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Technique Tuesday: Slow Down the First Rep
You ever watch someone rush into their first rep like they’re late for a meeting? Bar drops, knees cave, chest collapses—and now every rep after that is just damage control.
Here’s the truth: your first rep sets the tone for everything that follows.
It’s not just a warm-up rep.
It’s a blueprint.
Most injuries and poor movement patterns don’t come from the last rep when you’re tired… they start on rep one—when you’re careless.
When you rush that first movement, your body defaults to whatever pattern is easiest—not what’s correct. That’s when you see hips shooting up, backs rounding, shoulders shrugging. And once that pattern starts, your body repeats it over and over.
Garbage in… garbage out.
But when you slow that first rep down, everything changes.
You create awareness.
You establish control.
You lock in the movement pattern you actually want.
Think about it like this—if you can’t control it slow, you don’t own it fast.
How to Own Your First Rep:
Set your position before you.
Grip, stance, posture—get tight.
Take the slack out
Whether it’s a squat, hinge, or press—feel tension before motion
Move with intention, not speed
Control the descent, own the bottom, drive with purpose
Feel the right muscles working
If it feels off on rep one, fix it immediately
That first rep should be your cleanest, most intentional rep of the entire set.
Because once you nail that…
the rest of the set has something to follow.
Slow it down. Lock it in. Then go to work.
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