Why Proper Form When Lifting Weight Is Critical To Your Success

In the gym form is everything. If you don’t have it then your not a real bodybuilder and never will be. Your form, when you lift is critical to your fitness success and it could make the difference between you building muscle or just being labeled as a poser.

It also prevents excoriating injuries that could last for weeks, years, or your entire life, preventing you to ever lifting a weight again without pain involved. That is why form should be taken seriously to not only build muscle, but to also keep your body healthy.

Most of these injuries include damaged backs, shoulders, hips, neck, knees, and ankles. And most of the time it starts as a little pain that goes unnoticed and then one day you find yourself you can’t even do one rep of a certain exercise because the pain is unbearable.

Don’t let this happen to you. This usually happens because you may tear something and every time you do an exercise wrong, you leave the chance of tearing that ligament or whatever, even more.

Doing improper form could be something as simple as placing your hands an inch or two away from the right place. Or it could be the way your body is positioned or the muscles you use to push or pull the weight. Take note of all these factors, it is important and you should keep an eye on these things every time you workout.

The Reason Why I Like Mirrors

I love mirrors at the gym. Why? Because they are the perfect tool to tell me if I’m performing good form or not. I also like them to look at my muscles too….but that’s for a totally different reason.

Gyms usually will have all the walls completely covered in mirrors because it helps the people working out practice their form. You can see if there’s something that needs to be tweaked or if you are performing your repetitions too fast or too slow.

Even a simple mirror at home could make the difference between good and bad form. It also helps to bring along a friend to workout with, to spot you, and to also tell you if you are correctly performing a certain exercise.

The Three Main Tips When Lifting Weights

Tip #1 – Keep your back straight. For pretty much every weight lifting exercise, keeping your back straight is important. This is the most important because back injuries are probably the most common to beginner and novice weight lifters. And back injuries are the hardest to fix and in some cases untreatable.

So as you perform each weight lifting exercise keep your back straight. Obviously there are some instances where exercises are done where you must not keep your back straight, but for most of the conventional weight training exercises, this is a must.

Tip #2 – Focus only on the muscle where the exercise is supposed to target. For instance many weight lifters will use there legs when bench pressing. This usually is the case when a weight lifter isn’t experienced enough and puts on too much weight on, usually to show off at the gym.

When they notice that they can’t put the weight back up onto the rack, they arch there back and push with their legs. This could easily result in injury if not done properly. So only focus on the muscle where the exercise is intended to work.

Tip #3 – If you aren’t familiar with a certain exercise use the least amount of weight possible. This is because you don’t want to immediately put on weight to an exercise where you haven’t aloud your body to use muscle memory to perfect the exercise.

This will eventually lead to injury because you will get used to performing an exercise incorrectly and you won’t notice anything wrong. Once you are confident that you have good form with an exercise it is only then where you can play with the weight you are comfortable using.

5 Exercises That Most People Do Incorrectly

Squats – Squats are great because they workout most muscles in your body all at one time. This is great to increase your testosterone levels, which promote bigger muscles. But most people don’t know how to perform them correctly and it usually results in back pain.

From the ground up:

· Place your feet a little wider than hip length, pointing outward at a slight angle.
· Keep your back straight at all times with your bottom sticking out as you perform the exercise.
· Make sure you always keep your head looking forward without straining your neck.
· As you go down make sure you are bending your knees at lease a 90-degree angle, so that your hips are at the same height as your knees.

If you feel pain anywhere in your back then you probably aren’t doing them right.

Deadlift – This is a similar exercise to the squat and that is why people also do this exercise wrong.

· Place the barbell on the ground with your feet under the bar.
· Make sure your feet are about hip length.
· Hold onto the bar with your back straight and your head looking forward.
· As you bring the bar up keep your arms straight keeping the bar as close to your body as you can.
· Pull back your shoulders as you stand up, but not too much so that your shoulder blades pinch.
· As you bring the bar back down you should try to keep the bar as close to you as possible so that the bar hits your shins. Don’t put any strain on your hamstrings. This could lead to a hamstring pull.

Bent Over Row – Many people do this exercise incorrectly because they arch their back and don’t keep it parallel to the floor. You should also make sure that your head is looking forward at all times when doing this exercise.