Strength Ambassadors Logo
Start here
  • Book A Strength Class
  • Gym Membership
    • Membership Info
  • Classes
    • Ladies Who Lift
    • Building Strength – Strength Training in London
    • Olympic Lifting
    • Strongman Training & Gym In London
    • Strongwoman Training London
    • Membership Info
  • Personal Training
  • About
    • What We Do – Powerlifting & Weightlifting Club London
    • Our Team
    • Success Stories
    • COVID Secure Procedures
  • Blog
    • Lifestyle
    • Mindset
    • Mobility
    • Nutrition
    • Training
  • Contact

Lift heavy without injury

By Sally
Wednesday, November 18th, 2015

I have lost count of the number of people who have said to me “I don’t want to lift heavy because I am afraid I will injure myself”.

But it’s perfectly possible to injure yourself with a warm up weight.

It’s not the load that causes the injury, it’s when form breaks down. This can happen under any kind of load, if you are not paying attention.

The real question is, why do people let form break down when the load gets heavy?

Why don’t you lift heavy the same as you lift light?

Why don’t you stop when you feel your form start to go?

Lift heavy with perfect form to minimise injury

For some people, it is ego. They want to successfully make the weight, even with bad form.

For others, it is embarrasment. They don’t want to drop the bar or have other people see them fail.

Sometimes, it is simply lack of awareness. Not being able to detect when form is deteriorating.

If you train on your own, you owe it to yourself to monitor your form and to develop a better understanding of when your form is not quite right.

No-one else is there to do it for you, and you don’t want to find out you have poor form by getting an injury.

A common trap to fall into is: you never go heavy because you are afraid of injury. But you also never attempt to improve your technique enough, so that you can go heavier without injury!

So you train with light weights and never make any progress.

Does any of this sound familiar?

Here’s an exercise to try, next time you train.

Video every one of your warm up sets.

Watch the video back after each set.

If they do not all look exactly alike, you need to fix what is going awry.

The only thing that should change as the weight gets heavier is the speed that the bar moves. Body position, technique and range of motion should remain the same for all warm up sets.

To help you detect whether each rep is the same, make sure you

  • film from the correct angle – side on is usually best
  • can see your whole body in the frame
  • have a consistent indicator for range of motion

If you committed a month to making all of your warm up sets in all your big lifts look exactly the same, your strength would increase significantly.

Because instead of compensating for lack of strength by limiting range of motion (e.g. not going down as low in the squat), or compromising form (e.g. rounding your back in the deadlift), you will be attempting perfect form each and every time you lift.

You know what they say: you are only as strong as your weakest link.

Need more help?

Click here for Strength Training Technique one-day workshops

More articles like this

How to go heavy on squats

How to get a stronger squat when the squat rack isn’t free

3 ways to improve focus when lifting heavy

When to increase your weights in training

 

Categories : Blog, Training

Leave a Reply

Click here to cancel reply.

Success Stories


"It just feels brilliant, it feels really good!"
Holly - Olympic Lifting


"Ladies Who Lift has been a massive confidence booster for me"
Angela - Ladies Who Lift


"Everything in my life is easier for being stronger!"
Melanie - personal training


"I was snatching in my first session, which I really didn't think I would be able to do!"
Dominic - Olympic Lifting PT


"The process has been really fun, I've enjoyed pushing it a little bit more every week"
Pippa - Ladies Who Lift


"It's been great - extraordinarily instructive!"
Greg - Olympic Lifting


"Now I've learned how to be more powerful!"
Jess - Olympic Lifting


"We've got a really nice squad of lifters here...everyone's so supportive"
Jon - Olympic Lifting classes

Strength Ambassadors – Weightlifting & Powerlifting Club London
Copyright © 2023 All Rights Reserved

Powered by Pro-FitnessWebDesign.com