Controlled Cheating - Loosen up and start growing.

You always hear about "form" when discussing how to correctly perform an exercise - "you must use strict form", "form is everything", "no cheating". Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Strict form limits muscle overload. Using strict form doesn't allow you to handle the kind of weight it takes to grow. Strict form limits muscle growth and strength development! Strict form is responsible for more injuries than just about any type of training. Controlled cheating reduces the chance of injury while promoting maximum muscle growth.

Now I guess I must clarify a few points here before everyone starts throwing weights all around the gym. The name of the article is "Cheating With Control". The idea is to learn to use cheating constructively to aid in building muscle faster. It doesn't mean you cheat as much as it takes to complete a rep or lift a certain weight. There is a fine line here. You must learn to incorporate cheating into your training where the overall effect is increased overload on the muscle.

Controlled Cheating allows for the extra bit of overload necessary to spawn continual muscle growth. Adhering to strict form prevents you from using the required overload for maximum fiber stimulation. Sure you can get a decent workout with picture-perfect form, but a decent workout is not what I'm talking about - it's not an all out muscle-building workout.

Let,s illustrate an example here. Okay, biceps. For some reason everyone seems to want to isolate their biceps with exercises that prevent cheating. Preacher Curls, Concentration Curls, Incline Dumbbell Curls. Why? They surmise, from the direct feel of the movement, that they are stimulating the muscle to a higher degree. And why do they feel like this? The reasoning is simple but wrong.

Makes sense huh?

The reasons for doing isolation - no cheating - exercises like this are exactly what you shouldn't be looking for as a sensory feedback for muscle growth.

Cheating and Injuries

As I said earlier, Controlled Cheating will actually reduce the amount of injuries you experience during training. Strict form with heavy weight places tremendous strain on joints, tendons, connective tissue, and muscle attachments. These are the major areas where lifters experience debilitating injuries. When you're injured you can't train effectively, if at all. When you can't train or train with all out intensity, you can't grow.

By incorporating Controlled Cheating you are able to create greater muscle overload stimulation and do so while reducing your susceptibility to injuries. You eliminate the pinpointed stress to the critical injury prone areas. This is the only logical approach to effective training where maximum growth in minimum time is desired.

Let's Get Specific

Here is a brief review of a few exercise and how to incorporate Controlled Cheating.

Biceps Curls - On a straight bar, get a grip just a bit wider than your shoulders. Lean forward slightly, rock back to an upright position to get the weight moving. At the top, let the weight down in complete control but don't try to fight every inch of the way down. This technique allows you to used more weight for greater overload and faster muscle growth.

With dumbbell curls, follow the same basic technique.

Cable Tricep Press Downs - Grip the bar slightly narrower than shoulder width, lean forward. Starting at the bottom of the movement, bring the bar up in a natural arch to slightly above or equal to shoulder height while leaning slightly forward. Once at the top, drive the bar down forcefully. This technique allows much heavier weight to be used and takes considerable stress off of the elbows.

Curl Bar Lying Tricep Presses - Lie on a bench with your head extended off the end. Grip the curl bar off the ground and bring it to your chest. Press the weight up. Bring the bar down to just above your head in a natural arch. At this position, your upper arm will be at about a 45 degree angle from the bench. From here drive the weight up forcefully. Again this technique allows for more weight to be used and puts your elbows in a much less injury prone position.

Shoulder Presses - Seated or standing your are able to employ controlled cheating here very effectively. With dumbbells, position the weight at your shoulders. Hunch forward slightly, straighten up as you begin the press the weight. This drives the weight off the shoulders allowing for heavier weight to be used. While standing you can cheat slightly with your legs. Never excessively arch your lower back while doing this movement as it puts your lower spine in a very injury prone position.

Squats - Just ain't no way to cheat here. Suck it up and do'em right!

Bent Over Rows - I like to do these on a regular bench press bench. Grip the bar about 6 inches wider than your shoulders on each side. Make sure your back remains slightly arched when in the bent over position. Don't hunch or round your back. Pull the weight up forcefully to the bottom of your sternum. Don't let the weight fall back down - keep it in control but not too slowly. You can use your knees to get the weight moving at the start of the movement. This is real important on the latter reps.

These are just a few examples of how to cheat on some basic exercises to your advantage. You need to experiment and learn to employ this technology into virtually all the movements you do. Implementing Controlled Cheating into your training will propel you past those sticking points and plateaus. You'll start to grow again and have a new outlook on your training as your weights increase and you start packing on the muscle.