🏋️‍♂️ 5 squat mistakes killing your progress

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Here’s what is in store for today:

• Dana Linn Bailey talks about drop sets

• 5 common squat mistakes (and how to fix them)

• How pre-workout can make you itchy

Workouts

Drop a Dime on It

Among the most famous triple-named women in the 21st century, Dana Linn Bailey surely has the greatest understanding of training for hypertrophy. While showing off a back workout in a recent YouTube video, DLB went in-depth on the relative merits of drop sets and talked about whether they are worth it in general.

(In short: Drop sets are an intensity technique that has a lifter perform one set for a particular number of reps, drop the weight by 10 to 20 percent, and immediately perform another set.)

While Bailey is a staunch defender of drop sets, it’s important to dive into the science to see if there’s merit behind her claims. And that’s exactly what we do in the article below.

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Exercise Tips

Squat Missteps

Thanks to the internet and a happy change in body imaging, more people than ever are squatting at the gym. The days of a dozen people queuing up to lift at the only squat rack in town have been replaced by gyms teeming with power racks and squat stands. What hasn’t changed, however, are these five mistakes countless people make while squatting.

The humorously named “butt wink” has made the rounds on the internet for almost an entire generation. While the term is thrown around, the epidemic of its happening (backside rounding under the body at the bottom) still remains one of the signature mistakes made on the squat. Knee collapse is just as common, if not as fun to say, and may be more readily cured by strengthening weak points and the adoption of proper form. 

The odds suggest you may be making one of these mistakes. Stay vigilant, learn from these mistakes, and keep squatting.

Nutrition

Skip the Itchy and Scratchy Show

You love the laser-like focus and Viking berserker intensity your pre-workout provides you with, but you may experience an uncomfortable itching sensation along with these more desirable effects. What’s the deal with that, anyway?

You don’t need to run to your old high school Health textbooks to find the answer — you just need the article below to understand why your pre-workout makes you itchy and find a plan to work around it.

Along with caffeine, beta-alanine is one of the most common ingredients in pre-workout powders. Beta-alanine can help you work out for longer with less fatigue, but unless you have specific allergies to something else in your shaker bottle, it is also the culprit behind the skin-crawling sensations you may feel. 

Just like bed bug bites are mostly benign aside from the annoyance of itching, this feeling isn’t necessarily the sign of anything intrinsically wrong. Also, like bed bugs, you probably still want to get rid of the itching more than anything in the world. Read up on beta-alanine and the simple steps you can take to feel smooth and secure after you quaff your pre-workout.

Everything Else

Learn the Ropes

• Requiring the small piece of equipment that could possibly fit into a gym bag and any small plot of level ground, these jump rope workouts designed with beginners in mind are the perfect starting place for “anytime” cardio.

• Stefi Cohen, record-holder powerlifter and professional boxer, has been arrested by the Miami Police Department. Get more details here.

• Bring your meal prep game up a notch with some help from IFBB Pro Sadik Hadzovic and the only three meals he thinks you need.