I used to never take form and technique seriously when lifting weights but now I do. I take form very seriously now. Every aspect of it, even if it’s the smallest things… gotta do everything right. Yeah, the deadlift, bench press and squats maybe the kings of all workouts but it’s amazing to me that so many people do them wrong.

In this post, I’m going to explain on how people do them wrong. I’ve been going to the gym for years now and I’ve been observing and watching people how they workout. It’s amazing to me that so many do them horribly. I really do believe that so many people are misinformed and not very smart when it comes to working out.

Here are just a few common mistakes I see all the time for all three workouts:

Deadlift:  1) Leaning so far back when locking out. 2) Rounding of the back when lifting barbell off the floor 3) Hips too low as if you’re squatting 4) Deadlifting too close to the bar or too far back 5) Dragging the bar along your shins as you bring it up

Squats: 1) Not squatting down low enough (upper leg area must be lower than the knees, that’s the correct form) 2) Knee cave in as you bring it up 3) Heels come off the floor when trying to lift it up 4) Rounding your back 5) Leaning too far forward and not keeping your chest up where it should be

Bench press: 1) No full range of motion and refusing to bring the bar down to touch your chest (this is where half repping and partial repping comes in) 2) Butt coming off the bench 3) Head coming off the bench 4) Not having your eyes under the bar at the starting position 5) Not keeping your feet flat on the floor (some dudes would just bench with just their toes and heels pointing in the air, you’ve seen it. Some dudes would even bench with their feet planted on the bench which is bad, bad, bad)

There you go.

I’ve learned to perfect my form for deadlift, squats and bench press just by going through two powerlifting meets I did. I’ll be honest, though that my form for deadlift isn’t all the way perfect yet but even I’m still trying to get that down.

The point of this post is that it’s pretty crazy how people do these workouts in the gym pretty terribly. You would only see just a few people in the gym doing them right. I’m sure many guys get injured by doing them terribly too.

Form is a big deal y’all. Injury prevention is pretty important. You do them wrong, you could get injured pretty badly. You could get taken out of weightlifting for a couple of weeks, months or even years… even worse, your weightlifting days could be over for good depending on how bad the injury is.

I’m being very cautious ’cause I don’t want to get injured. Gym safety is important but unfortunately, not many people care about gym safety.

Kev