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Number One Piece of Advice for Gym Goers: Ask a PT

Today’s blog is not based on a question from one of you guys, it’s a question that I’ve always wanted to be asked, but never have been. So today I’m living out my dreams, and you guys are along for the ride.

I think that the answer is very important though, whether you’ve been training for 30 years or 30 minutes.

We can all let our egos get in the way of logic. The truly successful find ways to handle this quickly.

Number One Piece of Advice for Gym Goers

Question: What is one piece of advice that you would give to someone in the gym?

Answer: I spend a LOT of my time in the gym biting my tongue, because I see so many people training with bad form.

Not because the exercises are complicated to learn, but because the lifter is too focused on the weight itself.

I touched on this a few weeks ago when I advised on how to improve your bench press. You need a full range of motion to properly target your muscle fibers [1].

But I constantly see guys (it’s almost always guys) failing to lower the barbell all the way down to their chest. Instead, they lower the bar until it is hovering about 3 inches above.

This is because the lifter KNOWS that if they were to lower this weight down to their chest, they would fail.

This isn’t a big deal, provided you correct it. If I’ve attempted a bench press and realised that I couldn’t complete the rep properly, I’ll safely return the dumbbells or barbell and then use a lighter weight.

So long as I’m working hard and getting full Range of Motion (ROM) what does it matter?

But many lifters only care about the weight. “If I can lift 100kg I will gain more muscle than if I lift 90kg”.

I’m not even sure that the guys are unaware of what’s happening. They probably KNOW that they should lower the weight to get better results. But they are so caught up in what the people around them see.

Ironically, the people seeing them perform these terrible reps are actually thinking “Why doesn’t this guy just lower the weight so that he can perform the exercise properly?”.

It’s not just the bench press either, barbell squats are another common exercise where people let their egos get the better of them. If you’re not squatting low enough then try a lighter weight and see if things improve. In 99 out of 100 cases, it will.

Your muscles won’t grow better because you are using a bigger weight badly. They will grow when you use the correct weight and go through the full range of motion.

Check your technique today in the gym, and ask yourself whether you could improve your technique by reducing the amount of weight you are lifting.

Check out this article on staying healthy at home