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I completed the negative accentuated test that Ferrari was wanting us to try.

I did 1 set of leg extensions and 1 set of leg curls on MedX machines.

I selected a weight that was 62.5% of what I normally work out with.

1) Leg Extensions – 300 lbs x 5 reps
2) Leg Curls – 160 lbs x 4 reps

I attempted to get positive reps after I couldn′t complete a negative rep in 4 seconds anymore, and I couldn′t even do 1 full rep with both legs on a positive.

My legs were burning on the leg extension set, but not the leg curl set.

My left knee was feeling extra "pressure" during the leg extension (that is, a little pain).

The tendons in my hamstrings felt like they were "popping" a little bit on the leg curl set and I felt stinging pain in them a little bit.

That′s about all the data I can report. I′m guessing not being able to do any positive reps is what you were after Ferrari?

Hopefully this helps you out. It made me pretty nauseous. I don′t even want to think about how sore I′m going to be tomorrow…

Darrell

You are going to be SO sore yikes!

I′ll bet you feel it deep in the muscle.

Did you feel weaker in any position? Such as the beginning, middle, or end?

"Did you feel weaker in any position? Such as the beginning, middle, or end?"

Hmmmmm… Let me think about that one.

During the negatives, I felt a little bit stronger toward the fully contracted position (the start of the negative). I must say though, that it felt pretty even to me throughout the whole movement. MAYBE the middle of the negative was a tiny bit harder, but I couldn′t tell much.

During the positive movement, I was stronger in the start of that as well (NOT the fully contracted position). I seemed to be weaker in the fully contracted position the most. The middle of the movement was weaker too. On that last rep I couldn′t do a positive on, I could start the positive, but I couldn′t get past the middle part.

Yeah, my muscles are feeling VERY shaky this afternoon (it′s been several hours already and they still don′t have much strength back).

What conclusions do you draw from this Ferrari?

Darrell

It proves to you that you had over 100% difference between positive and negative strength at the end of your set.

I was also expecting you to be weaker in the starting position as this is the difference with Nautilus. This must have been corrected in MedX.

I expected you to do more repetitions. I expect that the Nautilus has more friction than MedX so being a negative set I am aided more by Nautilus that you are. Now I anticipated this a little so that′s why I asked you to slow down on the negative relative to what you normally do.

I just had my third time with the NE stes on my legs yesterday and I have gained good strength each time. The good news for me is that this is working. It means that the 250 lbs stack is not a limitation in this method. In 3 weeks I will be using 185 lbs on my quads on each leg having started with 170 and adding 5 each session.

This is good news for you as well. This means that you have a method that will allow you to continue using MedX. I am well into my direct only routine and I continue to show good progress. So far there is no reason to stop my direct routine as it is as good as the compound routine.

I was worried that all the guys that say that you cannot gain in direct may have been right but it turns out that even after hitting a plateau in the compound that there is still good progress to be made in direct. The trick seems to be in finding the right rep range for each muscle. If I move back to compound I should be able to progress quite well for a while.

My opinion is that there is plenty for you to gain with the MedX. You just have to be prepared to let go the mindset that compound is better or more efficient.

I have been able to push both forward by sticking to one or the other and not mixing them. I don′t think that the mix is necessarily the issue, it′s probably more that it is easier to detect subtle changes that are required to keep you moving forward.

One way that I found is that I do curls and tri extensions one arm at a time. It seems that the arms don′t gain at the same rate and at the same time. My right bicep is getting much stronger and my left has stalled. The last month my left tri was stronger and was getting even stronger and now my it stalled one time and my right caught up all in one workout.

This could be the reason for a plateau. If one side does not follow at the same rate then you still fail at a certain rep. The other side is not able to compensate for the difference and you presume that there was no progress.

You can not see this in a compound exercise, you just know that you stalled.

Darrell, in the end it′s your choice. If you think that there is no value in direct sets then quit MedX. I think that there is alot to gain. At my club I have a weekend membership. It′s half the price of the full. Since you only train once every two weeks then you could adopt a similar training session to mine which is once a week for different muscles. I think that HIT is doing this as well.