I've been experimenting w/ something similar & I knew I couldn't be the only one to think of it: I hadn't been reaching my goals on bench press as fast as I wanted, so a couple weeks ago I started implementing eccentric only reps on the seated bench press machine (the one w/ a foot assist bar so it's easy to setup) as an accessory lift. It feels kind of goofy to do in public, but it also seems like it unlocks a hidden stash of "beginner gains" still available to intermediate lifters so I'll probably keep doing them for a while

My concern: You're swinging the bar up to do bicep curl negatives. This is likely to eventually cause back discomfort and/or injury. Curls are just not a good exercise for pure negatives, unless you have someone help you get the weight up.

The tricep pushdowns were hilarious 😂

Mike Mentzer towards the end begun to place more emphasis on the importance of the negative in his theory for heavy duty training. So youre doing a good thing. Exhaust the slow twitch muscle fibers. They typically have a lot of juice left in the tank after a standard workout

Dude I remember back when you were juicing onions and stuff and now you’ve blow up so much, no one deserves this more than you bro

Here is an idea: do a regular concentric part and then have your training partner make your negative part much harder. For ex. on the bench press, she could push on the barbel with her body weight on the eccentric part. The drawback is that training partner is mandatory for this system.

It would be interesting to see the results of only one set for each exercise, as Mike Mentzer mentioned that more than 1 set reduces results significantly.

Your experiment is something I've always wanted to try. I am super stoked about the result of your eccentric bicep training, I figured the soreness would be closer to the insertion of the biceps tendons and yet it is closer to the origin of the muscles which is totally unprecedented and extremely interesting and exciting. The only thing I thought I could shake a stick at was the benching form, you are gripping too wide by quite a lot (likely why your elbow got twinged) and you are not enough under the bar for the correct arc and scapular retraction. I was similar to your weight about 10 yrs ago when I started and after I was coached on benching I did 325 for a double with no assist. After I did the double I skrieked "Were you helping!!?" "not an ounce" he replied. Half the battle is psychological when your doing heavy lifts. Btw I love your Mike Mentzer, gotta throw that Obilgatory Bicep up there for all to drink in.

There’s some research showing that doing workouts in your mind can have real world effects on your muscles. That would be a fun experiment