Did your last set REALLY count?
“Am I doing it right”? These thoughts have entered all of our minds. Not just yours, but mine too. You’ve done all your research and implemented your plan to the tee. But one thing nagging at you may still be the fact that, you’re unsure if your form is right. Because if you happen to follow me often and take note of what I say, you know that if your form isn’t on point, then you’re WASTING YOUR TIME. PERIOD! And it doesn’t matter if you’ve got the best plan out there. It still is a massive waste and sometimes DANGEROUS.
Why do I say that? Well, you see…
Best case scenario: You are not fully reaping the rewards of all that time, effort and energy you’re investing in the gym for your goals to get as big or as strong as you can in the fastest time possible. This sucks because you’re wasting so much of all that effort and are leaving so much on the table.
But it starts to get even worse when you consider the distinct possibility that training with improper form could cause some serious imbalances and injuries that could lead to some pretty scary consequences. Imagine not being able to run or even walk pain free because of an injured knee, hip or spine as a result of poor form? Now that’s scary!
You might be thinking: “well, who cares if my form is off just alittle”. Let me tell you now, you should care about the little things because as they say, it’s the punch you don’t see coming that hurts the most.
How a few inches in the wrong direction could cost you
Let’s take the example of a Squat.
If, while you’re squatting, there is just a ‘little’ gap between the heel and the floor due to your heels raising a bit or your weight resting on your mid-foot; it can DRAMATICALLY reduce the efficiency and safety of your squat.
How? Well, if there is even the slightest gap between your heel and the floor, it means that your heels are not truly planted to the ground and that your weight is not entirely perched on it. This means that when you exert force on the ground to squat that heavy weight up, some of that force gets dissipated due to the slight disconnect between the two surfaces. And this in turn affects how much or how well you can squat.
But still, that’s the non-scary bit. What also happens if you keep squatting like this is that the transfer of force doesn’t run right through the center of long bones of your legs (femur, tibia) for perfect axial loading and instead we would be looking at a broken/misaligned transfer of force that would put undue stress on the more delicate areas in that chain like the knee joint and its soft tissue structures. Bad, bad, BAD! And this is how the squat gets blamed for causing knee problems when it really doesn’t! It’s a result of IMPROPER EXECUTION of the exercise and not the exercise itself!
“So what do I do?”
I’ve gotten many questions on my YouTube channel, Facebook and emails flooding me with people who would like to know if they’re performing something correctly.
Truth is, it’s impossible for me to know without a visual example. Thus I created an outlet where you can have your form checked by me personally.
The steps are very simple and easy to follow. All you’d need is a video camera of some sort, and a Youtube account. Through this service you can get your form and technique of upto 3 exercises reviewed with a single purchase. The rest of the instructions would be sent to you via email.
