Things I hope you never do.

I'm not going to lie...I can be a real dick when it comes to training. I take my training and that of my clients very seriously. I pride myself in taking training very seriously and constantly evolving as both a coach and an athlete.

However, not everyone shares this mentality. Working in a commercial gym exposes an individual to all aspects of training. The problem is that there are alot of strange and annoying things that take place in a commercial gym. Walk into any athletic training facility and you will see goals. Everyone in that facility has them and are focused to achieve them. Walk into the vast majority of commercial gyms and you will see randomness. Randomness in all aspects of training. I see the same people day in and day out at the gym doing the same thing. They are also lifting the same weight and looking the same as well.

Many of these individuals are guilty of doing some strange and unusual things while working out. I personally don't understand the mentality behind most of these things, but know that they shouldn't be done...ever.

Here are a few things that I have observed to be constants. If you are guilty of any of these things, please stop immediately.

Squatting too heavy - For the most part, people never squat. However, every now and then I see a brave soul venture up to the squat rack and start loading the bar. At first I always give them the mental "thumbs up!". But then the fiasco begins.

I stand there and continue to watch as more and more weight is loaded on the bar. Having seen the previous sets I know there is no way this guy is going to squat this weight properly and the same thing always happens next. The individual always unracks the weight, takes 1 or 2 steps back and then proceeds to quarter squat the weight 8 times!! He then racks the bar and walks out of the rack with his lats flared out. He also nods his head like it was easy. Of course it was easy you moron, you didn't DO anything! Quarter squats are damaging to the knees and also create alot of mobility problems in the hip and low back....Never do this.

Bicep curls every day - Why do I see this? Too many young guys are wasting their time doing bicep curls. Seriously, this needs to stop. I once had a young client come to me and ask me why we practice squatting and deadlifting so much. He then asked me "when are we going to do bicep curls?". That was his exact statement, I wish I was joking. I politely asked him why he wanted to curl so badly. He informed me that the guy he works out with does them and he's gotten so much bigger. I told him that's not possible. He then pointed his friend out to me. The kid was 140lbs with no strength or muscle mass to speak of and the spinal structural similar to Quasimoto. Bicep curls have no business being a part of a beginners program. Fix your structural issues, build a strong base, increase your strength and then include curls if they will help you towards your goal.

Quasimoto did alot of bicep curls

Wide grip bench presses - In the ever important quest to bench press more, many individuals have figured out that you can lift more weight if you widen your grip. I am seeing this more and more often and I need to put a stop to it.

It is true that many powerlifters use a wide grip to bench press. However most are doing it with the aid of a bench shirt and in conjunction with other lifiting technique such and high arch and leg drive. In most cases, it is only used in competition or for a bench press max.

What I am referring to is the individual that use a wide grip bench press because they think it will target their chest muscles. Here is a news flash to all those guys, you are destroying your shoulders! If your shoulders hurt from bench pressing, it's you not the bench that is the cause.

By widening your grip, you are taking the assistance muscles out of the lift and placing all the load on the pectoral muscles as well as the shoulder complex. That is a recipe for disaster and once you tear a pec or rotator cuff then it's game over for a very long time. So do yourself a favour and bring in your grip, use your triceps and lose the ego.

Training like bodybuilders - There are too many wannabe bodybuilders in this world. Too many people doing bodypart split workouts that they got out of a FLEX magazine and too many people with structural, flexibility and mobility problems. If your goal is to be as big as possible then by all means, break your body up into chest, shoulders, biceps, triceps, back and legs (apparently we only have 6 body parts). However, be prepared for structural imbalances, injuries and many mobility problems. The fact is, our body is not meant to be broken up into parts. Rather than work the muscle, your goal should be to work the movement. When i say movement, I mean the different ways our body is able to move (up, down, push, pull, horizontal, vertical etc) The by product of working the movement is that our muscles get trained and grow. The benefit of this is that we work the muscles in the manner which they were designed to work and avoid any issues that would come by isolating a single body part. Most people have no idea what to do when they come to the gym so they do what they know and unfortunately that is either walking on the treadmill or training a bodypart.

There are so many more that i could write about but these are the few that came to mind since they are pretty much what i witnessed today at the gym. If i can see all of these in one day at a commercial gym, imagine what i could write about in my 7 years as a coach and trainer?...scary.