Is This Lifting Form REALLY Bad? Lu Xiaojun Technique Review

Chinese Weightlifting 'Bodybuilding' Training is quite different to what you might expect to see. I break down what's happening and why it's useful.

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[Dalfio]

if an exercise causes you pain or discomfort, no matter how many say it's essential, there's always something that can be done in it's stead. Just ask yourself what your goals are and what you're training for. Sustainability is key

[Alex-rtpo]

I really thought this was an athleanx video when I clicked on it…

[davemckeague]

Ultimate specificity. 99.9% of gym goers will never need this kind of training, or understand it.

[dutyski]

Over years of learning, adjusting, adapting various programs. Real glad to see Eugene's take on this as context is very important and critical to lifting, especially when training with others. There's not a 1 size fits all program that gets everything people want. Rather to tailor it to whomever's comfort level and goals should be one of the more important parts when exercising consistently. Just because it works for you, doesn't mean it'll work for someone else. As long as you're targeting the main muscles with good form, tension, and purpose, the exercise shouldn't matter provided you're doing it safely. Barbells, machines, free weights all serve a purpose.

[dave_m]

hi, ex-WLer here. let's ot forget, in all those explanations, that we WLers DO NOT WANT too much muscle! Muscle weighs a lot, and we must maintain category weight ! so the aim of OUR bodybuilding work is NOT to gain muscle mass; it is to develop power (F x V = force times velocity) in certain "dead zones" of the compound lifts; so when you see a WLer doing fast rows, with a lot of momentum, IT IS INTENDED to mimic a pull - for the muscle in focus: here the rear delts, the traps and the lats - but without the whole systemic stress of having to pull a heavy bar from the floor, when we already work the legs and the back so much !! THAT's the main reason!

[CantFightRobots]

Really happy you're covering Lu Xiajun! become a big fan of his over the last few months and his strength is just incredible.

[rahulbeenime]

Lu when someone criticises his technique
.
"What colour is your Olympic Medal?"

[hsh]

This is totally out of my league but I couldn’t resist the challenge to watch to the end. I did manage to glean something useful for my own goals though so thank you for sharing your knowledge :)

[calebevans]

Great video. Love that you explored this nuance.
Also Lu Raises are killer for your shoulders. Thanks Lu

[taekonjudo]

If you look at Shohei Ono (2x Olympic gold medallist in Judo), he does dumbbell rows in exactly the same way as Lu is here, it is absolutely brilliant for training unilateral pulling power.

[NorThenX]

1:55 Pause. This is one of the most incredible lifts/recoveries i've ever seen. Guy is unbelievable

[lighthearthealth]

I love your matter of fact tone and rational review of this! I have seen some people in my gym doing lifting like this and definitely judged them. I don't think their technique is based upon this, but it gives me more room to allow different training styles, thank you!

[stephensteele]

Damn, Lu got those Asian aesthetics - he 40 but looks 20. And coach Eugene could probably pass for a high schooler lol I'm jealous.

[timothyjudge]

The context of what makes an exercise good or bad is crucial because herky jerky momentum based technique for Lu is indeed useful for his competition performance. Not only that, he has all the time in the world to train and specifically build his foundation to allow himself to successfully train the way he does. Jeff's videos about behind the head and neck presses and pulls aren't entirely wrong because civilians aren't training for global competition and aren't training in a way that supports those kinds of movements with such weight. It's a lot of work to be able to safely train that way even if you wanted to and at the end of day, they don't target muscles up there any better than regular presses and pull downs for those that just want to be generally strong and well developed.

[tylerpupo]

1:37 I've never seen lower back muscles so massive!

[jameshung]

As a huge weightlifting fan, I can't agree more with this video!

[djo-dji]

It's so fascinating to see how a great deal of ideas I was taught in the gym in the 1990s and 2000s are now considered either debatable or plain incorrect. I started realizing that in 2014 in Kazakhstan, while training with some serious local powerlifters who helped me making incredible progress at the age of 40yo.

[jurgen]

Important to separate the exercises that an olympic athlete like Lu does, to what an average joe is capable of. Which also is what Athlean X targets. I’ve had shoulder pain from those very exercises he mentioned, so doing alternative exercises with the same result is great.

[lompatin]

I've been avoiding this video until now, even though it's been appearing quite often, because I thought it was an Athlean-X video.

[Joanyan]

lu is a genetic phenom and been training insanely hard, avoiding the behind the neck stuff is mostly so that newer lufters don't get injured because they may not know the difference between pain and soreness, when you reach a higher level with your training and try them and they work then there's no reason not to do them