Cheating

[powerrack]

I first started training when I was 16 years old, it has been 6 years now and I only consider my last 3 years hardcore crazy ass training.

When I first joined the gym I had an orientation by the trainer there and followed his guidelines. I gained some strength and my body was changing a bit. I was pretty happy with the results but it wasn't enough I really wanted to be one of the biggest strongest crazy mf's in the gym. I observed the freaks train at our gym, I bought as many training videos as I can. The freaks and pros claimed to be training with strict form but I was like these guys cheat a bit.

I believe in the beginning of your training life you should use very good form to learn the mechanics of the lifts and learn witch muscles are activated through the exercises. After a few years of training you will learn you will never get to those 85lbs dumbells on incline db presses if you somehow don't just get them up there and use them. I don't know how to explain it but you have to force your body in every which way to go to extremes in training, but I'm not saying to train like a moron I'm saying to have a balance between overload and form. If you have too much overload where your form looks like junk you will get injured and make no gains, If your form is top notch and you are never able to reach that next level in overload then you are also wasting a lot of time. I have seen people in the gym have size and use the superslow, super strict reps but if you take a closer look they stay the same for very long periods of time, b/c they never overload their muscles to the point where they are forced to grow. I have more to say but for some reason powerracks fingers get overloaded quite easily so I will take a bit of a break and see what some of you guys have to say.

 

[Scotty the Body]

The only thing I cheat on is BB curls, on my final set I'll swing a bit to get the weight up and then work on fighting it all the way down.
Maybe I'm just getting old but I worry about getting injured now and don't cheat on any big lifts. I preffer to get my reps up and then increase the weight rather than cheating to do it.

 

[5abi]

yah sme here bb only

 

[Rissole]

I aint been liftin for long But f#ck cheatin!!! I bust my friken arse liftin clean and either my weights or reps are constanly goin up!! I see BIG barstards at my gym cheatin their arse off an are always liftin the same weight?? A friend i was workin out with was losing muscle size and definition untill i started bustin his balls about cheatin we even usually spot on the last couple o lifts to keep good form and like Scotty said fight it on the way down

 

[Chris_UK]

I saw Arnold S. cheating on a film once, on the bb curls. Everyone does it once in a while, even if it's just once in a blue moon.

 

[powerrack]

I think when i say cheat everyone misunderstands me. I don't know how to explain what I mean.

 

[LAM]

when you are cheating from rep 1 that's when there is a serious problem, but on the last couple of reps on "certain" exercises it's AOK...

 

[powerrack]

LAM expalined what I wanted to say.

 

[Mudge]

Originally posted by powerrack I have seen people in the gym have size and use the superslow, super strict reps but if you take a closer look they stay the same for very long periods of time, b/c they never overload their muscles to the point where they are forced to grow.

The biggest people I have known, including (1980's) a national level competitor, used slow strict form. I am not very large, but I can work with 85 pound dumbells just fine, without cheating.

 

[Mudge]

Originally posted by Chris_UK
I saw Arnold S. cheating on a film once, on the bb curls. Everyone does it once in a while, even if it's just once in a blue moon.

Final set is one thing, or occasionally, but thats not how people do thier entire routine unless they are praying for injury, and lack of gains.

 

[TJohn]

The only time you should cheat is on purpose. It should be used either to rip out a few last reps that you wouldn't be able to to otherwise, or a super heavy last set. This is for curling mostly. And it could reak havoc on the lower back !!

TJohn

 

[ZONE]

I'll do it after my last rep of my last set just to get one more.. then do a slow controled negative.. but not all the time .. maybe about every 3rd work out to try and up the weight...