How Are There So Many People That Just Don't Know How to Lift Weights Correctly?

[NickEdge779]

You see these idiots who probably come to the gym twice a month who just don't seem to know what the hell they are doing. They have absolutely zero mind muscle connection and just move the weight from point a to point b. They think that just by flailing around some weight that they are getting something out of it. This is the perfect example I can think of:



The guys who do lat pulldowns like rows and lean so far back that their back is parallel to the floor. The guys who do dumbell curls like they are jogging in place and the guys who do those stupid side arm bends with 5 lb dumbells. You know what I'm talking about. It's like where do these idiots come up with this stuff? I mean it's not like there's some information on the internet that teaches this and they are just misinformed. They are just complete idiots plain and simple. It's not hard to look around and see what the big guys in the gym are doing. They just simply don't care, they are just in la la land doing some weird ass circuit routine that makes no sense.

[SF1900]

Lifting weights for general fitness is probably the easiest thing to do, yet so many people get it so wrong.

[Ropo]

Lifting weights for general fitness is probably the easiest thing to do, yet so many people get it so wrong.

Well, that is the main problem: people think it is easy, while it isn't. In fact you have to have quite good knowledge about your anatomy to do it right, and you have to be able to leave your ego outside the gym. That is the hardest part and the downfall for most of the gym goers. For example, if you look a female and male bodybuilders training, the female most likely uses perfect techniques and ranges of motion with the moderate weights, while the male bodybuilder is hauling some ridiculously enormous weights with no technique at all. Just compare guys who are training like idiots (Warren, Kamali) to the guys who are training smartly (Heath, Greene) and you see the difference.

[Henda]

Haha so many train in that manner I sometimes think maybe we're the ones training wrong. I do a lot of my training in our work gym and its fucking even worse

[Rascal full]

Love that footage of Obama training. He should train with Branch they are both so intense.

[Grape Ape]

Thread recap for those who got here late:

Some people lift weights incorrectly.

This bothers the OP.

[Al Doggity]

Lifting weights for general fitness is probably the easiest thing to do, yet so many people get it so wrong.

Nice trolling.  If it's the "easiest thing to do" how can it also be something that so many people get so wrong?  

[Grape Ape]

Nice trolling.  If it's the "easiest thing to do" how can it also be something that so many people get so wrong?  

Should be simple.

OP said all the need to do is "follow what the big guys" are doing.

Apparently, they possess the most knowledge.

[Man of Steel]

Why use free weights and classic hardcore movements when needles and HS machines will get your body swole and beach ready?

Kids today want everything for nothing....high paying job, minimal education, free rides, minimal effort for perfect body, perfect house....perfect everything.  And why?  Cause they can suck oxygen.

[Al Doggity]

Should be simple.

OP said all the need to do is "follow what the big guys" are doing.

Apparently, they possess the most knowledge.

That's probably how they get so big. Always using perfect form.

[Grape Ape]

That's probably how they get so big. Always using perfect form.

I suspect some sweet potatoes were involved as well.

[SilverSpoon]

I find this very interesting.
I trained a former Division I athlete that was a total spaz in the weightroom.  Proprioception was horrendous.

However, have you ever seen Bertil Fox doing dumbell presses?

[oldtimer1]

I think two things are going on. One is a definite lack of understanding of kinesiology. Many guys have no clue how to target a muscle through the form of performance of the exercise.

Second thing is ego lifting. Everyone is just too concerned about trying to impress others and their ego. That's why you see guys using a crazy amount of weight for dips and barely bend their arms. It's more important that everyone see them with all those plates.  How about seated calf raises where a guy puts on so many plates and barely lift up their heel or go deep?  About all presses from chest to shoulder where everyone does half movements so they can use the big weight they wouldn't be incapable of using if they did a full movement. Then there's the old leg press trick of keeping the back board high and barely bending your legs but they have the weight of a buick on it. I can go on forever but one last one. Deadlifting out of a power cage with a raised barbell they can add a 100lbs over what they could lift from the floor.

[The Ugly]

You see these idiots who probably come to the gym twice a month who just don't seem to know what the hell they are doing. They have absolutely zero mind muscle connection and just move the weight from point a to point b. They think that just by flailing around some weight that they are getting something out of it. This is the perfect example I can think of:

Actually don't have much problem here, assuming he's training rear delts. The 90-degree (straight-arm) rear raisers and rowers are the ones who seem lost to me.

Then there's this. Saw this contraption on a bench presser yesterday, un-f'n-real.

[SF1900]

Well, that is the main problem: people think it is easy, while it isn't. In fact you have to have quite good knowledge about your anatomy to do it right, and you have to be able to leave your ego outside the gym. That is the hardest part and the downfall for most of the gym goers. For example, if you look a female and male bodybuilders training, the female most likely uses perfect techniques and ranges of motion with the moderate weights, while the male bodybuilder is hauling some ridiculously enormous weights with no technique at all. Just compare guys who are training like idiots (Warren, Kamali) to the guys who are training smartly (Heath, Greene) and you see the difference.

Fundamentally, it is easy. Its not really difficult to learn to lift weights correctly. Literally, watching one video on how to do a bicep curl will teach you how to do a proper curl. Not difficult at all. Just takes a small bit of knowledge. I wouldn't equate this with something difficult really.

Yes, you need to know your anatomy if youre a competitive powerlifter who is lifting 800 pounds. Grandma doesnt need to know the intricacies of her anatomy to correctly perform a 5 pound dumbbell curl. There is a world of difference.

[SF1900]

Should be simple.

OP said all the need to do is "follow what the big guys" are doing.

Apparently, they possess the most knowledge.

Or just go online and view some exercise programs. Its pretty easy to learn how to curl a weight. Pretty simple, yeah. Not really difficult.

[Ropo]

Fundamentally, it is easy. Its not really difficult to learn to lift weights correctly. Literally, watching one video on how to do a bicep curl will teach you how to do a proper curl. Not difficult at all. Just takes a small bit of knowledge. I wouldn't equate this with something difficult really.

Yes, you need to know your anatomy if youre a competitive powerlifter who is lifting 800 pounds. Grandma doesnt need to know the intricacies of her anatomy to correctly perform a 5 pound dumbbell curl. There is a world of difference.

And after that you go to gym and do some barbell curls, some dumbbell curls, some hammer curls, some cable curls, some concentrated curls, some preacher curls, some decline dumbbell curls, some overhead cable curls, some incline dumbbell curls, some cable rope curls, some alternating curls, some drag curls, some prone incline curls, and some Zottman curls and if you would able to use the Vince Basile's Wonder Curl MachineŽ, you would use that also. You do at least 6 set of each, 15 to 8 reps per exercise and so on. And this is easy?

For most of the people it is too difficult to understand what and how much they should do, so if you have 12 dozens of different exercises per muscle group, how it is easy to choose what would be efficient and good just for you? It is usually done by trail and error, and that take years after years. Why it is done like that? Because no one would listen any advice, because everyone knows these things better than anyone else.

And what and how much is only little part of the knowledge, you should know also when, why and how, meaning that different order of curls leads to different outcome, and it is just same with all training. Then you have all the techniques and special techniques to choose from, do you use super sets, giant sets, rest pause, negatives, forced reps etc. etc. and you should know when to use them and how. In real life you get your knowledge a drop by drop, and even that is hard to swallow, so it is just stupid to say it is easy. You see, it make no difference if you are young men or old lady, you benefit more per the time unit if you do it right, and the older you get, the easier you get injuries if you don't know how to lift smartly  

[Nether Animal]

I don't understand people who get on leg machines, and put on like 20 pounds, and just do reps until they lose interest.

[Ropo]

I don't understand people who get on leg machines, and put on like 20 pounds, and just do reps until they lose interest.

I do. You see, if you put a 300lb to the leg extension machine and do 15 reps, you are working out the muscle. If you put 20-40 lb in same machine and do +100 reps, you are increasing the metabolism of the connective tissue in your knee joint, and you benefit greatly from that. I use  these kind of reps for warm up my joints, and I have no need for any kind of knee support while I am doing squats, leg presses etc. with any weight I can move. For example, I start to do the "Tom Plats hack squats" just a year or so back, at the tender age of 55, and my knees are loving it.

[Nether Animal]

Interesting. Thanks for the insight

[falco]

That's probably how they get so big. Always using perfect form.

That and Cell-tech.

[dseiler]

My dad always said it's not how much you lift it's how you lift it.

[_aj_]

I think two things are going on. One is a definite lack of understanding of kinesiology. Many guys have no clue how to target a muscle through the form of performance of the exercise.

Second thing is ego lifting. Everyone is just too concerned about trying to impress others and their ego. That's why you see guys using a crazy amount of weight for dips and barely bend their arms. It's more important that everyone see them with all those plates.  How about seated calf raises where a guy puts on so many plates and barely lift up their heel or go deep?  About all presses from chest to shoulder where everyone does half movements so they can use the big weight they wouldn't be incapable of using if they did a full movement. Then there's the old leg press trick of keeping the back board high and barely bending your legs but they have the weight of a buick on it. I can go on forever but one last one. Deadlifting out of a power cage with a raised barbell they can add a 100lbs over what they could lift from the floor.

Most people that pull from pins do it because of limited mobility off the floor and/or injury. Please educate yourself before you just start projecting your ignorance.

[devilsmile]

This was posted in getbig some times ago, but it's a good reminder. Do you keep the bar over the center of your foot the entire lift?

I think weightlifting is as hard as any sport if you want to do the movement anatomically perfect. Like having the perfect steps in running, to mold that technique in to the back of your head takes a lot of time, most people can't actually run properly and we consider running easy.

[CalvinH]

With the internet people have much more access then I did when I was a kid on how to lift properly.


...weirdest thing is in my gym I see a bunch of people that don't know how to work upper body properly but know how to squat with good form.