Weighted negative dip: with just the right amount of negativity, you can turn an old-fashioned triceps dip into a muscle-building powerhouse

Muscle & Fitness, Nov, 2004 by Jimmy Pena

CHANNEL-SURF FOR ANY LENGTH OF TIME and you're bound to run across motivational speakers and self-help infomercials urging you to "Focus on the positive!" But shouldn't you, at least occasionally, focus on the negative? We say yes.

This month we give you an exercise that's absolutely, positively negative: the negative dip. As you may know, you're much stronger in a given lift on the eccentric (negative) portion than you are on the concentric. But all too often you're not able to take full advantage of your eccentric capabilities because you fail concentrically first. Here, by taking the concentric action out of the equation, you can take full advantage of your negative power. Follow these simple steps and get it right.

START

* Find a dip bar, preferably one with stairs or side steps, which you'll use during the exercise to push yourself up with your legs.

* Attach a dumbbell or weight plate to a chain belt and let it hang balanced between your legs.

* Step up onto the stairs or side steps of the apparatus. (You can use a step-up box or flat bench if the dip machine doesn't have steps.)

* Place your hands on the bars, shoulder-width apart.

* Giving yourself a boost with your feet from the steps, press yourself up until your elbows are fully extended (but not locked out).

* Angle your torso as upright as you can and cross your ankles behind you for balance. This is the starting position.

ACTION

* Slowly lower yourself by bending your elbows. Keep them alongside your torso, not flared out.

* Fight gravity by keeping your arms and chest as tight as possible. Keep your head in a neutral position. Don't focus on keeping your head up, which might strain your neck. Look forward and slightly down in a comfortable position.

* Once you're at the bottom of the rep, relax your chest and arms by standing on the foot rests, then, instead of pushing yourself back up with solely your triceps and chest strength, use your legs to boost you back to an arms-extended position.

* Repeat this for reps, until your triceps reach total muscle failure.

POINTERS

* Go very heavy and stress the eccentric component to failure, lowering yourself as slowly as possible. You can try counting "one one-thousand, two one-thousand" to four if it helps with your pacing.

* Remember, the key is to exhaust your negative power. Pressing yourself upward using your arm strength is counterproductive to the purpose of this exercise. Rely on your legs to "press" you back to the top.

* When the weight becomes too heavy or you're falling too quickly, unload the plate but keep repping. You can simulate a drop set by going to failure, then resting only long enough to reduce the weight before doing a few more negatives.

* Use this move only as a finisher in a triceps workout.

BY JIMMY PENA, MS, CSCS