Ensuring correct form is a vital part of a workout program and unfortunately it is very often over-looked by the beginners. I encountered lot of people going to gym and straight away starting with all the machine and free weight workouts without proper knowledge or prior experience on the correct form or technique they need to follow. They won't even care to ask the instructor for demonstrating the correct technique to them. This is a very bad practice. Doing workouts without following correct body position or postures can lead to serious irreversible injuries.
In general here are the major aspects of correct workout technique which apply to almost all sort of weight training.
- Proper body positioning and alignment
- Proper breathing technique
- Duration
Proper body positioning and alignment
- Avoid locking or flexing your joints too hard. It can damage the delicate cartilage in joining points.
- Be careful not to form a hunched back while performing squat, lunge, deadlift or single-handed-dumbbell- row for avoiding lower back injuries. Always maintain your back in a straight line.
- While doing ab exercise avoid forming an arched back. When you tend to arch your back you actually put more pressure in your lower back instead of the ab region. Hence all ab workouts that makes your back tend to form an arch is not effective at all.
- Don't try to lift too much weight from the very beginning for avoiding injuries. As a beginner use the weight range that you feel comfy with, later on increase the weight gradually as your muscle gets stronger.
Proper breathing technique
- Proper breathing is very important during workout hours. Holding your breath actually inhibits the supply of oxygen in the muscle tissue reducing the performance of the muscle.
- Always breathe out when you are applying the force or lifting the weight. Inhale while lowering the weight down.
Duration
- It's very important maintaining proper tempo for every repetitions in any particular exercise. Do not perform the repetitions super quick. Increasing the speed gives momentum to the motion and reduces the resistance thus making the workout less effective.
- Also it's difficult to maintain proper body positioning and correct range of motion while the repetitions are performed real fast.