This one is excellent for
building strength on the dip movement. It can be used by
just about anybody, from beginner to very advanced. It'll
really build tremendous upper body strength.
The main difference will just
in the amount of extra weight you're able to use with it.
The beginner may be fine doing
just bodyweight dip negatives (meaning you'll do this exact
same technique but without adding any weight), but as you
get more advanced and doing weighted dips, you can pile
on some pretty good weight with this one.
Because it's a "negative-only"
movement, you won't be doing anything on the positive or
up phase. You're doing to stand up on each rep, getting
yourself into the top position, then doing a negative rep.
You'll notice I never refer
to negatives as "lowering" the weight.
This is a VERY important distinction.
Lowering implies that you're lowering on purpose. Negative
training...TRUE negative training is all about trying your
hardest NOT to lower the weight!
The idea is to use more resistance
than you're able to move in the positive phase, so when
you go to perform the movement, you really end up just actively
FIGHTING the lowering of the weight all the way down.
It's not a controlled lowering...it's
a fight against gravity pulling the weight down while you're
actively trying to push it up (or pull, if it's a pulling
exercise).
THAT is what real negative
training is all about. If you've never done it like that
before...you're going to be in for quite a treat in about
2 days...meaning you'll experience a LOT of soreness.
As a side tip, to reduce soreness,
try taking 500 mg of Vitamin C about 30 minutes before training.
It helps a LOT with muscle soreness (which you don't need
in order to get results - soreness isn't a necessity).
Anyway, here are some shots
of the exercise. If you're strong enough to use additional
weight, you'll be best served using a dip belt for it. I
like to actually extend the chain that normally comes with
the dip belt, adding another 1 foot section to the belt.
This is especially useful when you start using a lot of
plates with this negative exercise.
In case you're wondering,
I'm using 5 plates for this exercise, which works out to
225 additional pounds.
So first, get your dip belt
on and stand up, then climb into the top position of the
dip.
It gets a bit awkward when
you starting hitting 3+ plates so just do the best you can.
Now FIGHT that lowering all
the way down.
Set your feet on the ground.
That's one rep.
Now climb back up and do another.
If you can do more than 5
or 6 reps of this negative-style training, you're not using
enough weight. Negatives, when done properly, require heavy
weight and if you're using enough weight, should not allow
for more reps than that to be completed.
Do 2 or 3 sets, depending
on how fried your triceps get.
That's all you need to do
for Triceps for that workout! There will be no point in
adding additional work as it'll only delay recovery.
And watch out for that soreness
in the next few days... :)
