I’m a stickler for form when it comes to exercise, specifically but not exclusively to anaerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise has its vulnerabilities too but lets focus on my personal favorite which is anaerobic exercise.
Anaerobic exercise is movement such as push ups or weighted back rows for example and can be done with your bodyweight as the resistance or by using equipment such as tubes, dumbbells, barbells or selectorized machines to provide the resistance.
Regardless of what you use as resistance, proper form is paramount when performing exercise. The biggest reason for this being injury. Some people don’t give a second thought to injury until sidelined by it. And I would venture to say that a good majority of injuries occur not in gyms at all but in real life situations where we never learned proper lifting form, temporarily forgot, or allowed ego/peer pressure to blur common sense! This reminds me of a particular chainsaw accident but I’ll save that for another post lol. Most of us want to maintain our independence as we go through life so having a respect for the amazing ‘vehicle’ that we are going through life in should be of great importance in my opinion.
Proper form really is more than reading instructions or watching a video clip of someone performing a movement. It’s about taking information and putting it into application and then gaining feedback over a period of time until proper movement mechanics have been ingrained and become second nature. This is mastery in its finest most wholesome sense.
But in this fast paced world consumers are choosing shortcuts and money saving methods in place of living breathing human beings who specialize in teaching movement and who have a high degree of respect and concern for the health and well being of the individuals they work for…their clients. And that folks is sad and kind of scary, when will we learn to slowdown and actually take care of ourselves?
The biggest compliment I got as a personal trainer was when my clients would tell me they completed their home workout and would say “I heard your voice reminding me to drop my shoulders” or some other queue based on what challenge the individual was working on. It was in those moments that I felt such pride and exhilaration for my profession. Those moments were priceless to me because they represented action, effort and connection, put in by both of us, resulting in a relationship that fostered health and wellbeing. JACKPOT!
So yes I’m a stickler for form. I teach it in formal exercise hoping it becomes ingrained and applied in real life by each of my clients because I serve their health and wellbeing and I have a high degree of respect for the ‘vehicles’ that take them through living. I hope that everyone will pause and consider the importance of form.