Cheating - Negative reps - experienced lifters?

[dancingduck]

Just a question about cheating on reps to maximize muscle stimulation, hypertrophy and what not.

An example: Seated one armed dumbbell curl - (fatigued and can no longer lift weight) utilizing opposite hand to bring the weight up to release on a slow and controlled negative.

So do any of you find any benefit to pushing yourself beyond what you can naturally lift? Any gains from this technique? I was taught this technique a long time ago from friends - another example would be -peer bench press spotting-.

Generally considered an option' once you begin hitting plateaus.

Any feedback is appreciated.. haven't read much about it.

[anonymous]

Great ways to tear something as an older lifter

[pastorgbc]

How do you cheat with proper form?

Ray

[drudixon]

Forced reps have a place, just not all the time. I wouldn't call them cheating tho.

[mavrick77]

They can be helpful....but most people get carried away with them, overuse them, or start building them into their normal rep without even knowing it. for example straight bar curls.... if you can do 8 or so with good form, i.e.-full arm extension, no bouncing, going up on the hells, elbows tight to the body, etc... Then after you get 8, if you need to add a VERY SLIGHT swing to pull 2 more out, then by all means. The problem is , with curls for example, people will start building this slight swing, into a full swing, into starting from rep one. So yes, cheats can be helpful, but can also be abused and misused.

[djflex]

Ive had nothing but injury after injury with negatives. Not for me ...

[Richie71]

I can only think of bicep curls where I'd do them, and only because there's that weak spot at the bottom of the motion....and as I haven't done any direct bicep work for six months, I'd guess that means I don't do cheat reps.

[poundXpound]

Why not just do myo-reps?

[Juggertha]

I cheat. I swing. I do forced reps.

But I rarely do them.

When I trained back in Canada, I had a group of guys I knew for years. We had a really good grasp of what each other's capabilities and styles were. And because of that, I felt comfortable to push the limits on occasion.

Now that I train by myself, or with sporadic partners, I'm much more cautious. I simply don't feel synced with them.

[GKC45]

I can't help but imagine CT when I read this.

[Old-Time-Lifter]

How do you cheat with proper form?

Ray

this ^^^^

Ive had nothing but injury after injury with negatives. Not for me ...

cheating and negatives are not the same thing the op should not have tried to link them

[antpitt]

Negatives are not the same as forced reps.
I have use negatives in the past for 2 exercises: flat bench press and barbell curls. Whether or not it was beneficial for my body I am not sure. What I did liked about doing the negative benches were that I experienced the "feel" of having a loaded bar and controlling it. If I was at a 250 1 rep max I would put 300 on the bar and lower it down slowly to my chest than my spotter would raise the bar and I would repeat for several reps. There was some kind of mental connection with knowing that I had more weight in my hands than I ever had and knowing how it felt to control it.

[ironwill2008]

Just a question about cheating on reps to maximize muscle stimulation, hypertrophy and what not.

An example: Seated one armed dumbbell curl - (fatigued and can no longer lift weight) utilizing opposite hand to bring the weight up to release on a slow and controlled negative.

So do any of you find any benefit to pushing yourself beyond what you can naturally lift?

No. Not only is going to such extremes not necessary, it's counter-productive. Besides causing early plateaus, it can lead to injury.


Progression is the engine that drives growth, not failure, or negatives, or any other extreme training measures. Work to lift a little more weight and/or for one more rep with good form; doesn't have to be 'perfect' than the last workout, and do it consistently over time.





Speaking of 'negatives,' they're little more than an injury looking for a victim. There's no good reason to try to lift more weight than you can control at all times.

[drudixon]

Negatives are not the same as forced reps.
I have use negatives in the past for 2 exercises: flat bench press and barbell curls. Whether or not it was beneficial for my body I am not sure. What I did liked about doing the negative benches were that I experienced the "feel" of having a loaded bar and controlling it. If I was at a 250 1 rep max I would put 300 on the bar and lower it down slowly to my chest than my spotter would raise the bar and I would repeat for several reps. There was some kind of mental connection with knowing that I had more weight in my hands than I ever had and knowing how it felt to control it.

OP implies forced reps with hand assisted and spotter assisted, but also mentions negatives. Post and poll are all over the place really.

[mtpockets]

The only negatives I ever employed was for pullups, and that was many moons ago when I couldn't do more than 1 in a row.

[PersonaNonGrata]

I probably dont qualify on the "experienced lifter" criteria but I am more cautious about this stuff now i've suffered a tendon injury

[bigtallox]

An example: Seated one armed dumbbell curl - (fatigued and can no longer lift weight) utilizing opposite hand to bring the weight up to release on a slow and controlled negative.

Slow eccentric only curls... no way, that's basically how my bicep tore, twice ( but it wasn't with a dumbbell it was while failing to lift a keg onto a platform, but it basically was the same thing a slow eccentric curl with weight that I couldn't complete a concentric lift with ). Perhaps on other movements over than curls it may have benefit, but that even remains to be seen in my book.

So do any of you find any benefit to pushing yourself beyond what you can naturally lift? Any gains from this technique? I was taught this technique a long time ago from friends - another example would be -peer bench press spotting-.

When I bench, after getting a lift off if the standards to too short for a long arm guy, I don't want anybody touching the bar unless gravity is taking it down. BUT somebody touching the bar isn't the only way of "pushing your self beyond what you can naturally lift", there are other options for that, like doing bench lockouts or board presses, doing rack pulls, wearing knee wraps and powerlifting gear... ( but none of those are "cheating" or "bad form" ).

[doughnutgut]

Not read through this thread but i will leave this here.

Nothing bad happened to Arnold..



Did he need to do them? Possibly not.

Did it make any difference? Possibly not.

Can a normal gym goer benefit from this? Possibly not.

Is it worth the effort? Possibly not.