All the biggest, strongest guys use loose form, half reps, body english, and sloppy style to lift the most weight.
A guy who never uses loose form to push more weight is a guy who has been lifting the exact same weight for a long time.
If your form is always flawless it means you are not pushing yourself. It is impossible to maintain impeccable form and hit regular PR's (personal records).
Here's a recipe for ass kicking - Use good form most of the time but regularly use looser form to lift more weight than you ever could with strict form.
Handling bigger weights will make you stronger, even with loose form.
Just holding heavier weights will strengthen the tendons and ligaments and prepare your body for lifting that heavier weight next time and the time after. Load up the weight and strengthen yourself.
“But I'm scared of hurting myself”- Then go home and bake muffins.
The gym is a place to push your limits, not a place to cry.
The irony here is that the weaker a person is the higher probability he will get hurt.
The stronger he is the less likely he will get hurt yet people refuse to make themselves stronger so they WON'T get hurt!
Doesn't make sense.
“You will never get big if you don't use perfect form!!!!”
I agree absolutely 100% with this article! Ive been saying this for a long time now, what is good form? The same people who are always preaching ‘good form’ are the people who uses the worst form possible. I spoke to a guy today about this thing I keep on hearing over and over and over. People always tell me my form sucks when I do dumbbell rows. They say ones back should stay parrallel to the floor, in other words no lawnmower starts. The reason why one does pull with his scapula also is because the weight is heavy and your body needs to recruit more muscle to move more weight, that’s why you use your rhomboids also, not just your lats! Isolating muscles are pretty much the same as doing isolated exercises like flies or side raises. A dumbbell row is a multi jointed exercise. I take the squat as an example also. The say that when you squat, you must sit back, not down! But if you are sitting back you need to lean forward, otherwise youl fall onto your ass. Its common sense! People tell me Im leaning forward to much if I squat. But I can’t stay upright because I will fall back! Its got nothing to do with flexibiliaty! Its like saying you can pick yourself up by your own shoelaces. Law of gravity. In anyway what is good form? Everybody has his own idea.
“But I’m scared of hurting myself - Then go home and bake muffins” I almost fell off my chair with laughter at that one. Noticed this in myself though - I would put off heavier weights if I thought my form was not totally perfect. Really just scared and making excuses. Thanks for kicking me in the ass Victor.
Your blog is the most awesome site I’ve seen.
Where did this whole “form” thing originate from? Bodybuilders? I agree that form is over rated. Has anyone seen that guy Jamie Lewis from Chaos & Pain? His approach is pretty much “fuck form” or “heavy weights + shit form = HUGE”
Go heavy but still strive to move well. Body is still more efficient moving with solid mechanics. It’s hard to get strong when you get a bulging disc from a sloppy deadlift.
Could not agree MORE with this article!! There was this muscle head in the gym who would basically criticize people for their workouts like he was the ruler of it all.. He was giving me the BS so I said let me get under his skin.. Mentioned form was not everything.. He went nuts.. lol…It does not mean one has to be totally sloppy and all. I get that but this 100% perfect crap is ludicrous and takes the fun out of being in the gym and pushing yourself! I told the guy if I am getting paid to be at the gym instead of paying, I would listen to his anal retentive advice! Some people do one thing well in life and have to ruin the fun for everyone else…When you are going heavier, most often you will NOT be perfect form but so WHAT? The proof is in the mirror always!
After reading Victor`s articles about lifting heavy ass weights and stopped being a pussy I made a Front Squat PR beyond I could have imagined. Feel the pain and grow stronger!
Victor, I have a question for you. Since you lift heavy, you might have had that problem too.
What are you doing to heal your rotator cuffs? Not really injured like torn or whatever but mine are always cracking and popping, not painful except when I do certain movement, like when I release the tension from it working out, sometimes it does the same thing in my forearms when I release my grip from the bar after curls. thanks.
I’m glad I read this post. I workout with 2 other guys and they will always be like check your form which will make it to easy. I’ll have to show them this post. Thanks Victor!!!
Gym is a place to taken seriously and not fooling around but form is of utmost important.
Doing deadlifts with curved back or bench pressing raising the lower back will definitely be
harmful.
All the biggest strongest men who use loose form and sloppy style to lift more weight do it
without caring for two reasons
1)They have years of experience and muscles more adjusted to hard weight training
2)They consume every bodybuilding supplement exists in the market bcaa,protein,creatine,pre workout or/and steroids.This results in faster recovery and makes it harder to be injured.
However i think that your point here is to pushing your limits in the gym and continuous progression which is a must.Somebody is allowed to force some more reps or have loose form for a little bit in an exercise in order to meet progress but this shouldn’t be done consiously neglecting form the whole time believing that it could never have a negative impact on himself.
Best regards
Damian
Concerning arnold he is the one who believes that doing 5 perfect reps is better than 50 sloppy reps…Arnold says : ”doing exercises correctly,perfectly,doing full movements,is the most important thing in bodybuilding”
using bodybuilders supplements makes it harder to be injured? that’s laughable.
What you said about lower back injuries, as well as rotator cuff injuries are issues which were not addressed in the article!
This article had the right idea, but lacked nuance and any discussion of the grey areas, as to when it is okay to use improper form, ie. using your legs on a V Bar Row.
And yes, alot of these guys do use alot of supplements/steroids which make you physically stronger and able to recover faster, which Damian also mentioned!
I think variations in form is a very good idea.
I went into the gym with the mindset one day, while on Red-PCT cycle, to lift heavier than I had ever before with absolutely no fear of injury - I thought I was way to pumped up and had so much energy to focus it would be impossible. I had been working up for months on my deadlift. I did a proper warmup - short walk then sets of deadlifts starting with just 135 and moving up doing few reps each set to 350, with a bodyweight at the time of 170 and being 19 years old, so this was heavy for me. It would have been smarter for me to take more time to keep getting heavier - you have to work hard and push yourself but remember the expression, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Well I was able to do two sets with what I thought was actually decent form. It was the greatest workout I ever had but then I woke up in the night for the next four nights with severe back spasms that jolted me from sleep and that I had to ice for hours. I had severe pain for the next three weeks before I went to an emergency care center and they took xrays and said I had pinched a nerve in my back. I had to go through physical therapy and could barely move every day because of severe pain that coursed through my entire body and now almost a year later I still have lingering chronic pain at twenty but now I’m using the knowledge I gained at physical therapy to build a healthy and strength-building (not body destroying like I had been doing) workout routine. Point is - make sure that you’re maintaining proper body alignment in everything, if you’re lifting wrong you are putting pressure on joints that should not be getting pressured which can lead to chronic and debilitating injuries. Like Victor said in another article about warming up traps before bench press - using proper form and engaging all the muscles that are supposed to be engaged - will allow you to lift heavier than you would with improper form.