Proper Form for Proper Results

As I rounded the corner coming out of the locker room, I see a kid on the bench press.  He weighs about 160 pounds, but apparently he’s stronger than he looks; his bar is loaded with 275 pounds and he clearly has no need for a spotter.  He goes to work, gripping the bar nice and tight he thrusts the weight up a bit, locks his arms out, pauses for a couple of seconds, then drops the weight about 4 inches toward his chest, pushes the weight up with the fury and flailing of a trapped animal, then locks his arms again at the start position.  He is working out alone, but apparently still quite aware of his surroundings.  After 2 reps, he returns the weight to the rack, then sits up and looks around to see who noticed.  My initial reaction was to feel a bit of pity for the guy.  He struggles with the weight, looking fairly foolish, yet he’s clearly aware of his surroundings so he is probably embarrassed...  But then I see the look on his face, and the kid is pumped!  He was so proud of himself for moving that weight that he probably posted it on a social networking site or two.  You see, there is a certain pride with being able to lift the weight that the big guys lift.  I know the feeling; my father and older brother have been the big guys in the gym since I can remember.  They instilled something in me at a young age that has saved me much wasted time, embarrassment and prevented injuries.  They showed me that proper form is absolutely necessary when you work out.

What are You Talking About?

I can see the blank stares on some of your faces.  You have no idea what I’m talking about do you?  Well allow me to explain what I mean by proper form.  Every exercise in the gym was designed to work one or several muscles, even several muscle groups.  To get the most out of each set and each rep, you have to concentrate the movement on the muscles that the exercise was designed to work.  Let’s take everyone’s favorite, the bench press.  The bench press is a basic movement designed to work the chest (pectorals), shoulders (deltoids) and triceps.  Generally, you should grip the bar with hands about shoulder width, shoulder blades squeezed together to flatten the back, back relatively flat on the bench and the buttock flat on the bench.  The weight should be slowly lowered to the chest, stopped at the chest and then pushed back up in a controlled motion, only stopping momentarily at the top before the weight is returned to the chest.  But what you tend to see is arching backs, shaking arms and the weight only coming within about a foot of the chest.  The arching back is caused by the body trying to decrease the range of motion and to turn the exercise into a decline bench press, which tends to be easier for many people.  The arms are shaking because they are not able to control the weight that is being held.  The reason for the short range of motion is clear; there is less work that needs to be performed.  But if you can lift more weight by doing these things, isn’t that a good thing?  Simply put no, but allow me to explain.

The Time Factor

We work out with weights in order to make our muscles grow and/or get stronger.  If you are working with poor form, you are using peripheral muscles to do the work that was intended to work a very specific muscle or group of muscles.  So essentially, you are wasting your time if you use poor form because you are not maximizing the work performed by the intended muscles.  Back arching when you do the bench press, for instance, uses the core muscles to shorten the range of motion that the arms have to perform.  The problem is that the bench press is not a core exercise.  By shortening the range of motion, you also are not working the muscle fully, not allowing it to grow to its potential or causing it to grow unevenly.  Many of you have seen people in the gym who have biceps that are huge up closer to the shoulder, but flat down toward the elbow.  When the weight is being lowered after a rep, some tend to only let the weight drop down about half way before they curl it back up again.  This is not the full range of motion for the bicep; instead you are isolating the upper portion of the bicep, causing the upper bicep to grow faster than the lower portion.  When you work out with poor form, you will often draw the attention of other in the gym.

The Embarrassment

Whether you know it or not, people are watching you when you work out.  This shouldn’t make you nervous; it’s quite normal for people to glance around between sets.  And naturally, if one sees something interesting, it may catch and hold their attention for a few moments.  So when you are a fairly skinny guy, but you have as much weight on the bar as someone twice your size would, you’re going to draw some attention to yourself.  If you get on the bar dips machine and you do a reverse shoulder shrug, not bending the elbows at all, more attention.  When you slouch forward to start a bicep curl, only to throw your upper torso backward in an attempt to finish the curl, even more attention.  Unfortunately, it is often the same guy or gal who does all 3 of these things.  Because it is difficult to watch yourself work out, the only person in the gym who doesn’t notice your poor form is you. 

When you lift more weight than you can comfortably control, you are lifting too much weight.  The only people who are impressed by feats of strength accompanied by bad form are the other high school kids that you go to school with.  Experienced lifters are not impressed and they are probably a little irritated that you have commandeered all of the 45 pound plates in the general vicinity.  They are far more impressed by someone who has very strict form, regardless of the weight.  Very strict form can only happen if you are working with amounts of weight that you can control.  The big guys in the gym are not sitting around waiting to make fun of people with bad form; but many of them have learned why good form is necessary the hard and painful way.

Bad Form = Bad Injury

When you lift above your means, you greatly increase your chances of being injured.  Large or small, injuries are no good.  Tearing a muscle can be a very painful experience, tearing a tendon can require surgery and several months of recovery time.  By lifting with poor form and lifting too heavy, you tend to work or even overwork muscles at unnatural angles.  At these angles muscles are very weak and they simply can’t support each other or the surrounding connective tissue during the motion.  The result can be a muscle or connective tissue tear, which can take weeks or even months to heal.  Strength enhancers (steroids or others) have been known to cause similar injuries because they cause the muscles to grow faster and stronger than the connective tissue.  When you lift more weight than your tendons can support, the results can be catastrophic injury.

Conclusion

If you lift with poor form, whether it’s because you try to lift too much weight or you just haven’t learned how to lift properly, you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage.  You simply won’t grow as efficiently as you could, which will hold you back from being able to comfortably lift the big weights one day.  While you look like you think you rule the gym because you can improperly bench 315, you may have several people looking at you laughing inside.  Experienced lifters are well aware that the weight comes secondary to form and arching your back and kicking your legs as you bench press looks funny to spectators, even if you do get the weight up.  The worst thing about poor form is that you greatly increase your chances of being injured.  Suck up your pride and ask either a personal trainer or someone from your gym who has good form to show you how to do an exercise properly.  You may be pleasantly surprised at how willing people are to help; additionally, you will save yourself a lot of time, shame and pain.