And now here's the final installment in the 3 part series 10 Things to Avoid Doing During Your Workout.  8. Elevating your heels during  squats. Have you seen this done in the gym? Maybe you've done it before as well. You perform a squat and realize that your heels lift off the ground as you reach full depth. So you've got two options. One is to limit you range of motion to only go as low as your heels stay in contact with the ground. The other option is to put a shim under your heels so that they are always in contact with something as you lower yourself. And since you're not a wuss you opt for option #2. Because in order to get the best leg development you need to go full depth you need something under your heels to do so. But here's the problem. As you lower yourself into a squat your body is going into pronation and flexion. You are reducing the force of the lift through your joints and muscles. This energy is being loaded up to be released during the upwards phase of the motion. As you lower yourself the hips flex, the knees flex and the ankles flex. And as you stand up the hips and knees extend. During the upward motion the ankles plantar flex. And during the descent it dorsiflexes. When you put a plate or a shim under your heels you put the ankle into plantar flexion. As you start the descent of a squat you need the foot to go into dorsiflexion which is the opposite of the set up you've just established.And the body works as a series of chain reactions. So as one group of joints and muscles loads up under force this triggers the neighbouring joints and muscles to prepare...