What’s the biggest single training mistake? Lousy exercise technique!
14 July 2006If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
I walked into a local Gold’s Gym just in time to see the show. Four guys loaded a leg press machine up with twenty 45-pound plates while the star of the show psyched himself into a mouth-foaming frenzy. He had knee wraps on so tight they cut off leg circulation and his skinny thighs were turning blue. He had one of his buds cinch his oversized power belt and “Donnie” (I knew his name was Donnie because it was embossed on the back of his huge lifting belt) now needed assistance: his wraps were wound so tight that he literally could not bend his knees enough to drop down into the leg press chair. Donnie stumbled around like Frankenstein until his training partners ceremoniously helped lower the star of the show down into the seat. All these procedures were accompanied by loud profanities and exhortations. Donnie and his partners were cussing so much I thought I’d stumbled into an Ozzy Osborne family reunion. Normally gym management would have stepped in and stopped the loudmouth swearing but since Donnie owned the gym it was all allowable. Lowered into position like an astronaut ensconced in a space capsule ready for launch, Donnie yelled to his partners…
“F*&*-ing READY!!”
“F*&* YEAH!” His partners responded in unison.
This was their subtle code to commence. The eloquent conversationalists now had to actually help Donnie press the weight upward three inches in order to clear the weight from the supports. Donnie simultaneously flicked the safety handles downward: Houston we have ignition! Donnie unlocked his tightly wrapped knees and lowered the ponderous poundage approximately 6-inches before beginning the upward push. With each upward mini-push he bellowed like a matador being gored by a bull. On each mini-push his short stroke grew shorter while his bellows grew louder. His boys had to grab the weight stack on the last rep and push with all their might to help him lock out rep 10. His final scream threatened to shatter the gym plate glass window. Exhausted from all the screaming, Donnie needed help and the boys lifted the boss up and out of the seat. They had to un-wrap his knee wraps and de-belt Donnie. Recovered, Donnie beamed like he’d just thrown the winning pass at the Super Bowl in overtime. He cussed some more as he accepted profane congratulations and high-fives from his buds.
It was all a perfect example of how NOT to exercise. Donnie’s boys got more muscular back benefit loading and unloading the plates on and off the machine than Donnie’s legs did doing the actual exercise. It was no coincidence that I’ve seen better leg development than Donnie on an 11-year old girl in braces jumping rope. Ego is a horrible thing particularly when it rears its ugly head in the weight room. Ego most often manifests itself when the athlete purposefully shortens the length of the rep stroke in order to handle more poundage. The absurdity of Donnie serves as a pitch-perfect example of the ego/poundage phenomenon. The name of the game in progressive resistance training is muscle fiber stimulation. Optimally we seek to stimulate and recruit as many muscle fibers as possible when we do a set. One way to trigger maximum muscle fiber to fire is to push or pull poundage as far as possible. A full range-of-motion (ROM) stimulates way more muscle fiber than a purposefully shortened ROM. Of course you can use way more poundage using a short-stroke rep than you can when using a maxi-length rep. The smart trainee uses a full ROM with reduced poundage while the egomaniacal trainee uses a short rep stroke in order to handle crowd-pleasing poundage. Combining poundage-enhancing gear (like super-tight knee wraps) with a shortened rep stroke is insanity compounded. Every exercise has a proper technique and the smart bodybuilder/athlete automatically pushes or pulls poundage as far as possible in order to stimulate the maximum number of muscle fibers. Here is a short list of the major exercises and a synopsis of the major technical mistakes….
Exercise technical flaw
Bench press bouncing the bar off the chest, not lowering to the chest, raising the butt off the bench, not locking out
Barbell row heave to start the bar moving, not touching the chest
Squat shallow depth
Leg press talk to Donnie
Overhead press failure to lockout
Tricep kickback heaving to start, lack of lockout
Dips not lowering down far enough, no lockout
Incline bench press bouncing the weight, not locking out
Leg curl too much momentum to start the rep, allowing the hips to rise
Leg extension no lockout, rebound to start a rep
Calf raises no initial stretch, not holding the top position
Lat pulldowns jerking to get the weight moving, incomplete finish
Better to push or pull 200-pounds using a full ROM than use 300-pounds that travels for 25% or 50% of the potential stroke length. 200-pounds pushed or pulled for say 24-inches stimulate far more muscle fiber than 300-pounds pushed or pulled for 6-inches: this is a physiological fact not a debatable point. Those who insist differently are woefully misinformed. Are you fudging on ROM? Are you bouncing bench press reps off your chest or lifting the butt off the bench to help complete each rep? Are your incline presses barely lowered and never locked out? Are dumbbell flyes more pressed than “flown” to completion? Do you pull cable rows all the way to the chest? Are those standing curls really “reverse cleans?” Take stock of every exercise technique: if you have been fudging on ROM then slash poundage and mentally force yourself to go back to ground zero. Do so and experience muscle growth. The name of the game in resistance training is fiber stimulation not ego stimulation. All serious weight trainers have a touch of Donnie in them and we must fight against the temptation to let poundage-crazed short stroke reps dominate the workout. Better to use less and travel further than use more propelled with sloppy momentum.
Brothers and sisters let us collectively exorcise our inner-Donnie!
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