Every day I see people risk injury, throwing their form out the window in order to do a more impressive exercise or lift more weight. If you’re reading this article, I urge you…”Don’t try to be a hero! Treat your body right!”
Exercise form is always more important than exercise glory. I respect your competitive drive that inspires you to do that difficult exercise with too much weight. I just think you should use that competitive drive to dedicate yourself to using perfect form on all of your exercises.
So what do I mean by “perfect form?” The word “form” is thrown around the gym all the time, but most people don’t even know what it means. In my opinion form means that 2 things are going one, no matter what exercise you are doing. Number one, you have perfect posture. And number two; you are activating the right muscle groups.
Perfect posture means that your body is lined up the way it should be. You’re not bending your back and you’re not rounding your shoulders. If you want to do a quick “posture check” ask yourself if your head, shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles are all in line. Obviously, if you’re doing an exercise that requires you to bend your knees you won’t have your ankles lined up, but in most cases the other four “kinetic chain checkpoints” should be.
Muscle activation is the element of perfect form that most people don’t know about….because you often can’t see it! With every exercise you need to train your body to activate the muscle groups that will allow you to do the exercise most effectively. I’ll use the squat as an example. If you’re performing a squat, your glutes should be “activated.” In other words, your glutes should be doing more work than any other muscle group. If your glutes are “underactive” you will likely be putting a lot of stress on your knees or lower back and your chances of getting injured will go through the roof!
If you’re doing an exercise and you’re not sure what the “perfect form” is, ask a trainer. That’s what they’re there for!
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