Getting your technique right

There is more to lifting weights than just lifting heavy and smashing PBs. If your form isn’t correct you won’t be doing your muscles any good and could potentially lead to injury. You want to make sure you are lifting as safely and effectively as you can for the full benefit 🙂 Here are some tips that should help you.

Do your research and watch videos of lifts to see how they see should be performed. Just be careful and make sure you are getting material from a reliable source. Someone in the fitness industry with qualifications is definitely always a good place to start 🙂

Find yourself a mirror or a person who can be your extra eyes. Mirrors in gyms are not there for selfies they are there so you can look at yourself performing the movement. You need to see what you are doing in order to see what is being done right and wrong. If a mirror isn’t available then get someone to watch you perform the exercise and point out things that might need to be improved.

Practice the movement without any weight. A great way to get the muscles fired up and the movement memory fired up is to practice the exercise as a warm up. This way your body starts to get into the motions and is ready for what is about to come. It is also here where you can make the necessary adjustments if needed.

Think about the muscles you are wanting to work – can you feel them working ? If not chances are you aren’t doing it correctly so really think about how you will make that muscle work. If you are doing a Romanian Deadlift but can’t feel your hamstrings working but your lower back is killing then you probably have the bar too far forward putting all the pressure on your back and none on your legs. Reset yourself think about the hamstrings needing to work push your gym back lower the body forward keeping the bar close until you can feel the hamstring pull. Slight bend in the knees then activate the glutes, squeeze and bring yourself up.

Never lock out or over extend joints, you don’t want to put extra pressure on your ligaments. Every body has different limits so don’t copy anyone understand your body and know what feels right and wrong. If you are hyper mobile please take extra care with this as you can go further than the average person but your ligaments are also weaker. I am the same so I always make a conscious effort to get that slight bend in my knees/elbows and relaxing my shoulder blades down.

Film yourself – similar to the mirror point but you can properly focus on the movement this time. Do the exercise then rewatch the footage back so you can see for yourself it it looks correct. If you are unsure ask a PT or fitness professional who can help you. If you are looking on social media for inspiration just make sure you check that the person who is giving advice knows what they are talking about, there is a lot of wrong things out there.

The main things you want to look out and feel for in any weight bearing exercise:

No locking out of joints
Keeping your core tight and posture correct
Engage the correct muscles for the exercise – research the exercises you plan to do so you know what muscles they work rather than just going for it
Breathe ! Out on the lift and in on lower 🙂 DON’T hold it !
Relax into the movement – try not to hold onto tension or stiffen up as you need your muscles to be able to move at ease.

Start off with bodyweight and lighter weights, get the form nailed down and then move on to lifting heavier once you know you can safely and effectively. No matter what the weight as long as you are feeling challenged you will see results 🙂