Do Cheaters Prosper in the Gym?

Do Cheaters Prosper in the Gym?
When it comes to lifting weights, strict form is often preached as the golden rule. But what if a little momentum—a slight “cheat”—could help you grow more muscle?
New research suggests that a little extra momentum won’t hurt your muscle building in the gym — as long as you’re still doing full range of motion and pushing hard. 
Researchers divided participants into two groups: one that performed upper-body resistance exercises with strict form and another was allowed to use more body language (think leaner forward and swinging your hips and elbows on biceps curls). Over a training period, both groups followed identical volume and intensity recommendations
Both groups saw increases in muscle hypertrophy, with no significant difference between those who lifted strictly and those who did “cheat reps.”
On paper, this all makes sense. Research suggests that a key driver of muscle growth is total mechanical tension and pushing your body near failure. The “hard reps” help push your muscles to grow, so as long as you’re maintaining high intensity, prioritizing tension, and pushing near failure, muscle growth should be similar. 
But that doesn’t tell the entire story. The cheat rep group — as you might expect — was able to perform more reps and complete more total volume. In fact, they did nearly twice the volume as the strict group, and yet muscle gain was similar. 
So while cheat reps didn’t prevent muscle growth, it also didn’t lead to more muscle growth. So those extra reps without good form not only didn’t have an additional benefit, but it’s possible that cheating could lead to a higher likelihood of injury.
The best approach to training is focusing on a full range of motion and good form. But if you need to cheat, just because sure it’s strategic so that excessive momentum does not remove tension from the target muscle, which can reduce effectiveness.