I’m afraid I’m going to have another rant today on training technique and resistance used.

I was at the gym last night and saw one of the most “interesting” versions of a biceps curl that I have ever seen. The process started with an ugly back twisting levering motion (I’m cringing now at the thought) to get the dumbbells up to his shoulders. The actual technique consisted of a jerky uneven quarter “curl” that need back and shoulder involvement to get even that much movement. The first rep probably moved 2-3 inches, with the next couple moving a little more. Unfortunately not one rep actually reached horizontal, much less actually achieving anything like a full range of motion.

The number of things wrong with this “technique” are numerous but it all comes down to not focusing on/having no technique and using far, far too much weight. I fully believe in progressive overload, of which one option is to increase the resistance used, but this should not be at the expense of technique. On the other hand, I have no major problem with the judicious use of cheating (done properly.)

Bottom line is, given the potential/probability of injury when training like “biceps curl man” and the minimal training response you would get from it, don’t even think about doing it.

Weight belts in resistance training are used to increase stiffness in the torso, reducing the chance of the spine buckling while under heavy load(think max squats and overhead pressing) and to increase somewhat the weight lifted. Given this, why do people use them for submax benching and curls.

I can understand using a belt if you are getting your powerlifting totals up but in general if you are training with submax loads, you are actually limiting your own body’s ability to handle load when you don’t have a belt on. As spinal health expert Stuart McGill says “to obtain the maximal effect from a belt, the lifter must lift poorly and in a way that exposed the back to a much higher risk of injury!”

End of rant

Revving Up Metabolism
by Dr. John Berardi I recommend more calories than most do. That’s because there’s no such thing as a stagnant metabolic set-point. Instead, metabolism chases intake. So, if you want a bigger metabolism, you need a bigger food intake. And if you’re worried about fat gain with this approach, just use outcome-based decision making and adjust energy (calorie) intake every two weeks based on your results. Not much ‘damage’ can take place in only two weeks. So if you end up boosting your metabolism, you’ll be thanking me eternally. And if it turns out you’re consuming too much, you can just adjust down.

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