Now when I say a totally negative workout, that’s not to imply that the workout itself was unenjoyable, but rather that every rep of every set of every exercise I did was done in the form of a negative repetition. The main reason for this is that I’ve been working out in some friends’ basement for the past couple of weeks while away from home. The problem isn’t so much that I don’t have the necessary equipment, as long as you’re creative, you can get a good workout most anywhere. The real catch is that it’s entirely a free weight setup and I’m working out by myself, making it very difficult to lift at my desired weights.

If you’re an avid lifter, then you most likely feel unsatisfied after a sub par workout, which is how I was feeling after the first couple of days. It was hardest for me to get a good chest workout so I decided I’d do bench press negatives with a lower weight and see how it felt. After the first couple sets, it evolved into me thinking that I might as well try a 100% negative workout and see how it feels.

I tried this on my chest/back split day, so I was doing bench, bent over dumbbell rows, pec flies, and I felt like doing pull-ups as my last exercise, just because. For the straight bench I used anywhere from 185-205lbs, which is considerably lower than my normal routine. For the weights and number of reps for the rest of the exercises, I just went by feel and personal preference, but I usually tried to be around 8-12 reps each set, so plan weights accordingly.

The end result of the workout was exhaustion, I was completely out of breath, sweating my ass off, and pretty damn tired. It was great, however, because you can feel a difference during and immediately after the workout, and I was actually slightly sore the next day, which is unfortunately a rare thing nowadays. Anyway, just thought I’d share my experiences, I wouldn’t be surprised if I decided to do this kind of workout more often, it’s great for building muscle mass, strength, definition, and endurance, there’s not much more you can ask for in a workout.