The Mistake That is RUINING Your Lifts! | Never Do This Again
/
Stop making this mistake when you're lifting. New lifters commit this error regularly, and to be fair, even experienced lifters make this mistake once in a while.
The Problem
What mistake are we talking about? The error of misloading the barbell. Let’s quickly address two things - first, how to notice the problem when it happens (and the sooner the better), and second, how to ideally prevent it from happening in the first place.
How to Notice a Misload: Version #1
Suppose you’re preparing for your squat work sets - they’re going to be challenging, and you really don’t want to end up squatting the wrong weight. If you’re training with a buddy, an ideal approach is to ask him to do a “bar math” check. Don’t tell your pal what the weight is supposed to be - simply ask him to do the math and tell you the answer. By not telling him what the weight is supposed to be, you haven’t biased his calculations, and if you both arrive at the same number, you’ve probably got the bar loaded correctly.
If, on the other hand, you arrive at different numbers, then you know you’ve got some double-checking to do before you start to squat.
How to Notice a Misload: Version #2
It’s ideal to catch the misload before it happens, but more commonly, you’ll notice a misload after you’ve already lifted it.
For example, you plan on squatting 155 lb, and you’ve already got 135 lb loaded up (i.e., the 45 lb bar and one 45 lb plate on each side). You think to yourself, “I need 20 lb more to get to 155, so I need two 10 lb plates,” and then you proceed to absentmindedly add two 10 lb plates to each side of the bar, resulting in a total weight of 175 lb instead of the desired 155 lb.
You might survive the set or you might fail, but the end result is that the set is much tougher than you had anticipated. On the flip side, you might unknowingly underload the bar, in which case you notice that the set was easier than expected.
Either way, it’s these thoughts - the realization that “Hmm, that was way tougher than it should have been” or “Man, that was a piece of cake!” - that should alert you to double check the weight on the bar.
Sometimes, of course, you’re just having a rough day, in which case suck it up Buttercup - that’s the weight on the bar, and you’re going to keep squatting it. On the other hand, you might be having a great day, in which case go ahead and celebrate the fact that things are moving so well.
However, quite often, these realizations occur because you’ve misloaded the bar, so always double check in these situations.
How to Prevent a Misload: What NOT To Do
Preventing a misload has everything to do with how you go about doing your bar math, i.e., how you mentally add the plates onto the bar.
Do NOT do the math “one-plate-at-a-time.” For example, you’ve got 135 lb loaded, and you’re adding a 25 lb plate to each side. Don’t mentally add 25 lb to 135 lb to get 160 lb as you load one side of the bar and then add another 25 lb to 160 lb to get 185 lb as you load the other side. You might get it right, but you very well might get it wrong as this method is quite likely to cause errors (for reasons the math teacher in me would love to dive into . . . but won’t for now).
How to Prevent a Misload: Smash-and-Add
Instead, perform the math as “smash-and-add.” That is, mentally combine the two 25 lb plates together first (mentally “smashing” them together) to get 50 lb - a very nice number which kindly ends in a zero. Then, simply add that 50 lb to your 135 lb to get 185 lb.
Likewise, if you’ve got 95 lb on the bar and you’re adding a 10 lb plate on each side, don’t add one 10 lb plate to get 105 lb and then add the other 10 lb plate to get 115 lb. Instead, it’s easier to mentally add the 10 lb plates together first to get 20 lb, and then add that 20 lb to your 95 lb to get 115 lb.
We’ve seen both of these methods in action thousands of times over years of coaching, and the smash-and-add method creates far fewer errors than the one-plate-at-a-time method.
As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)