Written by Patrick Dale, PT, ex-Marine

Eccentric and Negative Biceps Curls

When it comes to training, a lot of lifters pay very little attention to how they perform their reps. They load up the bar and then pump ‘em out with very little thought on how they are lifting or lowering their weights.

Such a closed-minded approach can work, especially if you’re genetically gifted or taking performance-enhancing drugs. But, less talented, non-enhanced lifters need to be more detail and technique orientated if they’re going to get good results from their workouts.

That means you can’t just lift weights – you also need to pay attention to how you lower them too.

In this article, we get positive with the negative part of strength training and reveal the advantages and benefits of eccentric and negative biceps curls.

The repetitions of most exercises are comprised of several different phases that overlap and roll into one. Paying attention to all these phases means that you’ll get more from your workout. Ignore any of these phases, and your workout could become less productive.

The phases of a repetition are:

The concentric phase of an exercise is when your muscles shorten under tension. This is the part of the rep that most people tend to focus on. It’s also the weakest type of muscle contraction, which is why some exercisers use body English to help them lift the weight, e.g., kicking during leg extensions or swinging during biceps curls.

Once you’ve finished lifting your weight and reached the mid-point of your rep, your muscles are under maximal tension. As such, it makes a lot of sense to pause briefly at this point.

This is what Master Blaster Joe Weider called the Peak Contraction Method. For example, after raising the dumbbells during curls, you could squeeze and contract your biceps as hard as possible before lowering the weights.

What does up must go down. In strength training, lowering a weight involves an eccentric or negative muscle contraction, which is when your muscles lengthen under tension. A lot of exercisers pay very little attention to the eccentric part of their reps and lower the weight too quickly.

That’s a shame because it’s the eccentric phase that’s responsible for much of the muscle-building effect of your workout.

You are stronger eccentrically than you are concentrically. In other words, you can lower more weight than you can lift. Therefore, it makes sense to lower weights with control to force your muscles to do more work. This extra work should translate to better results from your training.

Related: Best Eccentric Exercises To Supercharge Your Gains.

Once your muscles have lengthened, it’s time to switch from an eccentric into another concentric contraction.

However, if you lower the weight too quickly, paying too little attention to the speed of the eccentric part of your rep, the weight will all but bounce back up because of something called the stretch-shortening reflex or SSR for short.

The more powerful the SSR is, the less work your muscles have to do, and the more ineffectual your repetition will be. So, if you emphasize the eccentric by lowering the weight more slowly, the SSR will be less active, and your workout will be more productive.

Some exercises begin with a concentric contraction, such as biceps curls and lat pulldowns. In contrast, others start with an eccentric contraction, e.g., squats and bench presses. But, regardless of which comes first, you should still pay attention to how you perform all four phases of your reps.  

So, to perform a perfect muscle-building rep, you should:

Because the eccentric phase is so important, you may find that emphasizing or even exaggerating it makes your workouts more productive. There are a couple of different ways to do this – eccentric and negative training.

Eccentric training involves emphasizing the lowering part of each rep. You can apply this training method to most of the exercises in your workout. However, this article is all about the biceps, so we will focus on eccentric biceps curls.

You can apply this method to many different biceps exercises, including:

Negative biceps curls put even more emphasis on the lowering part of each rep. With negative curls, you do as little actual lifting as possible and put all your energy into lowering the weight. So, you’ll need a strong and willing training partner for this exercise.

Negative biceps curls are an advanced and very intense exercise, so only attempt it if you’ve spent a few weeks doing eccentric curls. Even then, because you’ll be lifting substantially heavier weights than usual, perform this exercise with care. Eccentric-only training usually produces severe post-exercise muscle soreness.

You can do negative-only training with several other biceps exercises. Either get a partner to lift the weight for you or if you are training alone, you can use a single dumbbell and your non-working free hand to help you lift the weight.

Eccentric and negative biceps curls can have a very positive effect on arm size and strength. Both of these training methods allow you to handle heavier than normal weights, creating more muscular tension and microtrauma and triggering rapid increases in muscle growth and performance.

But these training methods should not be taken lightly!

Working out with 20-40% more weight means more stress not only on your muscles but on your joints and ligaments too. Use these methods too often, and you could end up overtaxing your nervous system and overtraining.

Also, delayed onset muscle soreness is usually worse after eccentric and negative training, so expect some pain to follow your workout.

So, before you try either of these methods, spend a few weeks paying more attention to the eccentric part of your repetitions. Simply lower your weights a little slower than you lift them. This will prepare your body for the demands of eccentric and negative training.

Patrick Dale is an ex-British Royal Marine, gym owner, and fitness qualifications tutor and assessor. In addition, Patrick is a freelance writer who has authored three fitness and exercise books, dozens of e-books, thousands of articles, and several fitness videos. He’s not just an armchair fitness expert; Patrick practices what he preaches! He has competed at a high level in numerous sports, including rugby, triathlon, rock climbing, trampolining, powerlifting, and, most recently, stand up paddleboarding. When not lecturing, training, researching, or writing, Patrick is busy enjoying the sunny climate of Cyprus, where he has lived for the last 20-years.

No pain, no gain, or so the saying goes. But, there is a big difference between the pain caused by...

If your Instagram bio says "gym rat" but you have never heard the term "eccentric" before, don't worry. You are...

Whether you’re following the push/pull/legs workout or doing any other kind of training split, it’s usually best to do the...

The standing barbell curl is one of the most popular biceps builders on the planet. Used since the early days...

Before we get into why tempo training is so valuable, it’s important to understand exactly how to read a tempo...

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

At FitnessVolt.com Our mission is to help our readers to achieve their fitness goals, regardless of where you’re at on your journey, we are on a mission to educate You with the latest from strength and fitness space. Read more. Email: sm(at)fitnessvolt.com Disclosure: FitnessVolt.com has an affiliate relationship with different brands and is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. However, our reviews are based on well research backed analysis.

© Copyright 2010 - 2022 Fitness Volt IBC. All Rights Reserved.

© Copyright 2010 - 2022 Fitness Volt IBC. All Rights Reserved.