Slow Ascent Workout: Negatives In November
By admin
Most of the time something “negative” is a bad thing, right?
For example… I’ve been sick now for 7 days. This is a negative situation, especially since my bug interfered with the weekly show.
However, negative workouts are a great thing, a positive thing! Heck, they’re even being celebrated all month long at Fit Womens Weekly: Negatives In November.
What Are Negatives?
In terms of exercise, a negative is a rep performed slow… very slow at the “lowering” phase of the move; also known as the muscle lengthening phase of an exercise.
Take a push-up: Normally you lower your chest down to the ground and push yourself back up at the same speed, right? For a negative, you would lower your chest down towards the ground nice and slow… any where from 3+ seconds before quickly pushing back up to the top and starting over.
Why do negatives?
Because they are great at doing 2 things:
1 –> Increasing strength. In fact, they are probably one of the best training tools to quickly increase your strength.
2 –> Building more muscle (aka getting more toned).
It’s a shame you don’t see many people doing them at the gym, because they are are amazing at delivering results! In fact, I’ve been adding them to my current workouts to help with the Turkey Day Ab Challenge (update to be given at the end of the week).
But they’re also hard. Your muscles fatigue quickly and something you feel should be easy, becomes increasingly more difficult.
Which is what you’ll find out in this week’s workout.
Slow Ascent Workout
I’m sorry I wasn’t able to do the show due to being sick. But the images below give great demonstrations of each of the moves in this workout.
Looks intense right? It is! And you will love it.
If you’re unsure of any of the specific exercises, here are graphics to help out.
But, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask below.
The Exercises
Negative Squats
Lunge Jumps
Lemon Squeezes
Negative Push-Ups
High Knees & Butt Kicks
Negative Leg Lowers
Jumping Jacks & Mt. Climbers
November can be a tough month for many of us to fit our workouts in. The holidays are kicking off, stress is building up, and high calorie foods are almost unavoidable. All of these make getting our workouts in even more important.
Need some accountability? I would love to hear how your weekly workouts are going, let me know on the Facebook Page and I’ll make more of an effort to do the same!
Have you ever used negatives in your training?
Get Your FWW Fix
For the right motivation to keep you moving, make sure that you have your workouts planned out! Going into the gym with the “oh I’m going for a workout” isn’t nearly as good as going in with a particular workout (like this one) already written out and ready for you to tackle.
If you haven’t already make sure to check out Fit Womens Weekly. Get the workout you need, get the food you need, and the support you need. One stop shop, who doesn’t love that? Oh,
Congrats To New York Marathoners!
One last thought… I want to congratulate everyone that ran New York yesterday. There were a lot of success stories and I had several friends running. I can’t imagine what it’s like to participate in the biggest marathon in the world.
Cheers to everyone that participate… runners, volunteers, supporters, etc.