Know What You Don't Know

I watched a guy in skintight shorts, the kind men should wear under shorts only, not as shorts, giving instructions tonight to a woman at the gym. Normally I wouldn't care what he or anyone else wore. But what he wore fit what he knew, which clearly wasn't much.

He was showing her the barbell squat and he couldn't have been more wrong.

First of all, he bent at the knees first, not the hip (think about sitting down in a chair).

Then he told her to only do a three-quarters squat, but his three-quarters squat was about a quarter squat.

Finally, he told her to never go all the way down to when your thighs are parallel to the ground because it's dangerous. Sure, it's dangerous if you do it incorrectly like he did, rounding your lower back.

If that all wasn't enough to tell me he didn't know what he was talking about, there was another indicator: His legs showed almost no sign he'd added any muscle to them. Someone who knows how to do squats wouldn't have chicken legs.

The More Weight the Better?

A guy at the gym tonight kept loading up the bar with plate after plate as he did squats. Impressive, right?

Well, it would've been if he'd even come close to using proper form. He didn't. He barely squatted, not even coming close to getting his thighs parallel to the ground.

So what did he accomplish? Not much.

Go for form and the weight will follow.

Will Trainers Ever Get It Right?

Once again, I heard a trainer giving bad advice.

Today, one told a client to pull his belly button in while he was doing dumbbell bench presses. But that's outdated, and incorrect, information. If only she'd read the New York Times earlier this year, which in article said, among other things, "Critics, including personal trainers and specialists in the spine and biomechanics, are now saying that drawing in may not make sense while, say, lifting weights or performing a crunch or running a race. In fact, some say, drawing in may even be counterproductive."

What are you supposed to do? Brace your stomach, just as if you would do before someone was about to it.

By the way, last week I watched two trainers working with someone on squats. The person didn't do them correctly -- he never got down far enough yet kept on adding weights. The trainers stepped in to show him how to do it. They didn't go down far enough either. Remember, on the squat, go down until your thighs are parallel to the floor.

Rule No. 1

There's an old saying that says if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right. That can -- and does -- apply to many facets of training. But here's where it applies most -- form.

I learned this lesson yet again a little more than a week ago when I was doing squats. I went up in weight and on my third set got to the bottom of the movement and realized it was going to be tough going getting back up. So I panicked a bit and lost proper form in an effort to just get the weight up. I immediately felt it in my lower back, which I'd allowed to round.

Today I squatted for the first time since then. I paid attention to my form the entire time, starting the movement by sitting back, not bending my knees, keeping my shoulder blades together and stomach braced. And even though my back still has bothered me a bit in recent days, I was fine and felt great after the workout.