Proper Form and Proper Lifting Techniques

You can work hard, never miss a workout, and always aim to lift more, but if your form is off, eventually, you’ll regret it. Lifting with improper form is like baking a cake in the microwave, it’s distasteful, sloppy, and people laugh when they see it happen. In our constant pursuit of improving, we sometimes cheat our way through an exercise just to get another rep or two. That is ill advised. Cheating in the world of home workouts is just like cheating in any other situation, eventually, you’re gonna get hurt. Now there are actually different ways of doing some exercises that allow you to do more in a safe way, but I’ll go over that in a bit.

Proper Lifting Techniques

There are many lifting techniques that are common among several exercises. One of these is to keep the spine in line. Think about it. In a push-up, the head, neck, and back are to be kept straight in line with each other. This same rule applies to other exercises such as squats, bent over rows, and barbell curls. The back can be arched during pull-ups, and even bench presses, but the head is never all the way forward, or all the way backward. The only exercises that should fully flex and extend the neck are neck specific exercises. Of course, there are many techniques that are specific to certain exercises, so it’s important to learn each exercise properly. My List of Exercises page is an ever growing catalog of exercises. It’s a great place to go to if you’re not sure how to do an exercise with proper form.

Proper Form, Flexibility, and Injuries

If you’re not using proper form, and you don’t change your course, eventually you will run into an injury. However, many injuries are the result of a flexibility issue more than a form issue. Because of the lack of flexibility that many of us face, we often get injured trying to do an exercise that others do with ease. One example is the full squat. This is a squat that is done by going down until the back of the thighs are resting on the calves. That is the ultimate full range of motion for the squat movement but so many people cannot do it. That’s because of flexibility issues.

Two other examples of this are the behind the neck press, and behind the neck pull-ups. People often get shoulder injuries from these exercises, and then claim that the exercises are bad for everyone. For these types of exercises, it’s best to do the regular version of the exercise and then include a comprehensive stretching program as well. You can also do the behind the neck version of the movement with an extremely light weight, and then do the easier movement with more resistance, or vice versa.

For example, if you find that you can do full squats with your own bodyweight, then do 3 sets of 5-10 reps before or after your weighted squats workout. And it may even be best to start with an empty bar to get the shoulders and other muscles used to the movement. Working out at home with no weights can be done in a similar manner. One leg half squats followed by full squats, or pike push-ups with hands behind the head followed by handstand push-ups with hands in front of the head. 

 Different Strokes for Different Folks

If you’re like me then your introduction the world of working out involved the mind set that you should never use momentum when weight training. Momentum is bad. Momentum is cheating. Well today I’m telling you that not all momentum is bad, and not all momentum is cheating. It is true that for the most part we should minimize momentum, but completely eliminating it isn’t necessary. For a bodybuilder or anyone trying to build muscle size, momentum can sometimes spell disaster.

A muscles primary growth capabilities are activated during time under tension. That’s why it’s easier to grow a muscle with a longer tempo Going slowly eliminates momentum and puts a lot of tension on the muscles being worked. Notice that, up above, I said, ‘momentum can SOMETIMES spell disaster for muscle building. There is one way of using momentum that can actually increase muscle size significantly. For instance, after you have exhausted all of your strength with a set of strict and slow barbell curls, you can use a cheating movement to get the weight back up. Once the weight is back up, you slowly lower it again.

Now, just because you’re using a cheating movement doesn’t mean you don’t have to use proper form with your cheating movement. That may sound kind of weird but it’s true. When you swing the weight back up in a barbell curl, it’s important to keep your back straight. Basically, you’ll be doing the top part of an explosive straight leg dead lift. Because the dead lift muscles (back and legs) are much stronger than the biceps, it will make the weight a lot easier to lift.

Olympic Lifts and High Reps

In many of the Olympic lifts, momentum plays a big role. Many of the exercises are complicated and should be taught by an experienced instructor who can monitor the form. That’s why I don’t have any Olympic lifts in my List of Exercises. I’m not qualified to teach them, and I don’t know how to do many of them. The reason being, is that they’re not necessary for general fitness. However, they can be extremely valuable for some athletes.

I have long had a personal curiosity about Olympic lifts, but I’ve always had more focus on basic exercises. Maybe one day, I’ll find someone who can teach me these extraordinary exercises. The point is though, that Olympic lifts use a lot of momentum but if done with proper form, are perfectly safe to do. If you do decide to learn Olympic lifts, start out with very light weights. Momentum is also very useful during exercises such as high rep push-ups, or squats.

Proper spine alignment should still be used, but the act of letting the resistance fall allows us to use momentum throughout the movement. Falling and catching yourself just in time to spring back up is a useful tip for high rep sets. It’s important to create a sense of rhythm in order to get the most reps possible. By now you hopefully see that no matter what kind of exercises you do, it’s important to learn and use proper form for those individual exercises. And it’s important to learn the proper form from someone that knows about it. From someone that has actually done it. As I said before, I’m no expert on Olympic Lifting.

The swing, and the clean and press are really the only two Olympic exercises that I do, and they are just assistant exercises. I know them well, because they are not as complicated as the others, and I have included them in my workouts. So if you’re looking to become an Olympic lifter then you should look elsewhere, and I wish you good luck. However, if you want to know how to get in great shape with home workouts then you’ve come to the right place.