Leg presses and other badly done exercises.

Been taking it easy/off the gym for the last six months due to a bout of back pain. Lost about 12 kilos since the beginning of the year, and I've only just got back into the swing of things properly. Before, I was just cycling, hitting the bag, thinking about the meaning of life while sitting next to a rather plump man in the steam room. As sometimes the case when you are off anything for a while, you do forget about little idiosyncrasies which both amuse and annoy you.

Anyway, today's a public holiday in the Republic, which meant that the gym was standing room only, which meant my set took much longer than normal, but also that the social gymmers came to play. Caught a guy doing leg presses: if his knee flexes five degrees doing the negative, it was a lot! Then the kipping pull ups, which are the spawn of cross fit... Your shoulder is simply not meant to come up so violently, and yet that's what everybody does now. Then there's the bicep curls which are actually shoulder flexions.... And a lot more. There's no actual point to this article... But god I've missed the weight room

Leg press is the most cheated on exercise in the bodybuilding world...........

People either put hands on the knees or bring the weight down a few inches.....pointless.

If you take the ego out and lower the weight it can be hugely effective.........Close feet for outer sweep and wide feet for inner.....

Personally I can't be bothered loading the machine...............so do smith hacks instead..

It's my favourite leg workout. Really helps build explosiveness as well. Still can't really squat much yet, so my leg days consist of Leg presses, lunges, extensions, leg curls, and some cycling. Long way to go.

kingraf wrote:Been taking it easy/off the gym for the last six months due to a bout of back pain. Lost about 12 kilos since the beginning of the year, and I've only just got back into the swing of things properly. Before, I was just cycling, hitting the bag, thinking about the meaning of life while sitting next to a rather plump man in the steam room. As sometimes the case when you are off anything for a while, you do forget about little idiosyncrasies which both amuse and annoy you.

Anyway, today's a public holiday in the Republic, which meant that the gym was standing room only, which meant my set took much longer than normal, but also that the social gymmers came to play. Caught a guy doing leg presses: if his knee flexes five degrees doing the negative, it was a lot! Then the kipping pull ups, which are the spawn of cross fit... Your shoulder is simply not meant to come up so violently, and yet that's what everybody does now. Then there's the bicep curls which are actually shoulder flexions.... And a lot more. There's no actual point to this article... But god I've missed the weight room

So cross fit style kipping pull ups are the done thing now then? I've heard that poor form is really bad for your elbows, shoulders & wrists, the jolting & crashing just knackers them. Biceps curls with a barbell often end up using your back with a swinging motion. Lat pull down as well, yanking with a bit of rocking.

As there is no squat rack, only a smith machine, at my gym so I'm doing front dumbell squats & Bulgarian split leg squats, with dead lifts on another day, seems to be working.

Yeah, maybe it's a localised thing, but generally, where I am, people are using momentum to complete pull ups, and then get all self congratulatory when they do 100. Cross fit is a relatively new form of training, and as such long term damage has not yet been ascertained, but it's worrying when so many people get injured so soon from Kipping. I'm not sure there is a way to do them safely. The action itself is so jerky. The human mind is an amazing thing, we're innately wired to appreciate proper technique. If it doesn't look smooth and flowing, it generally isn't good long term. Of course, this isn't true for everything, but it works well enough. Same with negatives, the eccentric, or negative part of the exercise is just as important.

I love squats but I do leg press now as well.

I do high reps and pause every rep. It has really improved my explosion on deadlifts. I feel faster off the floor than ever before.

If I ever saw someone doing those feckin kipping things in my gym I would punch them.
How anyone has the cheek to call them pull ups is beyond me. Saw a youtube of one crossfit "hero" doing 100 pull ups straight off...all his minions watching in awe.....I counted...zero pull ups!

Bicep Curls are funny as well...for some people its more of a back exercise.

Lat Pulls as well....some people haul their full body down so their back is actually in a horizontal position????!!! WTF

One for me however..

When you guys do Romanian Deadlifts (or straight legs) for your hamstrings....do you keep your knees absolutely rigidly locked straight...or have them very slightly bent to avoid causing pain?

Don't do them mate but I think you should keep the legs as straight as possible. I guess a slight bend wouldn't be too bad.

Yeah I think its probably rigid lock. I don't have them rigid as my knees click and it just doesn't feel 100% right....but I still get a cracking hams workout. Just wondered what you thought.

Might start doing these. My hamstrings are decent but could always improve.

Also Smeg kipping, it is balls. It is the same as quarter/half squats in my book. I would rather see 5 solid pull ups, to 10 or 20 of these kipps.

If you do a couple at the end ofa set that is fine. same as curling. Sometimes I might do a couple of cheat curls after about 7 or 8 good reps.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Leg press is the most cheated on exercise in the bodybuilding world...........

People either put hands on the knees or bring the weight down a few inches.....pointless.

If you take the ego out and lower the weight it can be hugely effective.........Close feet for outer sweep and wide feet for inner.....

Personally I can't be bothered loading the machine...............so do smith hacks instead..

So you have finally admitted to doing hack squats on the smith machine.

Always done them....Just like Yates..