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Crimes Against Growth
Posted in:
Articles by ProSource,
Training Articles
| Sep 25, 2006
 Is your exercise form so bad it's criminal? We lay down the law
on how to correct 12 of the most common errors perpetrated in the gym.
Listen up '" we have some crimes to report, and everyone in the weight
room is a suspect. You've seen it for sure, and likely you're at least
a little guilty yourself. Stopping short on your squat. Swinging your
arms like pendulums on your curls. Cheating a bit too much on your
bench press to lift more weight than you can safely handle. Those are
just a few examples, but there's more.
The problem is, by breaking
proper form,
the only person you're robbing is yourself '" you're not getting the
utmost benefits out of each rep, and thus each workout is less
productive than it can be.
The good news is, it's never too late to
turn away from a life of lifting transgressions. Here, we'll identify
the
most common form errors on
popular exercises,
tell you why they're detrimental, and render the verdict on how to fix
them to maximize your mass-building results. Ready to lock up new
muscle gains?
1) Barbell Squat
Crime:
Stopping before your thighs reach a point parallel with the floor
It's a hard pill for some to swallow '" you're able to load enough
plates on a leg press to stock an Italian kitchen cabinet, yet on the
squat, just a few 45s a side leaves you weak kneed. To compensate,
those who can't stand the thought of lifting lighter have adopted a
shorter range of motion, and thus are able to move more weight than if
they used the correct thighs-parallel-to-the-floor position. While the
totals may look more impressive in your logbook, incomplete reps will
cheat you out of benefits. In fact, going to parallel is not only safer
on your knee joints, it engages more muscle fibers in your quadriceps,
hamstrings and glutes than quarter reps ever could. Don't worry about
poundage '" go light and get the form down, and once you do, the
impressive weights will follow naturally over time.
2) Leg Press
Crime:
Letting your lower back lift off the pad at the bottom of the repetition
Bringing your knees down to your chest on the leg press can constitute
a nice, full-range-of-motion repetition. But there's a catch '" if
you're not limber enough, your glutes and lower back will curl off the
seat, instantly putting plenty of undue strain on that very fragile
area of your body. The hundreds of pounds of weight bearing down on you
can tweak your lower back, and before you know it, you have serious
pain to contend with. On the leg press, always keep your glutes firmly
against the pad, stopping each rep at the point right before they would
begin to lift off. If you work on your flexibility over time, you'll be
able to do a nice, deep rep, without compromising your lower back '" a
win-win situation on leg day.
3) Lunge
Crime:
Letting the knee of your front leg extend past your toes in the bottom position
When stepping down into a lunge, a lot of people make this sometimes
hard-to-detect yet critical error. By letting their front knee track
out past their toes, they put it under shearing forces and strain. To
rectify this, make sure you step out deeply enough and that you keep
your hips shifted back (as leaning forward will force that knee out).
At the bottom of a lunge, your front knee should be in a 90-degree
angle, and your back knee should be elevated an inch or two off of the
floor. Also keep in mind, this is a mistake you don't want to make on
squats '" shift your hips back and make sure your knees don't extend
past your toes on the descent.
4) Bent-Over Dumbbell Row
Crime:
Relying on your biceps to lift most of the load
Think about the action of your back muscles on a row. You may believe
it's obvious, but for plenty of lifters who do the majority of their
rowing with their arms, it's really not. You see, if you bring the
dumbbell up to your flank by simply bending your elbow, you're
basically calling on your biceps to do the majority of the work. Now,
think about what happens to your back muscles when you shift your
shoulders and shoulder blades backward '" they contract. Whether you're
rowing with a barbell, dumbbell or on a machine, this is a key concept:
To engage your back in the exercise, you need to make sure your
shoulder is moving along with your elbows. Forge this important
mind-muscle connection by visualizing your back muscles engaging on
each repetition of a row, and soon you'll be making incredible strides
in the weight you can handle and the size of your lats, rhomboids and
teres major and minor muscles.
5) Seated Cable Row
Crime:
Leaning excessively forward and backward
This crime is so common you'll catch otherwise competent certified
personal trainers teaching it incorrectly. During a seated cable row,
you'll see people leaning as far forward as they can, then leaning
excessively back the other way as they pull the handle toward their
abdomen. What results is an inefficient lower-back exercise in place of
a movement to hit the intended body part, the upper back. To fix this,
you want to control the movement, staying upright throughout. As you
bring the handle toward you, flex your upper back (which will pull back
your shoulders, as described in #4). As you lower the weight, don't
allow your upper body to follow the handle forward, just let your
shoulder blades shift outward and your elbows straighten. You should
feel the difference immediately, and see the difference in the coming
weeks in the form of new muscle mass.
6) Back Extension
Crime:
Hyperextending your back at the top of the rep
This exercise was often referred to as "hyperextensions" for years '" no
wonder so many gym goers still do it wrong, excessively overarching
their back at the top. Instead of benefiting the lower back muscles,
this extra extension only serves to put undue pressure on your spinal
cord. To perform the extension right, you should stop the rep when your
body reaches a flat "plank" position, squeeze your lower back, and then
lower your upper body back to the start.
7) Shrug
Crime:
Rolling your shoulders
This misdeed goes to show, we can even screw up even the simplest of
exercises. There may be no movement more basic than the barbell or
dumbbell shrug '" doing it correctly consists of flexing your trapezius
to lift your shoulders up toward your ears, then relaxing to drop them
back down. Somewhere along the way, someone tried to get fancy by
adding a shoulder roll to the mix, bringing the shoulders back, up,
forward and down on each repetition in the false logic that it would
more thoroughly work the traps. It doesn't, so stick to the original:
Straight up and straight down equals straightforward muscle gains.
8) Seated Barbell Press
Crime:
Sliding forward so your back isn't in contact with the pad
Those who have stronger pectorals that tend to overpower their delts
often resort to this trick '" a slight shift forward of your glutes and
lower back makes the military press a bit more like an incline press,
thus recruiting more upper pecs. Two problems result, however: Your
lower back is put at risk for strain, and you lessen the overall work
done by your shoulders, thus always relegating them to be weaker link
in your upper body. Stay attuned to doing the press correctly, and
sitting upright throughout.
9) Dumbbell Lateral Raise
Crime:
Bringing the dumbbells all the way down in front of your hips at the bottom
Lateral raises are meant to work what is a relatively small area '" the
middle deltoid head. In general, you don't have enough muscle there to
lift a lot of weight. So if you are hoisting 45-pound dumbbells and
beyond and you're not built to the gills with muscle mass, chances are
you're cheating on your raises. To test yourself, try this: Hold a
dumbbell about six inches away from your side, and then, without
swaying or moving your body to help, lift the dumbbell out and up, only
using your deltoid muscle to power the move. How much weight could you
handle? The same as you use normally? Bringing the dumbbells all the
way down to your sides between each repetition allows your muscles to
rest at the bottom. If you go the extra step of bringing the dumbbells
down in front of your hips until they touch one another, you are
essentially extending the range of motion down in this "dead zone"
where the middle delt isn't activated, and you're probably even
shifting your hips forward on the ascent to add some momentum to your
raise. From now on, get more out of your laterals by choosing a more
realistic weight and bringing the dumbbells down to your sides '" but
not quite
all the way down.
10) Barbell Bench Press
Crime:
Arching your lower back off of the bench
incline shown |
With a grunt of intense effort, your feet planted into the floor, the
barbell across your chest, you push the barbell as hard as you can.
Unfortunately, all too often when that bar doesn't head upward as
quickly as hoped, your glutes pop off the bench and your back curls up
like a lock of Carrot Top's hair in an effort to prod the weight along,
and all of a sudden an innocent bench press turns into a dangerous
activity. No matter how often it has been preached in gyms across the
country by those who know better, bench pressers all-too-often resort
to lifting their butt and lower back off the bench to complete their
reps and handle more weight. Don't give into this temptation '" keep
your rear down and, in due time, by following good form your bench
totals
will go up.
11) Standing Barbell Curl
Crime:
Leaning back and shifting your elbows directly underneath the bar on the ascent
Watch others perform barbell curls and you'll often spot all sorts of
mistakes. Guys especially, who are usually after a larger lift total at
all costs, will shift their hips forward to get the bar started on its
ascent, then bend backwards in an effort to shift their elbows
underneath the bar and get it up to their shoulders. From there,
they'll let the bar fall gracelessly back to the start and do it again.
After a few sets of this, they may feel as if everything in their body
but
their biceps has been activated. Checking your ego at the door is the
surest way to get your biceps on track; adjust your form on barbell
curls by keeping your hips stationary and your elbows firmly entrenched
at your sides '" it may help you to picture a steel rod running through
your torso, holding your elbows in place. At the top of the rep, stop
just before your elbows shift directly underneath the bar. Otherwise,
you're giving your bi's a chance to rest at the apex of each rep,
taking valuable tension off of them. Taking these lessons to heart will
help you engage your biceps thoroughly throughout each and every set,
the surest way to achieve maximum growth.
12) Standing Calf Raise
Crime:
Keeping your knees bent during the repetition
While on most exercises, you'd never get the advice to completely lock
out your joint, on standing calf raises, you do in fact want to do
exactly that. Keeping your knees absolutely straight targets the meaty
gastrocnemius muscle on the back of your lower leg. Bend your knees and
you're calling on the much smaller soleus (the same muscle you're
hitting on seated calf raises). One caveat: Straight does not mean
hyperextending at the knee, so be careful to not go to that extreme.
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Disclaimer: The articles featured herein are for informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice. Specific medical advice should only be obtained from a licensed health care professional. No liability is assumed by ProSource for any information herein.
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