What side of the spectrum are you on? Do you perform your exercises with the perfect technique at the expense of training time? Or would you rather get as many reps as possible while sacrificing form? How much emphasis do you place on your training form, and do you think it makes a difference to your training?

What is Training Form?

Correct gym form can be broken down into two parts; correct body positioning and correct movement. The first step is to get your body into a strong position that is best able to brace against the load. The general guidelines for this would include -

• Neck in a neutral position.

• Lower back in a neutral position.

• Shoulder blades squeezed and pulled down the back.

• Abs tightened and pulled towards the spine.

The second step is accomplished by moving the joints through a series of movements to get the best results out of the exercise.

What Are The Benefits of Good Gym Form?

Prevent Injuries

This is the most obvious benefit of good exercise form. Having a weak body position can place unnecessary strain on the body. For example, by protruding the chin during a military press you risk straining your neck. Likewise, if you move your muscles in a less than ideal way then you are at risk of straining them. A good example would be lifting a deadlift with the hips in the incorrect position which places greater strain on the lower back.

Train the Target Muscles

You select an exercise for a certain training outcome. If you are putting the effort in to train you might as well get the most out of the muscle. Muscle fibres lie at a certain angle and to get the best out of that exercise we should optimise the movement for that angle.

How to Correct Your Form In The Gym

To correct poor form, you first have to identify that you have poor form. This comes from visual or verbal feedback. Visual feedback is as simple as having an understanding of the correct form and monitoring it by performing an exercise in front of a mirror. Verbal feedback on the other hand comes from an external source. The best verbal feedback is from a qualified trainer but could also be from a training buddy. A video is also a useful tool to highlight errors.

Once you have identified an incorrect form you need to train to correct it. Incorrect form can often be the result of poor spatial awareness. Basically, you need to program the nervous system and the muscles to work together in the correct sequence. To correct this, you will need to reprogram the neuromuscular system and teach the muscles and nervous system how to work at certain joint angles.

A good example of this is correcting poor squat form. Start by sitting on a large medicine ball and position yourself correctly for a squat. Tighten all the muscles as if you were going to stand up but don’t. This gets the nervous system firing to the correct muscles. Once you are comfortable doing this you can progress to supporting your own weight by raising the glutes 2 cm off the ball and holding that position for a couple seconds before sitting back down. Finally progress to a goblet squat and perform an extended pause at the bottom of the squat. After perfecting all of this you will be able to move back to performing squats.

Poor form could also be a result of muscle imbalance or weakness. This is harder to diagnose as the culprit is not always obvious. At this point it is better to have an expert assess and prescribe corrective exercises.

Closed kinetic chains are also excellent in ensuring that your form is correct, particularly if you are a gym newbie. A closed kinetic chain means that your joints are not able to move around freely and are forced into a certain movement pattern. An example would be a Chest Press Machine. You are forced into the correct form by the machine and when you move onto free weights, your neuromuscular system is programmed for correct form.

Common Strength Training Form Mistakes

Deadlift

• Squatting the bar - Position the hips so your shins are perpendicular to the floor.

• Rounding your back - Pull your shoulder blades down your back and brace your abs to keep a neutral spine.

• Too wide a grip - Grip the bar slightly wider than your hips so your knees just fit inside.

Bench Press

• Bouncing the bar off your chest - Focus on controlled descent of the bar.

• Flaring your elbows - Keep arms at a 45-degree angle.

• High bar contact with chest - Bar contact should be just below the nipple line.

• Incorrect grip width - Grip position should be just wider than shoulders, so forearms are perpendicular to the floor at the bottom of the press.

Squat

• Shallow squat depth - Thighs should be at least parallel to the floor.

• Collapsing your knees - Keep your knees moving in the direction of toes.

• Butt wink - Keep a neutral lower back by sucking your abs towards your spine.

• Leaning forward - Keep the torso more upright by focusing on a spot in front of you and pushing your hips back and down.

Turkish Get Up

• Rushing the movement - Focus on completing each step before starting the next part of the movement, especially on the descending phase.

• Lowered hips - Tighten your glutes and push up to allow the leg enough space to sweep under.

• Bending your elbows - Ensure the arm holding the Kettlebell is locked out.

• Lunge position not aligned - Ensure both knees are bent at 90 degrees, with one knee on the floor and the in a lunge position and the hips are aligned pointing forwards.

Pull Up

• Chin protrusion - Keep your head and neck neutral and aim the chest as the contact point for the bar.

• Uncontrolled movement - Perform a smooth pull and controlled descent. Regress the movement and use pull up alternatives if you are not able to do this.

• Rounding your shoulders - Keep your shoulder blades pulled back and down your spine.

• Pointing your elbows forward - Drive your elbows back and down during the pull up.

Plank

• Arching your lower back - Activate your core by tightening the abs towards the spine.

• Elbows above shoulders - Pull your shoulder blades down your lower back and place elbows perpendicularly below your shoulders.

• Neck not neutral - Keep ears in line with your spine and look at the floor.

• Lowered hips - Focus on getting your spine as flat as a table by contracting your glutes and pulling your hips up.

Bicep Curl

• Using momentum - Select a lower weight and focus on Dumbbell control.

• Decreased range of motion - Fully extend the arm at the bottom of the curl.

• Loss of eccentric control - Lower the weight, instead of dropping the weight.

Dumbbell Lunge

• Stride length is too big - To ensure larger range of motion make sure that when your thigh is parallel to the floor your feet are under your knees at 90 degrees.

• Selecting light weights - Select a weight that challenges the lunge.

• Moving too fast - Perform a controlled eccentric contraction to avoid instability.

• Lack of glute activation - Drive through the heel of your front foot for maximal glute activation.

Dumbbell Row

• Rotating your torso - Keep your chest motionless so only the arms are doing the work.

• Incomplete range of motion - Allow your arm to fully straighten towards the floor and get a stretch in the shoulder before pulling the dumbbell towards the hips.

• Flaring your elbows - Elbows should be kept close to the body.

• Weight touching your chest - The contact point at the top of the movement should be the hips to avoid the biceps being too involved.

Skull Crusher

• Weight too heavy - Select a suitable weight to allow you to a complete range of motion.

• Flaring your elbows - Keep your elbows tucked in to focus the effort on the triceps.

• Too wide a grip - Hand grip should be roughly shoulder wide.

• Lack of control - Lower the weight slowly to maximise eccentric contraction as well as preventing injuries.

Military Press

• Incorrect grip width - Grip on the Barbell should be just wider than shoulders with forearms perpendicular to the floor.

• Flaring your elbows - Elbows should remain close to the body.

• Arching your lower back - Decrease the weight and tighten the core muscles to keep a neutral spine.

• Protruding your chin - Keep the neck neutral with ears in alignment with the shoulders.

While it might take up some precious training time, the reduction in the risk of injury and improved efficiency of the exercise is worth it. If you are uncertain of your exercise form, get some feedback. If you find that your exercise form is not ideal, then implement a plan to correct it. Start with closed kinetic chain exercises or regress the exercise to work on the weak training points. As you get more confident you can start progressing the exercise and train with confidence.

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Tags: Exercise Type > Strength