“That Isn’t Efficient For Me”
I hear this all the time in the gym. Often this is the extent of their explanation. The phrase “that is not efficient for me” is fine. I have no issues with it as I understand where it is coming from and why some things are efficient for some people but not for others based on genetics (most of the time) or other factors. Is that actually true? Let’s look into this a little further. For the below information I am not referring to circumstances like rare joint/structure deformities, some post-surgery lifting techniques etc.
I will often think, “Why?” when someone tells me that this works for them. Is it because it feels comfortable? The bar moves faster? Reduces pain? Or some other reason? You should always have an answer to this. Most of the time people say it feels more comfortable. Should that be reason enough to claim that something is better for you? Short answer: No. I have had clients that feel more comfortable benching with the majority of the weight on their left/right side. No matter how uncomfortable it is benching with the bar shared evenly between the arms, it will always be more efficient to do so. There might need to be an initial adjustment period.
The same goes for “it reduces my pain”. This alone is not a good enough excuse in most cases. Let’s say someone has hip pain in the low bar squat, but not the high bar squat. They might just do high bar and say low bar is better for them as it does not hurt their hip. That might also be correct at that point in time. Although they might be able to do a low bar squat pain-free with a few adjustments to technique and some warm-up adaptations. Then low bar will allow them to lift more weight.
“The bar moves faster” is another one to be careful of. Let’s say you have reduced your training days post strength block and your body is primed to lift heavy. On this day to move your grip for bench 2 inches on each hand and it feels good, what you have here is a correlation, not causation. Let’s pretend in this situation that it moves really well. You have correlated nice moving bench press with moving hands in and might now claim that this new grip is what is best for you. In actual fact the decreased fatigue and being primed to lift heavyweight in the weeks prior was the majority contributor to the weight moving well. Also, does the bar move faster the entire way or just off the floor/chest/out of the bottom of the squat.
People (including myself) will make the above mistakes when they do not understand the situation or do not have the knowledge to understand it in the near future. Let’s take a deadlift bar path that has the bar starting well in front of midfoot. The bar is very far forward and will likely add effort in order to get the bar back to centred over the middle of the foot. The lifter will say that the bar being over mid-foot is not efficient for me. Is that true? I would personally look at it from an objective mindset first. Not that it feels better but that it will be more efficient to get the weight up this way or that way. In this situation, if someone has a short shin, long femur, short torso and short arms, they will likely have an extremely horizontal back with the bar starting from mid-foot. It might actually be more efficient for that person to put the bar slightly in front of midfoot in order to have a more upright torso and prevent added flexion under load. Those sorts of people are more rare than common and so it is not something I would apply to most people.
It can also depend on how far the bar is in front of midfoot. 1 inch? Over the toenails? How excessive is the form inefficiency? Usually, large form inefficiencies are just wrong and need to be fixed and small ones can have some more justification. If this is you and you have said that, ask yourself, is this actually more efficient for me and why? If you can answer those questions from a point of non-bias objectivity and science, then you are likely correct. If you can only resort to subjective responses, you are likely wrong or just unsure as to why it feels comfortable to you or reduces pain levels.
Next time you hear someone say those words, “This is/isn’t efficient for me”. Make sure you ask them why that is, pay attention to their response and analyse why they say what they say.
Remember physics (which is very much what lifting is) is an objective subject and I believe it takes priority over subjective opinions.
