Cheating, the Good Kind

No, I'm not accusing you of being unfaithful in your marriage, I'm talking about the often-occurring cheating (flex bodybuilding) in the gym.  You've all seen the guy that is supposed to do bicep curls and ends up loading on more weight than he'd do for deadlifts and performs 3 reps of some kind of almost-obscene hip/back swinging motion.  Afterwards, he's bright red in the face and brags about how exhausted he is afterwards, topping it off with a lecture about the necessity of using heavy weights to grow.  And through his entire weight training workout, a closer look at his elbow-joint (which is the ONLY thing that matters when it comes to bicep-training) is hardly moving at all.  

 Ergo: The movement in his body is generated by OTHER muscles than the biceps.  Needless to say, this guy will get zero muscle gains at best and a nasty back-injury at worst.  But is it really a matter of black & white, right or wrong?  Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke about the benefits of controlled cheating 35 years ago, and proudly stated that he used cheating in almost every weight training workout.

Let's take it from the top; there are two basics that MUST be fulfilled in order to promote muscle growth.  The targeted muscle needs to work, and the work must overload the muscle in order to force it into growth.  The guy in my example above has focused so much on the latter that he forgot about the first part, and when no results comes, he interprets it as him going too light and makes it even worse by loading on even MORE weight next time!  However, the other extreme is not that productive either, where you have this guy grinding out set after set with light weights, watching the form like a hawk in the mirror.

Yes, he's disciplined.  Yes, he avoids injury.  Yes, he's much better off than the first guy.  But is he packing hundreds of pounds of muscle mass?  Probably not.  The simple conclusion to draw from all this is that there has to be a middle way, where you avoid injury but can employ certain controlled cheating.  When I say "controlled," I mean that you should use a weight so that the majority of your reps are done without cheating, but in order to grind the last ounce of power out (and avoiding the dreaded sticking-points) you do some disciplined cheating.

In order to avoid a sticking point in, say lateral raises for the shoulders, you can make this tiny bend on your knees, sort of "jumping" up the dumbbells through the critical point during the last few sets.  The first question to ask is: Do I put excess stress on some joint when doing this?  Am I putting the majority of the workload onto some other muscle?  Am I "bouncing" the weight (as in at the bottom of a squat or bouncing a barbell on your chest when bench pressing)?

If the answer is "Yes" to any of these questions, forget cheating or find some other way to cheat during that particular movement.  In my example, I found the lateral raises to be all "No's" on the checklist, which is why I think it's safe to use controlled cheating.  Once again, you have to make sure that your ego doesn't make this an excuse to start cheating from the first rep, to impress the girl next to you in the gym or whatever it may think is vital for your survival.  The ego is like fire; it's a good servant but a bad master.

You should also keep in mind that cheating in the positive phase, when you flex your muscles; you have absolutely zero reason to cheat on the way back down during the negative.  Why?  Simply because you're about 40% stronger when going negative!  In a later bodybuilding article we'll go into detail about the pros and cons of positive/negative training, and what tricks YOU can use to boost your reps and weights in several basic weight training movements in a short time!

All the best,

Jeff Bedeaux

dr-natural-bodybuilding.com

Natural Fitness Concepts

11310 Melody Dr. Suite #10-302

Denver, CO 80234

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