Start Working Progressions! As a young adult athlete who has been lifting on and off for only a couple of months, possibly years, you definitely have weak points in you training regimen. We all do, no matter how hard you try to be as well rounded as possible, you will be weaker doing some lifts than you will be doing others. Some of the reasons may be technique flaws, inadequate strength in the muscle group trying to perform the lift, or lack of consistent workouts. What ends up happening is that you stick with what you are good at in the gym because you like to do what your good at. You start to slowly stop performing the lifts that you aren’t so good at because they are more frustrating than fulfilling. This is a problem, your weak lifts and muscle groups will only get weaker and the downward spiral will continue and the hole you make will be even harder to climb out of.
My best advice to you would be to start over with progressions. A progression is a series of steps you can take over time to be able to perform the major lift that you were bad at. An example to use for this is the Barbell Squat. Coaches all over automatically want their athletes to hop in a squat rack, under the bar, and perform a full range of motion squat. “Start lighter” they’ll say, because the only way they know how to squat is with a barbell. What you eventually get from this is a weight room full of guys with 5,000 pounds on the bar while they do a little “knee shrugs” that they call that a squat. HAHAHA! Fools! While it looks like a lot of weight and people think this will help them get stronger, and they think this type of HEAVY lifting will translate over to stronger play on the field, they are dead wrong! This does practically nothing compared to the athlete who uses a full range squat with perfect form stimulating the entire muscle group throughout every phase of the lift. That is the guy that will perform better on game day.
Continuing to use the squat as an example lift, here is a good progression I would recommend to new lifters or weak squatters. 1) Start with no weight! Just use your body weight and perform 3-4 sets of 20 squats. Push your hips back and sink that ass low! Keep correct/safe form throughout the entire movement. If you find yourself having trouble with this, continue to do them each week! What would make you believe that you can do this with a bar on your back if you can’t do it without weight. 2) Grab a dumbbell to perform goblet squats. Hold a lighter size dumbbell high against your chest and perform a squat. This is safer than a barbell squat because you can drop the weight if anything goes wrong, and you can start lighter with a more compact object with more control than you would have with a barbell. It is a more natural hold position. Just keep that back straight! 3) BB Box Squat. Pull a bench under your ass while you have a light Barbell on your back. Make sure you knee is bent at a 90 degree angle while sitting so the box. Make sure it is at a correct height. Grab the bar on your back, and start to sit back. Completely stop your momentum on the box in a controlled sitting fashion, then explode straight up driving through your heels. 4) By this point you should be able to perform a regular BB squat with correct and safe positioning while making sure you’re getting solid, full range, reps in.
Practically every lift can be broken down into progressions. You need to understand you problem areas and need to take the time to fix them. it takes time! Progressions are the safest and most effective ways to succeed in the gym and should be used by everyone. You need to crawl before you can walk!
