It is amazing how much your form when doing various exercises in the gym can affect progress. Good form goes along way to achieving significant levels of hypertrophy, whilst terrible form basically means your time in the gym is wasted and the money spent on food and supplements is also a waste. Learn what good form can do for you and how ‘cheating’ on some sets can actually be beneficial.
How many times have you seen and how many people do you know who have trained for years. After this precious time spent in the gym ‘training hard’ their progress appears very limited. The chances are this is largely due to incorrect form and an oversized ego. The weights used by these people are more than often drastically too heavy for them, attempting to curl 25kg dumbbells when they would struggle to get a good set out with 15s. Also, there sometime appears to be a very mistaken theory that by performing reps as fast as possible is the way forward. Again this is wrong. By swinging a weight say when doing a bicep curl as fast as possible, you are taking 99% of the stress off the biceps both on the positive and negative phase of each rep. Apart from anything else, when your form is way off the mark the chances of injury really increase, especially when it comes to heavy weight. Movements such as latt pulldowns where the spine is vulnerable need strict form and your back needs to be locked out. Arch your back when performing this and your back will eventually go ping.
Good form is then an essential element when it comes to increasing your muscle mass. Well performed reps put the most stress on the target muscle groups. Good form does not mean perfect where there are no movements elsewhere. In fact sometimes it pays to loosen your form up slightly, as this allows drastically more weight to be lifted whilst maintaining good form. When it comes to form it is sometimes wise to perform certain exercises such as curls where you can afford to loosen up a little (this is not an invitation to swing like a monkey) and then follow this with something like concentration curls where each rep is slow and focused. There is the differentiation you need to be able to make. Certain exercises allow for a little assistance such as curls, whereas others like the bench press or deadlift allow for no cheating. To get the most out these there is only one way and that’s the right way.
Finally, you are missing out on many benefits if you don’t concentrate on the negative in each rep, don’t lift a weight and then let gravity propel it back to the to the lowered position at breakneck speed. By controlling the negative you are forcing your muscles to cope with extra stress, which is a great contributor to muscle growth.
There is a brief guide as to why using the correct is essential and when you can and can’t get away with a little help.