Bodybuilding and fitness blog

Pumping arms with negatives – struggling with the force of gravity, increasing the mass

Although long ago it has proved that the inverse (negative) phase of weight motion raises weight is not worst than the phase of growth (positive), most bodybuilders live by inertia of the past and often not lower but throw the weight.

Hearken to the point! When you lift the weights, your muscle contracts and shortens at the same time. And this is natural. But when you lower the weight and resist the force of gravity, the muscle also reduces, but it also stretches (lengthens). And this is not natural. You can imagine what damage get the muscle fibers! Then the fibers are patched by the stem cells and the fibers thicken and you get an increase of more than the one that goes with the emphasis on weight lifting.

What to do, not lift but just lower the weights? Alas, it turned out that programs built on negative repetitions only, very fast drive the athlete to overtraining. However, the negatives will be able to help if you use them rarely and by rules. Let us explain how negatives pump your arms.

First, do a very good warm up of your shoulder and elbow joints, warm your hands. Then take relatively light weight dumbbells and achieve a rush of blood to the biceps and triceps. In your split do not change anything. Practice, as before. Pump your biceps with back and chest with triceps, or load both muscles during one training.

Instead of making 2-4 exercises, choose only one for biceps and triceps. For biceps take standing flexing or bending at a lectern with the EZ-bar. For triceps – downward press or French bench press (of course, with a partner). Next, decide on a working weight, using the guidance in the table. With the help of an assistant throw the weight to the upper point, and lower it by yourself.

Do one negative training then return to the traditional training (for several weeks). When you feel a special lift of strength once again do a one-time negative training. It is possible otherwise. If you feel an obvious impact of negatives, practice one negative set instead of the last set of the last exercise on biceps or triceps. But again not at every single workout, but after one or two. Good luck!

Positive of negatives

Exercises

Choose only one:

Biceps – standing barbell curls, bending arms at a lectern, bending at the block

Triceps – down press, French bench press

Scheme

Do 6 sets of 10 repetitions. The weight is 125% of your one-time maximum. Rest between sets for 2 minutes.

Rate of repetitions

Do negatives for a period of 6 seconds. Do not lift the weight up but throw it with the help of an assistant

Whey protein – a star of first magnitude in the world of bodybuilding

Every bodybuilder understands (at least, should understand) the importance of supplying the body with protein. Athletes involved in strength trainings, need much more protein than their “vulgaris” fellow citizens. Without protein (which is broken down into amino acids by the body) you cannot build the muscle tissue, it is very simple. As far as I can tell, it does not matter what diet you follow – a fat or a carbohydrate one, it does not matter how many calories you consume – it is important that this diet was rich in protein.

This idea lives among bodybuilders for several decades and only in the recent years was accepted by the scientists. The studies held among the athletes of different fields, have clearly shown that exercises increase the body’s need for protein and amino acids. The studies have also shown that the anabolic effect from the intense exercises increases with a diet rich in protein.

I believe that the more intensive are your exercises, the greater is the importance of protein in the process of building the muscle tissues. For serious bodybuilders I would recommend a daily dose of a qualitative protein of 1-1,5 grams per pound (about 1 / 2 kg) of the body weight per day. For example, I weigh 200 pounds, respectively, I should consume 200-300 grams of protein per day, divided into 5-6 equal doses. I know some bodybuilders who consume about 500 grams of protein a day, but it is hard to believe that it is necessary.

In addition to the fact that the protein ensures the supply of amino acids to build the new muscle tissues, it also has beneficial effects on the stability of insulin in the system and maintains the proper level of energy. By ingesting the proper amount of protein with each meal, you reduce the risk of various abnormalities in blood sugar. This helps you control your appetite and provides good conditions for the reduction of the fat deposits. If your diet is too rich in carbohydrates, your blood sugar level is constantly fluctuating during the day, now you feel good, the next minute you’re tired and crumpled; there are specific amino acids that act as neurotransmitters that regulate the mood – especially tryptophan and tyrosine.

What type of protein better?

There are many different sources of protein available to everyone. High-quality protein can be extracted from whole foods such as eggs, milk, cheese, beef, fish, poultry, etc. In addition, there is commercially available a mass of protein preparations, milk and egg protein, soy, beef and even vegetable protein. I personally believe that from all these products the whey protein can be considered as the best. It’s not just that it has the highest biological value (which means that it provides the greatest number of amino acids that are suitable for consumption), it also contains the least amount of lactose (this repugnant milk sugar that causes diarrhea for lots of people.) Whey protein is also very convenient in use.

How did all this glutamine appear?

Usually the body keeps a fairly large supply of glutamine in the muscle tissues as muscles are the containers of this amino acid; in fact, 60% of free amino acids contained in the muscle cells are synthesized from glutamine.

When the intestine, the immune system and other “eaters of glutamine” cannot get enough of this amino acid from food and the body, for whatever reasons, cannot synthesize it, they start to take away the muscle stores of glutamine and when this happens, we fall into a state of catabolism or disintegration of the muscle tissues. The reason why this happens is that glutamine supports the proper hydration of cells. When the level of glutamine in the muscle cells decreases, the cells volume also decreases – and so starts the catabolism.

As a rule, we do everything possible to protect ourselves from this condition, so the use of glutamine seems very appropriate and useful. But the mere eating of megadoses of glutamine hoping that it somehow gets to the skeletal muscles is not the best idea. The researches show that from 50 to 85% of large oral doses of glutamine simply do not reach the blood flow and are digested on the road.

So what is the best way to consume glutamine (and I am sure that no bodybuilder doubts its necessity)? My theory, supported by a group of experts is to give the body two to three grams of the drug several times a day.

The recent studies have shown that glycine in combination with glutamine is more effective to increase the volume of the muscle cells than glutamine by itself, and alanine helps to keep the concentration of glutamine in the muscles, in blood being converted into glucose during the periods of calorie restriction, such as strict dieting or just at large periods of time between the meals during starvation (when we sleep, for example).

How much glutamine to take?

While it is still not scientifically established, what is the accurate dose of glutamine to take, bodybuilders and scientific experts have no doubt that glutamine is important. Most of the data on the required quantity of glutamine at this time comes only from the clinics, calculated for sick people. How much should take a healthy bodybuilder for an optimal muscle metabolism, improvement of the muscle cells and maintenance of the health immune system, is only to be discovered. However, I am inclined to believe that if glutamine is added to the rich in protein and carbohydrate diet, so additional advantages can be obtained from ten grams of glutamine a day. As I have already said, part of this amount can come from the substitute products of usual food and protein mixtures. You can also enter the store with sports nutrition and buy a pure glutamine, taking two-three grams along with protein cocktails or simply diluted in water or drinking along with a normal diet. Personally, I take a portion immediately after the training and another one before going to bed.

There is another interesting detail – Duchaine, Almada and I believe that “loading” with drugs such as glutamine in combination with carbohydrates that increase the insulin release, within five to seven days, can help increase the muscle cells volume (due to the excess of glutamine in the cells) . So, if you’re just starting to take glutamine drugs, I would recommend taking four equal portions a day. And be sure that one portion is taken by the end of the training, and another one at the bedtime.

If you have not tried to take glutamine, try it, the expert opinions, the scientific data and the experience of many people speak in favor of this drug.