Keep Your Form Fit

Perhaps you've felt the temptation before. The gym bully gives you a hard time, and you want to do anything to get that extra weight up. So you jerk with your back on the dead-lift, or let the bar go every which way on the bench press, maybe not even touch your chest. Today I want to talk about the importance and benefits of good technique.

The biggest benefit of using good lifting technique is injury prevention. Most injuries in the gym are a result of either poor technique or improper warm-up. It won't matter if you get that extra 10 lbs if you hurt yourself and can't lift for 3 weeks. Using good technique will take stress off your joints, and bring you to the next benefit. It will also allow you to target the muscles you are trying to work. Muscles respond to a stimulus; if your technique is improper, they may be receiving less than optimal stimulation, and your results will be slowed down or stopped. Another benefit of using good technique is you will be using the same or nearly same movement pattern for every rep, allowing your body to know what to adapt to. Adaptation is how your body develops muscle and strength. You will train your nervous system to know the proper way to do an exercise, and after a while you won't even have to think about it.

You may have to lower the weight to achieve good form in the beginning, but in the long run and even short term your results will be better, and your joints will thank you.