Why it’s important to have good form
“Because I said so!” – Coach Matt
And because we want you to be safe and be able to live long, strong, and healthy lives!
Here are a few reasons why you should focus on having good form.
- Injury
Improper form can and will happen, more often with heavy weights, occasionally with light weights! That is why I believe it’s important to treat every weight with the same respect. If you don’t, you may end up hurting yourself.
Our bodies have a certain load, force, or tipping point that we can tolerate before we fail or break. Pushing the limits of your form/technique, without going overboard, is where you will see success in improving your performance and strength. Crossing this line often leads to injuries.
Repeating poo movement patterns, especially under load, will lead to bad biomechanical habits that can be hard to break. They may also lead to small, unknown, traumas which eventually add up to an injury. Limiting bad reps in training will allow your body to be more resilient in the long term!
- Efficiency
Good form allows you to target specific muscles within each movement. This allows for the full potential of the body to be used.
When technique starts to go bad, other parts of the body begin to misalign. This puts muscles, tendons, and ligaments in positions where they may struggle to move outside of their natural pattern.
Proper form will stress the body accordingly and put it in the best position to generate maximum force. The appropriate adaptations will then happen, whether that be increased strength, power, and/or endurance.
When a lift is performed with bad form, unnecessary energy is expended trying to compensate for moving the weight through a less efficient range of motion. Think Kb swings without good hip drive, push-ups with your arms our wide, air squats without your hips open. All doable, but not ideal.
Simply, less energy will be used when good technique is used and the proper muscles are recruited.
- You will reach your goals quicker
Let’s say you have a goal of deadlifting 200lbs.
You just learned this movement and are still practicing proper form. You may have trouble stabilizing your core. Your hamstrings may limit your range of motion, etc. This will increase the time it takes to reach your goal.
If you slow down, work on fixing the little things first with proper form, it will not only lead to a quicker progression of your goals but will be safer along the way.
All of us coaches preach having good form daily. Hopefully, now you understand some of the reasons why. We want you to lift and move well now so that you can continue for years to come.
If you ever want help properly learning how to do a movement or want feedback, we are all more than willing to help!
