How to get good form in the gym to gain muscle?: 5 personally tested tips to improve Weight lifting form
“How to get good form in the gym to gain muscle” or “How to learn proper weightlifting form” These questions arrive in everyone’s mind at least once in life whosoever workout or is in the fitness industry. Whether you are a starter or a pro, from my past 7 years of experience I have learned that you learn every single day in Gym; to achieve your goal. And today I am going to share these tips with you.
I remember when I joined the gym, I had in my mind that I wanted to make an attractive-looking body. I want to be fit and feel confident and proud whenever I look at myself in the mirror. However, I didn’t understand what exactly a body is, how it works, and what exercise of movement helps build muscle for which group.
I was just following blindly what I was being asked to do, what I was being told to lift, and how I was being told to lift. And because I had no knowledge of, how to get good form in the gym, I got myself injured in the elbow during a triceps workout and had to keep away from the gym for 2 whole weeks. Which got me back to square one.
Gym Quote:
“No pain, No gain is true. However, you need to understand not all pain gives gains.”
-Arvind
To understand how to get good form in the gym. Firstly, you also need to understand how important is form in weightlifting.
how important is form in weightlifting:
Below are the consequences that can easily happen to anyone if you keep working out in an improper form.
1) Prone to Injuries: As I have already described from my personal experience; When you join a gym or start working out, people generally had no idea of which exercise should they do, how much weight should they lift, and the proper form of lifting dumbbells. This makes it hard to describe if the pain they are feeling is for the gain or for the loss, as not all pain makes gains. This makes a beginner prone to injury which could be a small like in my case I was recovered in 2 weeks or it could a big one which can take a long time to heal.
2) Makes you quit: Bad lifting form can make you quit rather easily than you can think. Just think about it, It is your first week in the gym and you are just blindly following your friend’s guidance and thinking you will start seeing results in 1-2 weeks. However, all the pain you are going through every day is not a ‘no pain no gain’ one, instead, it is a bad one that got you injured and you are out of the gym for 2 weeks. How likely are you going to come back and join again to go through all the pain again?
3) Only Pain no gain: When your lifting form is incorrect, You may feel like you have been lifting well and heavily. You will definitely feel the pain and you will think that pain is gain, however, you will see results little to nothing. You will only feel pain. I have personally been a victim of this.
Benefits of proper form when exercise:
1) Proper form helps to gain muscles more efficiently: Correct form makes your body work efficiently. It helps you make the mind and muscle connections. Trust me, this is the key to gaining muscles quickly and safely. Many bodybuilders spend their lifetimes creating muscle and mind connections. They learn every day.
2) Helps when you come back from a long break: A good form in the gym will help you gain muscle and mind connection. This will train your mind and muscle to retain those movements and feeling for a longer period of time and in return, you will get great muscle memory. Which will help you regain your older gains rather easily if you are coming back from a long or short break.
You also need to know some of the common exercise form mistakes to avoid which I personally found people doing while working out in the gym to gain muscle more efficiently.
Common exercise form mistakes:
1) Ego lifting: This is the biggest and most dangerous mistake I have seen people doing. No matter if you are a beginner or an experienced person you need to throw your ego out of the gates if you want to get a good body shape and stay healthy for a longer period of time.
My personal Tip for beginners: If you are a beginner, do not think of lifting heavy weights. Think about lifting in good form. You need to understand everyone once was a beginner. There is nothing wrong with lifting an empty barbell rod or 5 kg dumbbells. When I started, I couldn’t even do one Squad!! Let alone lifting weights.
2) Not breathing properly: Another most important Common exercise form mistake is, not breathing properly while working out. You need to understand that breathing itself is a big part of getting a proper form.
Still, I have seen this getting neglected even by the people who are lifting weights for so long and by the gym trainers themselves.
How to get good form in the gym to gain muscle? Weight lifting form for beginners:
How to get good form in the gym? Below are the simple trick and techniques with which you can get good form while working out in the gym to gain maximum muscles.
1) Keeping the back straight: This is the most basic thing you can do and you need to get the form correct. Keep your back straight. You need to understand spine is made up of a series of bones stacked on one another. The back and abdominal muscles keep these in place in case of any external force. If you keep your spine bend muscles will not be able to support it properly and it creates a straight-way ticket to a long time injury.
2) Keep your shoulder retract back and lower: You need to keep your shoulder retracted back and lower and keep your chest up. This should be the proper form of getting most of the exercises done correctly.
Relax your shoulders and retract them back and then drop them down.
3) Breath: A lot of people neglect the importance of breathing in exercise sets. This is one of the most vital things how to get good form in the gym to gain muscle in any kind of exercise literally.
You need to breathe properly. Inhale and exhale with the motion of the type of exercise you are doing.
For example: If you are doing a bench Press, the Proper form of doing a bench press should be; lying down on the bench, there should be 4 main points which should be touching the bench and the ground. Your legs, hips, your back, your head. Now follow the same method; Keep your back straight and a bit curved, keep your shoulder retract back and low and most importantly breathe.
Exhale, when you are pushing the weight up and inhale when you are pulling it down towards your chest.
4) Focus and control the weight: I understand if you are a beginner or even if you are someone who has been doing gym for some time If you really try to control the weight and breath properly with proper form, it could be really overwhelming doing all this at the same time. But, Focus. Focus and try to build a muscle-mind connection. Do not cheat. If you are cheating, you are cheating yourself.
Control the weight during both the positive and negative motions of the exercise. Trust me, this muscle memory that you will create will help you a lot in the future.
5) Stop Ego lift: Do not ego lift. Focus. Breathe and do, not Ego lift. Understand that when you are ego-lifting you are cheating on yourself, You are going through all this pain to show who? To a random stranger who does not care at all? They are not going to come and help you when you fall. You have to take care of yourself. So Do not cheat or Ego lift, you are making a fool of yourself at the risk of getting permanently injured. Respect yourself.
These are the tips that will help you with, “how to get good form in the gym to gain muscle”. These tips will also help you achieve good form in the gym for at least 99% of the exercises.
Remember to take a healthy diet and choose the best whey protein even when you are on budget of 2000Rs. Learn which whey is right for you and workout in a good form to achieve your dream physique.
FOCUS. MEDITATE. BREATHE. Go Fit Freak.
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