Negatives

I'm not a huge fan of negatives, but that's probably because I've pretty much gone past them in my fitness level. So what is a negative? A negative is the reverse motion of an exercise. For example: the down motion of a pushup is a negative, so is the down motion of a pull-up.

To actually start a negative pull-up, you have to jump and catch yourself, then go down.

A negative in exercise isn't just the opposite motion of an exercise, because that would be too easy. You have to go down as slow as you can. This way you're building the muscles to do a pushup or a pull-up. In my opinion, once you can do a pull-up, you shouldn't do negatives. Maybe after you complete a pull-up you could, but if you're capable of doing a pull-up, you shouldn't just do negatives because they are easier. On the other hand if you can do a pushup, then you should do a pushup, then go on your knees or do incline pushups if you can't complete any more.

This can apply to most arm exercises. Try it out if you can't do a complete arm exercise!