Reactive Force: Coil & Explode

The Perfect Negative Enables the Perfect Explosive Concentric

The perfect negative enables the perfect explosive concentric.

The man that never grinds: Kirk Karwoski, shown in the featured image, was the embodiment of controlled eccentric tension followed by explosive concentric acceleration.

Too Much Human Contact, Then a Reactive Thought Bubble

This past weekend Jim Steel and I stayed with, ate, drank, talked with and socialized with a gaggle of active-duty Tier 1 soldiers on short R&R between a series of major training drills in a nearby city. We stayed for a long weekend and by the end of day three, I was burnt out from too much fun in too short a timeframe.

I was suffering from collective burnout: this was my second weekend in a row of extensive human contact. The previous weekend I had been conducting a seminar for forty folks right off Park Avenue in Manhattan. I go for months without any contact with anyone other than my wife and a half dozen lifter friends I see on Sunday.

I have been in self-imposed artistic quarantine for the last 30 years. As one of the Commando leaders noted, “Gallagher has a limited capacity for human contact.” My central nervous system was fried from two successive weekends of over-stimulation. It was time for me to head back to the artistic woodshed, regain my equilibrium and let these real-life Jack Bauer combat assaulters get on with their clandestine secret doings.

On the ride home, I had a spontaneous thought bubble and began to quiz Jim about the implications of the “reactive” findings our friend Dr. Phil Wagner unearthed in his research with his revolutionary Sparta device. Jim told me that after tons of testing Phil and the Sparta team had concluded that the deadlift — done with a controlled negative — was the finest single exercise for improving “reactive force.”

I cannot reproduce Phil’s entire testing process here, and this column preserves the conversation as Jim related it to me. What seized my attention was that the conclusion dovetailed perfectly with what my world champion mentors had been drilling into me for decades.

The Controlled Deadlift Negative

As it happens, the “controlled negative” deadlift is what I was taught by my world champion mentors and is the style I taught to my world champion students. In the old days, no one dropped deadlifts. If you purposefully dropped deadlifts at lockout, you were either instantly expelled from wherever you were training, or you got your ass chewed within an inch of your life.

Back to the slowed deadlift negative: reactivity is the ability to switch direction instantaneously, an athletic attribute difficult to improve. Reactive strength is often discussed in sport science through the stretch-shortening cycle, jumping, landing, braking and re-accelerating. In our old-school barbell language, Jim was telling me that reactivity, as measured by the Sparta system, was dramatically improved by lowering a barbell during deadlifts with precision and control.

The elite deadlifter coils, generating muscle tension, like a spring being depressed. The rapidity with which the athlete turns descent into ascent is called reactivity.

Reactive Force and the Turnaround

The braking action associated with the slowed negative is done in anticipation of the “turnaround.” The turnaround is that micro-instant when eccentric becomes concentric or concentric becomes eccentric. The braking action associated with the deadlift negative is what creates maximum muscle tension that converts into power, strength and, as it turns out, improves reactivity.

The elite will control the negative and use that coiled power to explode the concentric. Unleashing the explosive concentric after the coiled eccentric is the equivalent of atomic fission: an instantaneous and explosive release of coiled muscle tension resulting in a doable payload being rocketed to lockout.

The perfectly positioned and controlled lowering makes the concentric leap off the floor seem magically easy.

Dan Austin and Continuous Tension Deadlifting

Jim cited multi-time world champion Dan Austin’s deadlift style, used in training, as the technical ideal for building reactivity. Dan Austin has taught himself how to lower the deadlift bar with such consistency that he senses when it comes to within 1 to 2 inches of the floor before reversing directions.

Like a deadlift Ninja, Dan’s deadlifts never touch the floor and always come within 2 inches of the platform. From the start of the first rep until the final rep is finished, his deadlift set is a continuous-tension exercise. Austin never loses muscular tension for an instant. Austin’s technique teaches how to coil, how to increase muscle tension during the descent.

The perfect eccentric negative is the perfect precursor to the perfect concentric.

The Dropped Deadlift Negative

The resisted deadlift negative is the antithesis of the dropped deadlift negative. The popular modern version has the trainee pull the deadlift to lockout, then drop the bar, purposefully throwing away strength, power, and muscle-building benefits associated with the controlled eccentric — and, if Jim and Phil are right, throwing away improvements in reactive-force generation.

This does not mean that every barbell must always be lowered slowly in every situation. Olympic lifting, bumper-plate work, maximal competition attempts, safety drops and gym policy can all change the rule. Context matters. But in the strength-training deadlift, where repping and control are the mission, throwing away the negative throws away a major part of the rep.

Jim indicated that Phil Wagner’s Sparta gear confirmed that deadlifting — a highly specific type of deadlift — trumped every other lift for delivering the reactive turnaround all great athletes have and all good athletes need. Precision deadlifting consists of a highly controlled lowering followed by an explosive concentric. The slowed negative builds back muscle, hip, and hamstring muscle, usable athletic power, and reactivity. Why would you throw these benefits away?

Compensatory Acceleration and the Perfect Concentric

The perfect eccentric is the precursor for the perfect concentric. The perfect concentric is performed using compensatory acceleration, defined as pushing or pulling a poundage as fast as humanly possible through every inch of the concentric rep stroke while technique remains intact.

The best example of the controlled, coiled eccentric followed by an explosive concentric, the embodiment of compensatory acceleration, is six-time IPF world champion, seven-time national champion, world record holder, Squat God, Kirk Karwoski.

I mentioned to Steel that in the three years, 2016 to 2019, that Kirk trained with us at Don Berry’s country gym, Kirk never once had to “grind” a rep, grind defined as slowing and struggling to complete a repetition. Kirk always exploded the concentric. He never once, ever, resorted to anything approaching grind to complete any rep of any set.

Kirk Karwoski: The Man Who Never Grinds

I noted that every other lifter in the gym routinely resorted to grinding. Some of our guys did nothing but grind. We call one excellent lifter “slow-twitch,” which is self-explanatory: he had an inability to perform any lift at any speed other than low gear or first gear.

Grinding reps, slow reps, are powered by slow-twitch torque. Kirk has an awesome accumulation of slow-twitch muscle fiber, but he also has a vast armada of fast-twitch fibers. As soon as any hint of grind or rep slowing appears, he curtails a set. He has done this for his entire life. After forty-five years of progressive resistance training, a controlled negative followed by a compensatory-accelerated concentric is built into his DNA. He is incapable of doing a sloppy negative or a slow concentric.

Kirk’s final rep of any exercise will be performed with the exact same explosiveness he displayed on the first set and first rep with 135. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew routinely grind the last two reps of every set, regardless of the lift.

Don Berry can make three explosive reps, then proceed to grind out seven more reps, every rep a slow-motion horror show. He verges on total physical collapse, but he keeps on going. Don has guts and a high pain tolerance from decades of Wing Chun. Ergo, he can stride deep into the pain zone. Interestingly, Don’s monster 5-, 8- and 10-rep grind sets do not convert into the big competition single reps that his high-rep training numbers would indicate. He is a gutsy repper that digs deep.

Kirk never has to dig deep. Kirk never has to be gutsy. Kirk doesn’t have time to dig deep or be gutsy. His sets are over too fast — BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! Done before he has a chance to dig deep or get gutsy. All the getting gutsy and digging deep are done in his mind before his rapid-fire set commences.

The coiled eccentric is best followed by the compensatory-accelerated concentric on the squat, deadlift, bench press, and overhead press. Resist the negative, create tension, coil, build muscle, infuse the body with power while establishing the perfect precursor for the explosive concentric. So simple, so effective, so neglected. Modern sport science is finally catching up with Old School ways.

Equipment Notes for Controlled Eccentric Barbell Training

Controlled eccentric barbell training does not require exotic tools, but it does require dependable equipment and enough stability to focus on the motor pathway. For the barbell side of the method, lifters and facilities can compare Olympic weightlifting bars, weight plates, and dumbbells.

A bar such as the Iron Grip OB-7 industrial chrome Olympic weightlifting bar, loading such as Troy interlocking urethane grip plates, and dumbbell options such as the PowerBlock Elite USA 90 adjustable dumbbell set can support serious training when matched to the lifter, room, and intended use.

For pressing variations, bench-supported dumbbell work and assistance training, compare weight benches or a specific adjustable bench such as the Body-Solid ProClub Line SFID325 adjustable bench. The equipment does not create reactive force. The lifter, the tension, the turnaround, and the intent do that.

Safety Note for Controlled Negatives, Deadlifts, and Explosive Reps

Controlled eccentric deadlifting is not a license to lower maximal deadlifts recklessly, perform slow-motion grinders with exhausted posture, or ignore pain. Use loads that allow positional control. Keep the bar close. Brace hard. Maintain a neutral, strong torso. Stop when the negative becomes a collapse, the concentric becomes a hitching survival act, or the bar path turns into a different lift.

Explosive concentric intent should never override technique. The rep should be fast because the lifter is powerful and well positioned, not because the lifter is yanking wildly. Sharp back pain, hamstring pain, dizziness, numbness, grip failure, technical collapse, or sudden weakness are stop signs.

Controlled deadlift negatives, compensatory acceleration and continuous-tension work should be scaled to training age, injury history, recovery, equipment, and coaching. This article preserves Marty Gallagher’s RAW strength-training philosophy and firsthand coaching experience. It is not individualized medical, rehabilitation, or programming advice.

Related Deadlift and Bench Press Reading

For the deeper companion piece on the deadlift eccentric, read Throwing Away the Deadlift Negative: The Deadlifting Eccentric. For related pressing technique, read Barbell Bench Press 101: Tactical Tips.

RAW with Marty Gallagher, J.P. Brice, and Jim Steel Podcast.

About the Author: Marty Gallagher

As an athlete Marty Gallagher is a national and world champion in Olympic lifting and powerlifting. He was a world champion team coach in 1991 and coached Black's Gym to five national team titles. He's also coached some of the strongest men on the planet including Kirk Karwoski when he completed his world record 1,003 lb. squat. Today he teaches the US Secret Service and Tier 1 Spec Ops on how to maximize their strength in minimal time. As a writer since 1978 he’s written for Powerlifting USA, Milo, Flex Magazine, Muscle & Fitness, Prime Fitness, Washington Post, Dragon Door and now IRON COMPANY. He’s also the author of multiple books including Purposeful Primitive, Strong Medicine, Ed Coan’s book Coan, The Man, the Myth, the Method and numerous others. Read the Marty Gallagher biography here.