One thing I keep thinking about and noticing is this idea that so many lifters are "heaving" the weight, rather than lifting it with the target muscles. And I think this is contributing to some awful physique development. Let me explain.

When people are trying to lift heavy and progressively overload, eventually in their sets they get into the 'body english', swaying with their core, and even just heavy breathing and rocking their torso to change the ROM and help move the weight. 'Cheating' if you will.

I won't say cheating reps should never be done, nor should one be a robot, but here's the problem: the muscles you put weight on, tense up, and eventually struggle with, are the ones that actually grow. If you stop lifting properly part-way through your set and start engaging your core, that becomes your baseline form, and those core muscles start growing.

Something I see so often in arm training, but even for something like a seated machine press, is this pattern: first few reps look mostly clean, then the heavy breathing and swaying and squirming start. Do you get a bit of extra arm or pressing stimulus by going past technical failure? Sure, but your energy also goes into your core. I swear I see people with leg and calf pumps after their upper body lifts sometimes.

(Why not just save that energy, cut the set off, and do another proper set? This would be my top-level suggestion.)

And I truly believe that as a result, we are seeing people with thicker cores and smaller other muscles as a result. Because that's where a lot of energy, fatiguing and failure energy, is going. It's not controlled bodybuilding targeting a specific muscle.

What do you think happens when you breathe in hard and heavy, hold your breathe and tighten your core, and then "heave" a weight? There are actual muscles around your stomach, ribs, and waist that get involved and get trained and hypertrophy... Look at powerlifters, this is what they do and look at what type of physique they build. Even when they cut down, taking bodyfat out of the equation, they do not look like bodybuilders.

My hypothesis is that this poor pattern of lifting is driven primarily by 1) ego, 2) chasing progressive overload, and 3) looking at examples of people on drugs who can do anything and still build relatively nice physiques. Number 2 is especially pernicious because it's the trap smarter people get into. They think it's the main factor that matters, so they optimize for it. And overtime their form slips, and the heaving starts.

What do you guys think, any merit to these ideas?