3 Reasons Why Proper Form is So Important
You know that working out regularly and eating well are great long term habits to pursue. Well, the same is true when it comes to perfecting your form. Proper form is so important in helping you up your game and reach your goals more quickly.
Before we dive in, let’s recap the difference between technique and form. Technique is the way you perform an exercise in order to target specific muscle groups. For example, bench pressing with a close grip or wide grip are types of techniques used to target different muscles in your chest. Whereas, form is all about injury prevention. An example of good form would be not leaning back or using your neck to help lift the weight when you’re performing bicep curls.
Ok, so now we’re clear on the difference, here are 3 reasons why you should practice proper form.
1. Ensure you’re targeting the right muscles
Different exercises are designed to work your body in a specific way. For example, the aim of a squat is to primarily work your quads and glutes. However, performing exercises with bad form can stress other parts of the body and takes stress off the muscles it should be targeting. This can result in a less effective workout and also increases the likelihood of injury, which brings me on to reason number 2.
2. Avoid injuries
This comes up time and time again but it’s SO true. Your body may survive a bit of bad form for a while. However, at some point, it will result in injury because over time, your body is likely to become slightly misaligned from practicing poor form. As I alway say, it’s so much better to reduce your weight or reps if it means you are able to maintain proper form. If you’re learning a new exercise, try starting with little to no weight until you get your form right.
3. Reach your goals more quickly
The communication between your brain and muscles is at its highest when you learn a new exercise. That’s because you start with the process of motor learning. Once you have learned the motor pathway of a certain exercise it stays with you for a long period of time, regardless of whether you learnt it correctly or not. Think of it a bit like riding a bike, once you’ve learnt how to do it you don’t forget.
So if you learn to perform an exercise incorrectly, you are likely to be increasing the time needed to achieve your goal because your body is wasting a lot more energy on stabilization and protecting you from getting injured.
Read more: how to set realistic fitness goals you actually want to achieve
The key thing I want you to take away from this post is that you should focus on form above everything else. If you’re following my program make sure you spend time watching my form in each video before you get started. It’s so easy to get carried away building up weight but try to remember to forget reps and weight until you have nailed your form and built a solid foundation.
If you have ANY questions please email me. I love hearing from you and always answer your messages personally. Send me an email anytime at contact@alexia-clark.com.
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