Negative Chins: Your Current Recommendations?

I would like to ask what are your recommendations for Negative-Only Weighted Chinups nowadays. I mean what rep range you currently recommend and how long each rep should take.

I own your New HIT book and The New Bodybuilding for Old School Results e-book – Negative Weighted Chins are mentioned in both of these books and in The New Bodybuilding they even get a separate chapter. You recommended to start with 8-10 second negatives and terminate the set when the lowering speed drops to 2-3 seconds. Recommended rep ranges are slightly different in both books: 8-12 in The New HIT and 4-8 in The New Bodybuilding.

I wonder what would you recommend nowadays in terms of both effectiveness and safety. I must admit that while I’m still young compared to many people participating in this forum, I’ve already reached the age when safety becomes more important.

I still use 8-12 reps most of the time. Sometimes I apply a one-rep-only style of 30-60 seconds with no added resistance.

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Thank you for your response.

I’ve also been using 8-12 reps when I’ve been doing Negative Chins previously. Now I think about including them in my training again so I will probably go with this rep range, as it is tried and proved method.

As it comes to lowering speed, is your preferred approach still to begin with 8-10 seconds and terminate the set when the speed drops to 2-3 seconds?

I also wonder if we should consider a bodyweight-only one-rep for 30-60 seconds as the lighter and easier to recover from than the weighted variant done for 8-12 reps or is it quite deceiving because such long time under tension without any breaks also takes its toll on recovery?

Yes to both your questions.

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