Proper exercise form matters. Here’s why: When you were a kid, someone somewhere along the way told you to sit up straight. No doubt it was irritating but if you’re one of the 130 million Americans who spend most of their jobs sitting in an office chair, you’re probably starting to realize why “bad posture” is so bad.

We’re not going to rail on bad posture because we’d be preaching to the choir. In fact, you’re probably sitting up straighter right now. Your body is learning and adapting to your behavior every second of every day. The more your body moves (or sits still) with bad form, the more your brain and body believe that this “wrong” way is actually the right way. You also know that bad habits are hard to break.

What Is Form and Why Is It Important?

When we say form or technique we’re talking about more than good posture. Form means that you’re moving your body in such a way that your muscles are all doing their own jobs — and none of them need to call for backup from an unrelated muscle group. In other words, good form means using the smallest possible number of muscles and using them the correct way.

In other words, you wouldn’t use a hammer to turn a screw, why would you want to use a muscle in a less than optimal way?

Common Example – Spine Erectors Who Think They are Biceps

If you’re performing a straight bicep curl and your arms are getting weak by the tenth rep, the rest of your body might try to help you out. Specifically, it might start to recruit some of your lower back muscles (spinal erectors) for those last few inches of rep or even worse, another 2 or 5 reps. Your body means well, its just trying to help get the job done. It doesn’t know any better; it just wants to get the job done. And it might not do any harm the first few times. But over time, the damage starts to show.

As you reinforce this poor bicep curl again and again, your back muscles learn that they’re part of your “bicep curl team.” Heck, they’re helping out! But in the future, when you try to lift a heavier weight, your back muscles will realize, they’re not made for bicep curls. OUCH! Ultimately, this risks overload and injury to your back.

How To Train “Proper Exercise Form”

To do an exercise correctly, it’s not enough to do what feels right. Lets be real, what feels right is probably wrong, especially if you’re a beginner. You need to do your research, and you need someone (hopefully knowledgeable) to give you feedback on how the movement looks. We recommend talking to us because this (among countless other things) is what we are trained to do.

Once you feel comfortable and knowledgeable about what good form and technique is you’re ready to practice good form on your own. If that’s the case, here are two simple guidelines to help you keep your body balanced.

Form and Good Technique First – Then Reps

As you work out, pay attention to your form. How does it stack up with what you know it should be? If you start to sense your form breaking down, stop. Switch gears. Do a different exercise or change to a lower resistance or weight. If you don’t, you’re only teaching your body bad habits that ultimately lead to imbalance and injury.

You can pay attention to your form as a mindful exercise too. If you can reach a state of Zen and teach your muscles better habits at the same time as improving your body and health, more power to you!

Make Time For Functional, Low Resistance Exercises And Work Your Full Range Of Motion

One of the biggest benefits of training with a knowledgeable personal trainer like us is that we know multiple ways and varieties to train your muscles. It’s just like when you learned to write as a kid. You didn’t need a 12-pound pencil to ingrain the strokes for the letters “A-Z” in your muscle memory. All you needed was to repeat the motion again and again, and you got better.

That’s what happens when you train movements with a resistance band, body weight, light free weights, or even a variety of machines. You’re not pushing your muscles to the limit; rather, you’re going through the motions with just the right amount of “pushback” to build stability and solidify your muscle memory. This makes the motion faster, stronger, and smoother.