I use straps for lat pull downs and rows with girly baby weight. It makes them work better and my forearms don't get fried.
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Some of the weightlifters at my club hookgrip the bar when they bench.
I don't think people know about straps at my gym. If they did I'm sure I would see all of that stupid shit too. What I do see is interesting use of belts...belting up for cable pushdowns and chest flies. Belting for hamstring curl machine. Pec deck. Etc.
All but a small handful of the "real" lifters at the gym just leave belts on for full workout. Anyone you see with a velcro belt its guaranteed, they wear it back into changing rooms.
New guy is noticed hovering at the squat rack while I'm resting (collapsing) after my final work set.
When I can breath again I tell him it's OK to use the rack - I'm done but just need to carry on resting for a bit. We unload my bar (130kg) and he does some squats with 60kg (135lbs) - not too bad compared to the usual globogym denizens but the usual form problems are apparent and show he's never had instruction - rounding lower back, breathing irregular, lack of depth, heels lifting etc.
After a set or two he says "My lower back hurts when I do this - you look to be good at it, got any tips?"
I quickly gather my thought, remind myself I've just gone all the way to the U.S. for a seminar for this very reason and say - "Why yes, er, two actually".
I first explain the valsalva (like in the Book - take a big breath and tighten everything: imagine pushing your broken car away from a busy intersection) then I get him to widen his stance (it was very narrow) and quickly explain impingement and the need for femurs and feet to point out. Then I put him rapidly through the squat-stance-without-bar-routine (a lite-version: omitting the hands-on looking down vs looking up exercise - he was naturally looking down-ish anyway).
Back under the bar, told him I wanted to hear a nice big clear breath at the top of each rep and just imagine pushing up from the sacrum - another set and he breathed properly, descended smoothly, got better depth (a few inches high but we'll work on that), heels didn't lift, kept his back straight and came up with the bar dead over the mid-foot, then proclaimed "Thanks! That feels MUCH better."
So the gym isn't new to me but *he* joined a new gym and something not often seen happened so it deserves a mention here(?)
It was all done in about 6 minutes flat: I forgot to tell him about The Book, though (duh), so it was only a partial win...
So hot, but so crazy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P41ER1Wmkj0