Don’t Be Like This Guy

I’m sure sometime, somewhere, at the gym you go to (most likely a commercial gym), you’ve seen someone do something that just does NOT look right. It never fails– I don’t have to put up with nonsense like that anymore, but damn it used to make me cringe watching some of the moronic and idiotic thing people are doing in the weight room. This video shows exactly why you should always squat in a power rack; you should never use weight you aren’t ready for; and you should always stop short of failure (UNLESS Special Circumstances apply i.e. you have a good spotter, reason for doing it, etc).

Doing stupid shit like this just makes you look really dumb and also runs the risk of getting you hurt. If something like this happens in a power rack, that’s OK because the safety pins are there to catch the bar. It’s OK to get pinned by heavy weight, it’s happened to all of us. But this kinda thing takes some common sense and smarts to know this may not be the best idea.

What’s the take home point? Use your head! If it looks foolish and involves lots of crazy gimmicks, or you just aren’t sure it’s going to be the safest thing in the world, use better judgment!

At least the kid above made an attempt to do some full squats, but he should have taken some weight off of the bar.

Stay strong, but go about it using some smarts will ya?

John Cortese

PS- Speaking of training smart, if you’re looking to shed fat, build muscle, and elevate your conditioning to that of a professional athlete- without spending countless hours in the gym- the Bull Strength Conditioning Manual might just be for you. I just got a copy of it yesterday and cannot WAIT to start using these conditioning methods and workouts into my own training!!