How To Stop Locking Your Elbows and Knees During Workouts

Most of us have been taught to move through a full range of motion while performing resistance exercises such as squats, pushups, and pullups. Going through a full range of motion (a.k.a. moving as far as anatomically possible) during an exercise is important for giving the muscles a more robust workout.

However, if you take this advice literally and you do happen to go all the way up and all the way down during an exercise, you risk locking or completely straightening your elbows and knees, which can increase the risk of injuries and hinder fitness gains. 

I frequently observe this common strength training mistake made by newbies and gym buffs alike. The good news is that this mistake is easy to avoid and being aware of why it happens will help make it less common. 

Why locking your elbows or knees is so common

While locking your elbows or knees during exercises like pushups, pullups, chest presses, shoulder presses, squats, leg presses, and knee extensions is a problem, it’s actually super common for three reasons:

1. Habit: Most of us have been taught to go through a full range of motion while exercising. I’m sure most of you recall a gym teacher, sports coach, or trainer getting on your case at some point for not going all the way up and all the way down while performing an exercise. For me, it was a couple of Marine Corps drill instructors screaming “lock out your elbows recruit” in each of my ears while performing pullups and pushups. 

2. Enthusiasm: Experienced weightlifters know that your lifting performance improves when you’re psyched up right before and during the lift. By going into what some would call “beast mode”, you can lift more weight for more repetitions than normal. You’re also more prone to locking out your elbows or knees while lifting with increased enthusiasm.

3. Fatigue: Another common reason why people lock the elbows or knees during strength training is because of muscle fatigue. Locking transfers all the weight from the muscles to the joints, which provides the muscles a...

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