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Day after day I see guys in the gym training too heavy, with weights they can barely lift. I'd be very surprised to see them complete even a single good rep with the weight they have chosen.
Yet they pump out set after set of swinging body movements that stressed the hips, back and shoulder tendons more than the muscle they are supposed to be exercising.
On some days you might see me doing the same.... why?
Why? Because I know what I am doing and am doing it for a reason, or rather one of several reasons. If the casual observer sat back and watched my entire workout they would see what I did was part of a plan, a purposeful overloading technique to help stress the muscle in training that day.
Reasons For Using A Weight That Is Too Heavy
- To do negatives. Your training partner lifts the weight and you control the downward motion. This is a good technique to break through mental barriers allowing you to 'progress' to a heavier weight and get you used to feeling the heaviness of it. Going back to your previous maximum weight feels light in comparision.
- Cheat Reps. When you don't have a training partner to help you with forced reps you can 'cheat' or use some bodyweight or swinging motion to pump out a few additional reps at the end of the set
- Holding the heavy weight. Say in Benchpress you bend your arms a little and hold the weight there, after a while the muscles start to fatigue and stress. Another technique to overload your muscles. Also for Deadlifts a heavier weight and just holding it will improve your grip strength, and so on.
- You are trying to improve your 1 rep maximum weight.
- Partial Movements. For side lateral shoulder raises for instance using a heavier weight stresses the bottom part of the movement and causes a different stress on the shoulders compared to a full range of motion.
- You don't know what you are doing.
Unfortunately it is reason #6 that is the most common reason I see people using weights that are too heavy. And this is a shame as these guys are in the gym, they are putting in the time and they are making an effort, in fact they are making too much of an effort.
I have seen some guys like this year after year doing the same thing and it makes me wonder. With all the knowledge available today, all the training books available in mainstream bookstores, all the personal trainers, all the information available on the Internet and most importantly all the time they are wasting in the gym with little in the way of gains and many injuries, why do they not take enough interest in their bodybuilding hobby to take some time out a learn a little about it.
It's not like you need all the latest info from all the top trainers, in fact I recommend against this (too many people are armchairs experts but have crap bodies because they spend all their time studying theories rather than practical application) .
The most basic of information available since the 1960's will build a body like Larry Scott, Dave Draper or Sergio Oliva - nothing to be sneezed at even by todays bodybuilding standards.
1966 BodyBuilding Knowledge Still Holds Out
These guys didn't know about fast and slow twitch muscle fibres, creatine monohydrate, the Zone Diet, the latest supplements or pretty much anything that is easily available today.
What they did do is go to the gym and train the muscles, eat good food (not fast or manufactured foods back then) and rest.
So if you find yourself in the gym and not making gains, look at the weights you are using, look at the form you are using. Are you swinging the weights? Can you stabilise against a wall or bench and still do the movement (using preacher curls as an example over barbell curls)?
If you are going to train too heavy with a weight you cannot use properly do it from a position of knowledge as part of your bodybuilding plan, don't do it through laziness. Even reading the muscle section of my website alone will give you all the knowledge you need to start out.
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