But it doesn't change the fact that seeing some of these misktakes being made in the gym is like finger nails on a chalk board.
Whatever the reason for developing these bad habits or using bad form the fact remains that I wasn't aware that what I was doing was bad and that I needed to change this. And so now when I see others making some of the same mistakes I once did I feel compelled to help them out.
But why not walk over and help that person right then and there you may be asking? For a few reasons including:
1. The gym is the last place unsolicited advice seems to be accepted. Short of you injuring yourself on the spot I've found that many people prefer to be left alone. Am I wrong in assuming this?
If you were doing this I may come over.
So as long as you aren't going to kill yourself by what you're doing I may stay out of it rather than get into a debate with someone.
2. I can reach more people this way. With these posts we can help thousands of people compared to individuals at a time on the gym floor.
3. When I work out it's my time. I like to make my workouts as intense and short as possible. Stopping to help coach, correct and advise doesn't allow for this.
Now that I've covered my rationale for letting some people carry on with unorthodox methods let me reward you for reading this far with the Top 10 Things to Avoid Doing During Your Workout.
1. Using an open grip. Here's what an open grip looks like. It basically means the thumb doens't wrap around the bar to meet the fingers. Always use a closed grip for safety and for increased strength. Nobody ever intends for a bar to slip out of an open grip and fall on themselves but it does happen. As well with a closed grip you can squeeze the bar in your hands and generate more force through the rest of the body and push or pull a heavier load as a result.
2. Using the scorpion during a warm-up. A scorpion is a warm up drill where you are face down on the ground and you swing one leg over the body and touch it to the ground.
So why don't we do this anymore? Well because the lumbar spine isn't designed to have high levels of mobility. In some cases we might only see 5 degrees of rotation through the lumbar region yet when we move the leg from one side of the body to the other in this way we may be expecting more than 5 degrees from our low back. It doesn't automatically have to mean an injury but if there is another way to warm-up up the hips with rotation and not move the back so much I'm all for it.
3. Using lifting straps. This ties in with point #1 above. Whenver your hands are in contact with the object to push or pull you want to have the strongest grip possible. Lifting straps take the load for you and require very minimal grip strength. Not a good thing. Always to look to improve your weak links. For many people this is their grip strength. Using lifting straps only makes this worse.
Another problem I have with lifting straps is they are not suitable for Olympic lifting. Athletes using straps and trying to Olympic lift will end up performing a reverse curl to catch the bar rather than rotating the arms and hands under the bar. By performing a reverse curl the bar drifts away from the body and resuls in a lower power output.
Stay tuned until Wednesday when I'll carry on with the Top 10 Things to Avoid Doing During Your Workout.
Chris okanaganpeakperformance.com 'always moving forward'