Ronnie Coleman and the Cost of Redemption

OK, I’m watching this video and I gotta ask about his technique…

  • Why does it always seem like he’s doing massive cheating on every lift? Lots of body swaying and the like.

  • Also, why doesn’t he use a full range of motion? Seems if he’s not cheating the weight, he’s using abreviated motion.

If you’ve seen this video, you know what I’m talking about. This isn’t a stab at the guy, he’s as big as a horse. I work out at home so don’t see how this stuff is done at a gym.

[quote]garagedoor79 wrote:
OK, I’m watching this video and I gotta ask about his technique…

  • Why does it always seem like he’s doing massive cheating on every lift? Lots of body swaying and the like.

  • Also, why doesn’t he use a full range of motion? Seems if he’s not cheating the weight, he’s using abreviated motion.

[/quote]

…because it works.

Once you know, and use, immaculate form… then you get to cheat.

he’s basically using whats technically known as the EROM - effective range of motion. He’s obviously a knowledgeable bloke and knows his shit. It looks sloppy at times, but overload is key and he’s hiting it.

In my gym i see all these guys doin superstrict form and everything else in the rule book and 90% of them are small and weak.
On the other side of the coin i see massive guys using shithouse form with massive weights and guess what they are huge.

So as a previous poster said he uses loose from with huge weight becasue “it works”

Cheers

K of K

I’ve seen two of Ronnie’s videos (unbelievable and cost of redemption) and while his form isn’t picture perfect it’s far from being “sloppy” or “bad”. Ronnie’s technique is more like a constant pumping action, but he is moving the iron through a substantial range of motion.

The only thing I can tell about his form is that he doesn’t really lock out on his presses - but he does go all the way down - and he could probably go a bit deeper on the squats- but he’s still pretty much going to parallel, and at the weight he’s pushing (and for reps!!) it’s still amazing.

I think a distinction has to be made.

Most of the mooks who use “shitty” form use it as a justification to stroke the ego and front like they can push more weight than they can actually handle. They use half-reps to push more weight than they can actually handle, because you know if that weight touches the chest it isn’t coming back up. At my gym the big crimes are only going down half way on bench presses (basically an imaginary board press) or maybe going down to just above the top of the head on overhead presses, and of course to the guys that actually squat doing 1/4 squat partials. But whatever, that’s why those muppets will never get big.

All the really big mofo’s at my gym use a rather full range of motion like Ronnie does.

Other posters already hit on it.

Figured I’d toss my 2 cents in by saying that no matter what he does watching the man is just entertaining.

From his making grits to his squats.

That southern accent he’s got is great too.

Fella hails from the great state of Louisiana so it’s a familiar thing down in the dirtay souf for me.

OK, got it guys. Yeah, the boy is big. REALLY BIG! Pressing 2250 with his legs, I mean, c’mon! He used up all 4 pegs with plates on the sled AND it looked like that one guy had to babysit the one peg to keep the plates on the peg - that’s crazy. I kept waiting for the blondes in bikini’s to come out the back room and sit on the sled for extra weight.

To the people here who haven’t seen it, that’s 18 45’s per side and I didn’t catch it so I could be wrong, an extra 8 35’s per side up top??? Staggering.

Interesting you bring up effective range of motion as I’ve been thinking a bit about it ever since reading about it here on T-Nation. Can’t remember the author but it’s the one about the rep + half on bench with pics, the lateral raise, the butterfly, credit goes to him. If most of the work is being done by the muscle group I want to hit in that range, then why am i busting my butt pressing it all the way out? Again, since I work out in my basement, I’ve got no way of comparing until I see vid’s like this. And yeah, when I see the big guys on TV they all work out like Ronnie, where as my skinny ass keeps as strict as I can and I’m just a skinny ass. Time to change it up.

yeaaaaaaaaaa babbbbbbbbbay!!!
Lightweight!

[quote]King of Kings wrote:
In my gym i see all these guys doin superstrict form and everything else in the rule book and 90% of them are small and weak.
On the other side of the coin i see massive guys using shithouse form with massive weights and guess what they are huge.[/quote]

Exactly. Most people who bitch constantly about form are tiny and weak, and think that I can only bench twice what they because my form isn’t picture perfect.

It’s just an excuse that people use, “I could lift as much as that guy if my form was that bad” etc.

[quote]Professor X wrote:
garagedoor79 wrote:
OK, I’m watching this video and I gotta ask about his technique…

  • Why does it always seem like he’s doing massive cheating on every lift? Lots of body swaying and the like.

  • Also, why doesn’t he use a full range of motion? Seems if he’s not cheating the weight, he’s using abreviated motion.

…because it works.[/quote]

You know, i could really care less about competitive BB anymore but I have to say Ronnie is so far out in front of everyone else it is ridiculous. That does not mean his technique is the best for everyone but it works for him.

The secret’s not in the form, but the massive weight.

Also, I think that most people covered that his form isn’t actually sloppy, just different.