Do You Even Lift?

Touting our certifications all day doesn’t meant anything?. I’ve got a decade of certs as a master trainer, kinesiology, sports nutrition, youth fitness, senior fitness, and strength training. After a decade of being a competitive athlete. Kipping is kipping. He’s not struggling to +1 here, he’s blatantly assisting the lift with body momentum. (And literally EVERYONE is a personal trainer these days, either of us bolstering our arguments with that is completely worthless, numerous institutions certify entirely online and there are countless trainers without any real knowledge or concept of body mechanics. It’s a stones throw from an MLM. I’m not saying that’s you, you clearly have a great grasp and knowledge base, but to cite that is akin to someone saying they’re a medic because they’ve applied a band-aid)

He’s not “wrong” so much as “less body assistance is always better.” In the pursuit of perfection, one wants as many proper reps as possible. It’s exactly why it’s common advice to do bicep curls against a wall; so you don’t kip. The discord between us likely comes down to the massive differential between those who are lifting as a lifestyle and those who just want to feel better about eating cake on the weekends. For most people, using a little body momentum is completely fine. But it’s pretty cut and dry; between a rep with zero assistance and a rep with body momentum, the former requires more exertion. And over time leads to more complete and reliable muscle growth and safe exertion.

Additionally, “assistance” or spotting someone is entirely different than cheating proper reps. And frankly, most folks spot incorrectly anyways. There’s a wild difference between allowing someone to push through a rep and finishing it for them. I can hold my upper arm completely stationary and lift with almost no exertion on the bicep, due to kipping. Therefore any kipping is a detraction from stress on contraction. It’s why people can kip a muscle-up but not do a single rep without it.

Friendly arguing aside, I couldn’t agree more that r/fitness is dangerous when it comes to looking for advice.

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