Over the past few weeks I've gotten back into lifting, holy crap so many ppl have bad form. I'm not saying I've mastered the art of lifting and know everything there is to know. But most of the guys I see lifting have horrible form. Using super heavy weights but only doing about half a rep. The worst seem to be using dumbbells for chest exercises, especially incline. Is it just me or does anyone else notice this?

All. The. Time.

Poor range of movement and down right shitty form is e everywhere. We got a dbag at the gym that "squats" 495 but doesn't do 315 as well as I do. Yeah, he uses the pussy pad from the very start too.

I'm not real sure what your talking about with the dumbbells though. Typically those lead to better form and less weight but maybe I'm not quite following along real well.

There is one guy especially I notice that does incline dumbbell presses who uses a lot of weight. Problem is he only does like a half a rep.

My out-of-town gym has a townie that I've watched for many weeks do dips with a weight belt.  Every week he straps on a 45 and 25..  He gets on the dip machine and without exaggeration, leaves his arms locked out and kicks his feet like he's a dolphin.  His arms never move but he strains as if he's doing dips and kicks, his feet go up and down with his head bobbing forward to the motion of his kicking feet, but his arms never change lock.  

The first few times I gave him the benefit and thought maybe he was working lockout, but I've watched him do this same thing every Tuesday night for the last 6 months.

Maybe he's trying to get taller.

Frequently
its their business, we all have different goals

Well...sort of...I mean, yes it's their business but unless one's goal is to waste time, doing 1/4 reps isn't going to help anyone regardless if those goals are to lose weight, get stronger etc...

 

When I was going to a gym I would see it often.  It really isn't any of my business unless they are doing curls in the squat rack.  If that was the case, I may tell them they are doing squats in a completely wrong manner.
 

I'm sure he will still be at that half rep next year also

That's analogous to how my mom was doing "pushups" until recently. She demonstrated for me and it consisted of starting in a plank position, kind of slumping down while slightly bending her arms, then de-slumping to the start position.



I showed her how to stand a foot or two from the wall and bend her arms to touch her head to the wall pushup-style but with far less weight. Then once she can do that perfectly for a lot of reps she can move back a few inches to make it harder, and so on. Maybe someday she'll be able to do a proper pushup on the floor but in any case going against a wall and eventually a countertop with good form while actually bending her arms and holding her body straight (and not rushing through the rep) will do her a lot of good.



She's 72 years old and because many of her contemporaries (including my dad) rarely get off the recliner she's gotten too much reinforcement about her sloppy half-assed workouts being "not bad for an old lady" or whatever. Even in classes down at the gym supposedly run by fitness trainers. I'm trying to convince her that anyone at any level of fitness will do better by doing things right.

I actually love to see those folks in the gym with poor form and committing all the "No No's" of training because it means "More Business, More Money" for us in Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Physical Therapy/Surgery.