Lift correctly for best results

Q: I notice a lot of people lift at different speeds while working out. Some people move the weight slowly while others lift so quickly that their bodies rock back and forth. What is the proper speed to lift to get the best results? Should it be fast, slow or somewhere in between? I guess what I’m really asking is, is using momentum to move the weight something that I should avoid?

A: When I was young I competed in power lifting, and my main goal was to lift as much weight as possible. I didn’t care how pretty it looked or how much momentum I used as long as I could earn the bragging rights of lifting heavy weights.

Three ruptured discs, a bum shoulder, torn pectoral and several other injuries later I began to reconsider my philosophy. It was during this time I learned one of the quickest ways to get results was to control the weight through the entire movement. This means lifting slowly enough to feel an intense burn in the muscles. Here’s why.

Develop mind-muscle connection
Babe Ruth didn’t just pick up a bat and hit a home run every time without thousands of hours of practice to develop the perfect swing. The same principle can be applied to learning proper weight-lifting form. It takes months, sometimes years of practice to learn how to control the weight while mentally focusing on the muscles to get the results you’re looking for.

Protect your joints from injury
When you use momentum to lift the weight, gravity is doing a lot of the work for you. As you rock back and forth, you’re actually taking a lot of pressure off the muscles and putting it on the joints.

This means the muscles get less of a workout and the joints get traumatized. Over time, you lose the opportunity to sculpt your muscles, and more than likely you’ll get injured. It should take approximately 2-3 seconds to lift the weight with a split-second pause at the top of the movement and 2-3 seconds to lower the weight with a split-second pause at the bottom of the movement. This will take the pressure off the joints and put it on the muscles where it belongs.

Build muscular endurance
I find it amazing when people tell me they can do 100 crunches or push-ups, but when made to do them correctly, they can’t even do 25.

This is because they have relied on momentum to get more reps, and the muscles make very little improvement. By slowing down the lift and controlling the weight, the muscles get a much better workout and eventually you’ll build muscular endurance that will take you to a completely new level where you are capable of accomplishing much greater goals.

Get better results
The bottom line is that learning how to effectively isolate the muscles by lifting weights in a controlled, deliberate fashion will yield much better results as well as greatly reduce your chances of injury.

It may hurt your ego a bit to lower the weight, but in the long run the results are well worth the effort.

Remember, lifting weights and working out can be a great way to improve your body, self-confidence and quality of life, but longevity is the name of the game if you ever want to reach your full potential.

Learning to lift correctly is certainly a great place to start.