You’ve been hitting the gym consistently for awhile now and you’ve seen a little bit of the results you were looking for, but mostly, you’ve gone up massively in how much weight you can move around.  Good for you!  And now that the gym hottie is looking in your direction, that weight just increased!  Oh yeah, she’s clearly impressed.  You can definitely feel the workout now!  No pain no gain!  Kind of strange that the pain is in your back when you’re doing bicep curls, but hey, look at that giant dumbbell you’re lifting!  Never mind the fact that you’re swaying back and forth more violently than a skyscraper made of popsicle sticks in a hurricane (yeah, I made that up myself, are you impressed?), all that matters is that you get the heaviest weight moving from point A to point B…or close to it, that’ll work, close enough.

So, keeping in line with the “sometimes you need to take a step back to move forward” theme for this month’s articles, let’s apply it some weight training.  Did that statement above remind you of you?  Based on what I see in the gym on a daily basis, the answer is that about 95% of you said yes….or should have said yes.  From swaying your entire body back and forth to complete a bicep curl, to rolling your back to pick up that barbell for your dead lift to bending your knees ¼ of the way on your squats, technique everywhere is being decimated due to lifting WAY too much weight!  Not only are you killing your progress but you are setting yourself up for injury!

Of all the elements that come into play to build muscle and gain strength, the amount of weight you are lifting is among the least important.  This is especially true when you are attempting to lift more than you can handle.  Nutrition, technique, rest and how you plan your workouts are generally more important.  On the other end of the spectrum, if you are comfortably lifting weights and barely exerting yourself, then that too is an issue, but at least you’re not putting yourself in massive danger!  So drop the weight, let go of your ego that thinks others in the gym care at all how much weight your are lifting and concentrate on your technique!

How do you know how much weight you should be lifting?  Well, start by dropping the weight considerably.  If you are going for 10 repetitions per set, then make sure the weight is light enough to complete those 10 reps with perfect technique.  Your set is done when your technique begins to fail.  If you get your full 10 with no technique problems, then add some weight and do it again.  Your goal is to barely get that last rep at the end of your last set while still using good form.  Make sure you are using your full range of motion, don’t go half way just because it’s too hard to go the full range, that just means you still have too much weight.  Another thing to pay attention to is the muscle group(s) you are working.  You should concentrate on contracting that muscle or group of muscles all the way through your lift and squeezing it at the height.

Control your speed!   Generally speaking, assuming you are using good form, you can lift the weight as fast as you want.  However, where many fail is in the negative (bringing the weight back down).  Don’t let gravity take charge, control the weight back down to the starting position with a slow count and using full range of motion.

How do you know when it’s time to raise the weight?  Use the rule of 2.  If you can do 2 more repetitions on your last set of the exercise for 2 weeks straight, then increase the weight by about 2%.

Make these changes to your workouts and not only will you see more results, but less injuries and less of trainers such as myself secretly laughing and making fun of you from the other side of the gym.  As for getting the gym hottie to notice you and be impressed….that I can’t help you with, I’ve yet to do it myself, but if anyone out there has any suggestions, help a guy out and post it in the comments!