Negative exercise should be more widely known. It's a form of weight
lifting in which you put the weight down instead of picking it up.

You can control the descent of much more weight than you can lift.

My left arm atrophied while I was in a body cast, and when the
exercises my doctor prescribed had done all they could, I resigned
myself to never again being able to lift my hand high enough to signal
a right turn. (This must have been *way* back when, because it didn't
take me long to discover that if you give a through-the-car-window
right-turn signal while on a bike, drivers wave back.)

A few years later, my spouse joined a Nautilus club, and I went along.

When I got to the overhead press machine, I not only couldn't lift the
handle, the only way I could get my left hand on the handle was to
pick it up with my right hand and put it there.

But if the attendant lifted the weight, I could put it down. As weeks
and months went by, the weight I put down increased, and after I'd
done my set of negatives, he would pull the pin out and I would
attempt, vainly, to lift ten pounds.

In a weight room, one counts one's reps silently, so as not to
distract other patrons who are also counting their reps. But one day
I *shouted* "ONE!" and instead of glaring at me, the whole room
applauded.

I can still lift that arm just as high as the other. But I forget to
make a point of it for weeks at a time, so it hurts more than the
other arm when I do it. But normal activities such as getting the
toaster off the top shelf keep my arm reasonably free.

--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.