When is sacrificing form okay?

I doubt you will do yourself much damage with hammer curl no matter what the form was like, within reason.

If you are talking about squats and deadlifts etc, a true 1 rep max is almost never going to be a perfect looking rep.

I think perfect form is slightly overrated and a lot of people don't pull the kind of weights that they are capable of as they are too worried about minute details, although it's a fine line.

This is a pretty interesting video for example, discussing why tons of successful bodybuilders use what would be considered "bad" form on their rowing movements.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjTClwvt9LY

I agree about form being overrated.

Yes, when you're sub-maximal by a long way, you should expect to hit perfect form, however as you get heavier, it's about being within a safe range, rather than being picture perfect. As long as you're not risking injury, and you're not making the exercise completely pointless - for example if you were just using momentum on a curl, I see no problem.

Otherwise, why not pick up the heaviest weight you can lift and use the body to throw the weight up from the start?

That's what I do as a competitive sport!

For hammer curls? We're talking about form and hammer curls, not powerlifting.

For hammer curls? We're talking about form and hammer curls, not powerlifting.

No not for hammer curls, just the general concept.

However, even training hammer curls, it could be a valid technique, if you wanted to heave a weight you could not lift up, and then lower it under control. Just the same as any other negative really.

As for going down to the lighter weight- it's a 2 kg difference! Sure I can lift them with perfect form right to the end, and it takes no effort. It feels like I might as well go pick up the pink dolly weights and flap those about while I listen to Carly Rae Jepsen and laugh too loudly while talking on my phone.

That strategy will only work if the lighter dumbbells are pink, otherwise it's just a waste of time!


Ok, back to seriousness, that's a significant drop, I'd def stick with the heavier dumbbells.

I can't remember where I read it, it might have been NROL- the author talked about how form was overrated because different people just move differently because of how their bodies are, and it's better for them to move in a way that is natural to them.

I don't know If I agree, but the concept is interesting

I think it kind of depends how you look at it.

I agree in the sense that picture perfect form is only achievable in many movements by someone who has perfect proportions, so in reality there is a range of acceptability, which is safe and effective for most people.

However, I don't see that as just move however suits you, sometimes movement patterns need to be modified, to fall into the acceptable range, as people have developed bad movement patterns over time.

I can't remember where I read it, it might have been NROL- the author talked about how form was overrated because different people just move differently because of how their bodies are, and it's better for them to move in a way that is natural to them.

I don't know If I agree, but the concept is interesting

I think it kind of depends how you look at it.

I agree in the sense that picture perfect form is only achievable in many movements by someone who has perfect proportions, so in reality there is a range of acceptability, which is safe and effective for most people.

However, I don't see that as just move however suits you, sometimes movement patterns need to be modified, to fall into the acceptable range, as people have developed bad movement patterns over time.

Yep. That's how people ruin their backs picking up a book from the floor!

It's easy to get bogged down in semantics about what exactly "perfect form" means. I would want to know more information. Like what kind of "compromise" we are talking about, at what point in the set this is occurring, and why the person is compomising form to begin with.

I can think of a number of scenarios where compromised form might be OK--but it would also be important that the person lifting was doing it for a specific purpose. If someone was just slopping through some reps because the workout called for "x" number of reps that set and they were just trying to hit a number, then I think it is a waste of time and effort.

Someone else said that "the real work begins when you are tired". It seems to me that would argue in favor of maintaining form as long as possible, since you would want to do the highest quality movements during the time when they would have the most impact.

While there is no black/white answer, I would argue that for newbies/less experienced lifters, maintaining form and avoiding "sloppy" lifts is of higher importance.

personally I don't think you should compromise your form on anything unless it's an absolute max lift and form just breaks down.

I'm in this camp. With the caveat that by bad form here I mean you are not correctly doing the exercise. Just drop the last couple reps. In fact the problem you are describing is why I frequently hate dumbbells and kettlebells... The lower one won't challenge me and the upper one is bordering on too hard.

Like most of the others said, a max effort lift is okay to have slight break downs, but I hate when people say they set a squat PR but didn't actually break parallel, or their max bench comes no where near their chest. To me, you are only cheating yourself. I'd rather go all the way down and maybe bail. Also, I think it breeds more bad form if say next time you go in and are having a bad day, but since you got in all your reps this time, you feel you need to next time too and just have overtly ****ty form the whole time or something.

Also I think it depends on what the form break is. Potentially dangerous, like could hurt a rotator cuff or something? Don't do it. Movement in the wrist within your ROM, but just sloppy? Fine.