Zack George is back with some advice on how to prioritise technique when performing some popular lifts.

Ego lifting is something I’ve seen a lot over my years in the fitness industry. Ego lifting is when someone wants to look as strong as possible but sacrifice form and technique in doing so.

It’s something that has a lot of flaws. It’s a very good way of increasing the injury risk of the exercise and will lead to less gains as you will be using a lot of momentum and swinging motions to try and lift a weight that’s too heavy for you.

Here are two examples of ego lifting that I often see and try to correct for people…

Back Squats

If you are performing back squats, one of the greatest exercises for strength, you often see many people load the bar up with as much weight as possible but only perform a half squat. A full squat is when your hip crease goes parallel or below knee level, so while performing heavy squats but only going halfway down will admittedly make you stronger at the top phase of the lift, you won’t see the benefit throughout the exercise's full range of motion. If you never train the bottom phase of the lift, if you’re ever required to perform the full movement, you will most likely fail.

Not to mention, loading the bar with more weight than you can actually handle means the risk of injury to your back is much higher than lifting a weight you can manage for the full range of motion.

Bicep Curls

My next example is bicep curls. Again, many times I’ve seen people lifting way too much weight and then having to swing and use momentum from your hips and legs to perform the lift.

This alteration also highly increases the risk of injury to your back while making the exercise far less effective. Bicep curls are designed to grow your biceps, so when you start swinging from your back and legs, you’re now engaging your biceps less and using more back and legs. Instead, if you lightened the weight, kept your back flat against a wall and only used your biceps to lift the weight, you will get so much more benefit and gains from the exercise.

That was two quick examples of how bad form and ego lifting can be detrimental to your progress. Take Zack’s advice, lower the weight you’re lifting and focus on your technique to reduce the risk of injury and see results faster.

Guest post by Zack George, professional CrossFit athlete and Body Power ProTeam member. Follow Zack on Instagram here!