Cheat Exercises: Do Cheats Really Prosper?

They say cheats don’t prosper, and that the only person cheats are really cheating is themselves. When it comes to muscle building exercises, how much water does this statement hold? If you listen to many bodybuilding types they will tell you that the only way to lift is with perfect, textbook form and anything else is a waste of time. There are others who strongly disagree and claim there is definitely benefits to be had from bending form – some even insist it’s very difficult for natural trainees to gain significant muscle unless they are willing to lift with looser form; sometimes referred to as ‘Biomechanically Optimized Form’. In this article the different viewpoints and cheating methods will be examined and an answer given to the question posed.

The idea behind strict form…

Proponents of strict form say that certain exercises are done in a certain way to target certain muscles, and any deviation in form or help from other muscles will take the emphasis from those muscles and render the exercise inferior, and the outcome inferior.

The idea behind cheat form…

Cheat form is all about using heavier weights than strict form allows. The thinking behind cheat exercises is deviation from strict form is justified because the handling of heavier weights – even with looser form – more than offsets anything lost by cheating.

Who’s right?

Both camps are absolutely right. Before cognitive dissonance sets in, all will be explained and be made perfectly clear to you.

Strict form keeps the target muscles involved fully through the concentric (lifting) and the eccentric (lowering).

Good Cheat form will do much the same but will make the concentric easier.

The result with good cheat form is you get to use a heavier weight than you do with strict form on the eccentric.

And because we’re all stronger in the eccentric, we’re using more of our maximum eccentric capacity than strict form allows for.

The benefits of heavier eccentrics are…

1.       More tension in the muscles and more growth.

2.       Tendons get stronger from heavier weight.

3.       You gain confidence and supportive strength for lifting heavier weights.

But… there’s cheating and there’s C.H.E.A.T.I.N.G…

If you’re swinging the weights around like nobody’s business and you aren’t feeling the target muscles being worked then you’re C.H.E.A.T.I.N.G. And those kinds of cheats really do get nothing. Your aim should always be to fully involve the target muscles and only use as much ‘outside help’ as is necessary to cheat the weight up – and make the most of those eccentrics!

Don’t feel you have to constantly lift as stiff as a board, there’s definitely a place for working out as a human being rather than a robot.

To quote an old proverb: “Trees that don’t bend with the wind, won’t last the storm.”

That sounds like good advice to me.