First off, what does proper form/posture look like:
– Proper form involves keeping your head up, chest out and shoulders set.
– Proper posture involves the following routine: shrugging your shoulders up, set your shoulders back, then depressing your shoulders to achieve proper posture.
– Improper form involves looking down and having your back and shoulders rounded forward, and allowing other muscles to be worked.
– Improper posture also involves a rounded back and shoulders causing much stress on your lower back and other areas of your body. Think about it…If your shoulders and back are rounded, the rest of your body is going to try to compensate, leading your whole body out of whack.
Anyways…………..
Have you ever been working out, and you say to yourself “It feels like I am working out a completely different muscle than what I am trying too.” Well most people would just shrug it off and say that “It’s probably because my muscles are not used to working out”
What many people may not realize is that they may not be using proper form, and this is where other muscles come in and take over, and you get that feeling of working out a “different muscle” than what you want.
Incorrect form and posture while working out can cause aches and pains, serious injury and over developments of muscles, not to mention compensation. Something nobody wants!
Here are a few good reasons to use proper form:
– Want to properly align your body? Working out with proper form will naturally align your body and take unnecessary stress off your back and other parts of your body. Having a properly aligned body will increase your results dramatically, and help you reach your FULL potential.
– Safety First…You may not even know this, but your body has its own safety features programmed. Have you ever noticed when you injure a part of your body that you naturally try to protect it? Well some people over do it and protect an injury so much that it actually starts to affect their whole body. Your body is an amazing machine, and when you stray from its original design, you will start to notice your body is hurting and trying to tell you something.
– Having proper form and posture while working out will help your body stick to its original design. It will help avoid injuries, muscle tears and strains, reduce back pain (or any pain for that matter) and will make you feel that much better
– Have you ever had an experience where you used improper form and hurt yourself? It is not fun, and takes a while to recover from it. It’s not about quantity, it’s about quality. And for some reason people have it in their heads that they need to do more. Well sometimes less is more, especially if you do it properly.
Working out is supposed to be fun and enjoyable, all the while keeping you in shape and keeping your body feeling young. It’s not meant to destroy you to the point where it is harmful to your health and safety.
Focused in:
When you work out, usually you go to the gym wanting to target a specific group of muscles. But how much time are you actually spending on that specific muscle if you are using improper form? Well you probably feel the burn, but in that 30 minutes of working out, you could have achieved so much more. For example…
I feel like working out my biceps today, so for my first set I am going to do dumbbell curls 3 sets of 10.
Well if I wasn’t using proper form I’d be standing up slightly bent over and not even realizing it, and every time I curled the weight my shoulders would dip forward, my back would engage and I would use my momentum to swing the weight back up while using my back and shoulders. Sure it is working my biceps a bit, but look at everything else that is working around it. This is clearly not training one specific muscle group like you intended.
Did you know that muscles build quicker and stronger the SLOWER you go? So doing negatives will help increase your muscle mass and power. So go slow on the way down and EXPLODE up. This is how you build and tone. Keep using proper form and posture!
Its not easy!
Using proper form while working out is not easy, in fact, you might feel your low back and shoulders getting tight when trying to maintain the form. However, just relax your muscles while keeping the shoulders back and depressed, and a slight arch in your lower back. Eventually this will come as second nature.You may see someone curling 50 lbs and you can only do 20. WHO CARES! Look at their form. I bet it is terrible, and if they actually were to do it properly, they probably wouldn’t be able to do it, OR they have been training properly for years, and now they can lift heavy using the right form. Once again it is quality over quantity.
There is no better feeling than looking at yourself after a workout knowing that you used proper form and small weights and what you did in 30 minutes is far more effective than any workout lasting over 1 hour and with improper form.
By using proper form in the gym, you will notice that in your day to day life that you will start to develop better posture, and feel better about yourself. You will feel confident, and those little aches and pains you had in your lower back (or wherever you may have had pain) are gone or reduced. Don’t forget to stretch, as stretching will loosen up your tight muscles and release any tightness you may have.
Full Body Developments Inc.
Full Body Developments 