By Sean Ryback

Many of us have been in the gym and looked over to the person to the right of us only to wonder, “What is that person doing?” Many common errors when resistance training increase the risk of injury, decrease strength and power, and critically diminish your results. Follow these basic tips next time you are at the gym to save your body and achieve the results you want.

Where is your spotter?

Do you find yourself thinking, “I’ve got this” before performing a serious lift? While it is good to be confident in the weight room, it is dangerous to be overly confident. Failing to use a spotter is a surefire way to get injured. While you are hurt, you will be unable to train, thus you’ll surrender all of your hard fought gains.

It is especially discouraging when an injury comes under circumstances that could have been avoided. A formula for success includes performing more reps, with better form, while being safe.

It is important to leave the ego at the door. It’s not how much you lift, it’s “how” you lift that makes the difference and when going beyond your norms, a spotter makes training safer by helping you keep proper form. They can assist with performing an additional rep or two at the end of your normal rep range which tells your body “it must change” to cope with the additional stress.

Do not use momentum

When performing any type of lift, momentum is not your friend. You often see people swinging weight around when doing biceps curls, as an example. Heaving the weight up in any awkward swinging motion shows that you have too much weight to properly execute the lift safely. Again, ego, pride and the desire-to-impress may be the end culprits here. When momentum is involved, other body parts are getting into the action playing gravity to a disadvantage for their long-term results and safety.

Full range of motion

While focusing on not using momentum, we must also pay attention to utilizing a full range of motion for the specific exercise. Make sure you go all the way up and all the way down. No half reps! You are not doing yourself any favors by only doing half a rep. On the final reps, while using a spotter, performing half-reps is acceptable. These are the extra reps that you are getting as a bonus of using the proper weight, for the proper number of repetitions, with a spotter. You want the maximal eccentric phase (muscle stretch) and the maximal concentric phase (muscle contraction).

Control the negative.

Let’s use the bench press as an example. The first part, taking the weight down to your chest, is the negative part of this exercise, also known as the eccentric phase. It is important to control the weight on the way down and, while pushing it up, known as the concentric phase. In a biceps curl many people may be tempted to just let the weight pull their arm down after curling it up. Controlling the weight through the negative range of motion will yield much better gains. It is much safer, as gravity is being controlled verses allowing gravity to pop your elbow joint at maximal extension. Sometimes, it pays to be a little pessimistic and concentrate on the negative.

Lifting with the neck

Many individuals develop a poor habit of engaging their neck when trying to lift, push, or pull. This is incorrect form and can cause injuries not only in the neck, but throughout the body. Focusing on relaxing the neck, stabilizing the core, and engaging the correct muscle for the exercise will help to accomplish your movement correctly. Generally speaking, if you approach your exercise with a “chin up” cervical posture and maintain that throughout the movement, you will be well served.

Moving free-weights in set up

Free-weights such as dumbbells or barbells are great options for resistance training because they allow the body to use stabilizing muscles that some resistance machines tend to lack. All too often, injuries occur when moving these free-weights around, picking them up and putting them down, or getting them in to the lift. The tendency is to forget your form if you are not focused. So remember to use the highest level of technique not only in your exercise, but when you are setting up your lifts.

Setting your body position

Exercise equipment comes in all shapes, sizes and settings. This creates opportunities for incorrect setups of the machine itself, and resultant poor positioning of the body. If you do not know how to correctly utilize a machine, just reach out for support with a fitness professional. A common error seen at the gym is incorrect setting of the feet. From your head to your toes are you in the correct position? Set that core into contraction! Remember, your body will adapt to what you do in your workouts, so if it is the wrong movement or setting of the machine, you will have a negative outcome.

“Practice doesn’t make perfect, it makes permanent.”

Over training

Rest day? Where’s the “rest muscle” and how do I train it?

If you ever found yourself thinking something like this, you may be in trouble. Having proper rest (at least 24 hours) after training is an important step in muscle recovery and growth. Faster recovery means less pain and soreness. Exercise is the stimulus for change. Rest and nutrition are the keys to change. Many people fail to give themselves a day off from the gym. You do not need to train everyday. Just make sure that you earn that rest and recovery on the days you do train.

For every exercise, no matter if it is a single muscle group or full body workout, there are correct motions in which the body should follow in order to achieve the maximum results. This path that the body should follow will allow for maximum adaptation of the muscles over time, reduce the risk of injury, and allow for maximum power.

—Sean Ryback is a personal trainer at Fitness Together Mission Hills.