Make Sure You're Using Proper Form

This truly applies to every exercise you can do. This is of utmost importance for two main reasons: training longevity and training productivity. It seems like a no-brainer, but making sure that you’re performing exercises properly to not sustain an injury pertains to more than just acute injuries, like dropping a bar on your face or getting crushed while squatting. It’s also truly important for not sustaining small, accumulating chronic injuries, as well. I think most people have experience nagging injuries in terms of having to take a break due to a sore knee or injury, but I think it’s easier to chalk it up to overuse or “training too hard”. While that may also be true (and is a whole, big topic of discussion unto itself), I think it’s a very good idea to make sure said sore knee or elbow is not sore/hurting due to improper form. This is where the correlation between training longevity and chronic injury is most obvious: As young, generally healthy lifters, we can continue to sustain unnecessary, small injuries for a long time. But what about when we have used up all the cartilage in our joints and the ability to quickly recover from these small injuries? What happens when a small injury that used to take 24 hours to heal now takes 72 hours to merely feel manageable? These points can be avoided altogether, or at the very least pushed way down the road by making sure you’re executing every exercise correctly and not sustaining unnecessary wear and tear, therefore extending your training longevity.

You don't want to be this guy...

The second point that I was trying to make with using proper form is to ensure training productivity. This was a point that probably wouldn’t even be too apparent to me if I hadn’t experienced problems with it over and over again for the last couple of years. What exactly do I mean by training productivity? Of course I mean ‘are you training productively?’, but I’m focused more on ‘is your training getting you closer to your goal?’ I’ll use squatting as an example. Are you training for athleticism? You probably want to squat high-bar. Are you training for a powerlifting meet? You probably want to squat low-bar. Depth of squat can be another aspect of form in this instance. If you’re training for athletics/Olympic lifting you’ll almost certainly want to hit unquestionably full-depth to be strong while coming out of full knee-flexion, but if you’re looking at squatting from a powerlifting aspect you may want to train to just barely hit full-depth to limit range of motion and squat more weight. To reiterate, my ultimate point is this: is the way you’re executing your lifts/exercises getting you closer to your goals and serving you productively?

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that this guy will never reach his full potential on the bench press.

To briefly offer personal experience and tie it all together, my bench press violated both of these points and inspired me to write this. I had been benching with absolutely terrible form for years. Not only was I wrecking my left shoulder to the point where everyday activities hurt, but I was unable to progress past the 275 lb. mark. Not only was the way I benching destructive to my body, but it was not getting me any closer to obtaining a bigger bench. So, with that being said, one last time: make sure you’re executing every lift with proper form to ensure that you can continue to train productively and injury free for many years to come.