Lifting heavy is fun. It is literally my favorite thing to do. It’s what I teach people to do for a living.
But within the greater realm of strength training, there are certain exercises that I simply don’t have people perform with heavy weights anymore. Whether it’s a skewed risk-to-reward ratio or the biomechanical nature of the exercise, some movements are just best done with less weight on the bar.
Barbell Rows
There have been times during my coaching career where I’ve advised people to treat the barbell row like a fourth competition lift. Train it hard and heavy, even go so far as to try to set new 1-rep maxes on a regular basis. Now, I realize that rows and most other upper body pulling movements just aren’t well-suited for heavy loads and low reps.
The biomechanics of rows, pull-ups and pulldowns are such that it’s exceptionally hard to use good technique through a full range of motion once the weight gets really heavy. No matter how strong and how technically sound you may be, it’s damn near impossible to keep strict form once you get around the 5-rep mark or fewer.
Unlike a pressing movement where the strength curve is such that the movement gets easier toward the end of the concentric phase, pulling movements get HARDER at the same point. It’s tough to load the fully-contracted position properly if the weight is heavy and your technique is sloppy.
And while I think many lifters view the barbell row as more of a “strength” exercise than a “hypertrophy” one, I’m not sure that it has significant carryover to the main lifts, especially done with the heave-ho, grip-and-rip approach that you see most lifters use.
I now prefer lifters to stay within the 8-12 rep range with rows and maintain strict form. Better yet, most of the rows I prescribe are chest-supported or done on a seated cable row machine.
Curls
For the same reason as rows, the strength curve of a biceps curl just doesn’t jive with heavy weights. And given that it’s too easy for the shoulders and lower back to take over the movement, curls are best done with lighter weights, letting a controlled tempo and high reps drive the difficulty.
From a powerlifting specificity standpoint, curls have no direct carryover to any of the big lifts. However, big arms create more cross-sectional area under the bar while benching, which I believe to be very important. Similar to the hamstrings contacting the calves in the squat, I believe that when the biceps contact the forearm as you lower the bar during the bench press, it creates added stability and control of the bar path, which can make or break a heavy bench attempt.
Training your biceps through a full range of motion in both fully supinated (palm up) and pronated (palm down) positions can preserve elbow and shoulder health. These motions are underrated for getting into a good back squat position, and I’d rather do curls than rotator cuff exercises, so take that for what it’s worth.
I like to prescribe curls for even higher reps – at least 12 reps per set and as high as 30. Chase the pump. Split the skin. Save the elbows.
Lunges/Split Squats
There was a time when I trained team sport athletes and a lunge or split squat was often the main lower body strength movement instead of squats. My heart was in the right place. Squats are notoriously hard to learn, and many athletes have orthopedic limitations in their hips, knees, ankles or lower back that make squatting a poor choice when “do no harm” is the mantra. And while sport specific training is a gigantic crock of shit, most athletes spend more time in split-stance and single-leg stances than in deep bilateral squats.
It wasn’t the exercise selection that was the problem. It was the loading protocol. In hindsight, prescribing lunges and split squats for heavy sets of 3-5 reps per leg is borderline reckless. The number of times I’ve seen athletes nearly eat shit or roll an ankle trying to get in position for a lunge or split squat gives me heart palpitations. Nothing like blindly exploring your surroundings trying to find a bench behind you for Bulgarian split squats or a box in front of you for step-ups with a couple hundred pounds on your back or in the front rack position.
Now when I prescribe lunges and split squats, I try to keep the loads light to moderate in the 6-12/side range, maybe even higher reps in a “finisher” scenario. But I also try to decrease the balance demands whenever possible by adding in hand support such as Hatfield variations or simply holding onto a squat rack while holding the weight in the opposite hand.
Light is Right
Supposedly there’s a time and place for everything, but for these exercises, I no longer see utility in prescribing them heavy for the lifters I coach. I try to keep an open mind and continually evolve as a coach, so perhaps someday in the future I’ll come back around, but for now, when I write these exercises into programs, I’m keeping the weights lighter for better execution and improved risk-to-reward ratio.