Getting Buff: It’s Not The Weight, It’s Your Form

By Russ Klettke

The most common mistake made by guys who workout is to think maximum weights bring maximum results. If your goal is to increase muscle size – technically known in fitness and bodybuilding circles as “hypertrophy” – the most important rule is to use proper exercise form.

Of course, knowing that and doing it are two different things. In a way, it’s complicated because precise form on all exercises can only be achieved through academic study, high-tech analysis and coaching from a qualified fitness trainer. But for most guys (women too), following some simple rules can help you accomplish all your goals at the beginning and intermediate levels of fitness.

Just as important, understanding and adhering to proper exercise form will help prevent injury. Because if there’s one thing that stands in the way of exercise gains, it’s having a bad case of tendonitis, torn muscles or a sprained back. Here are three key points to follow:

1. Know the human body (especially yours)

Study a human anatomy chart – Think about the musculoskeletal system (your bones, tendons and muscles) as a chain of interdependent rubber bands and sticks. The muscles are the softest and most pliable, the tendons are thicker yet flexible, and bones are most rigid. Weight lifting stresses each of these, and done correctly that stress makes them stronger and thicker. Overstress them too quickly, or at unusual angles that strain them, and you invite injury.

This musculature anatomy chart is obviously focused on a bodybuilder’s physique (muscles only, less of tendons), while this anatomy chart provides a better sense of the gradations between muscles and tendons. Study both in general terms to see the contiguous nature of the body, then think about the mechanics of lifting weights. Proper form can be more intuitive with this study.

Think “balance” – It makes no sense to try to get large biceps if you’re not working the adjoining muscles. In fact, weak forearm, wrist or shoulder muscles will always hold you back if you don’t develop those in concert with the biceps. As you study your anatomy and apply this rule, you’ll begin to see the advantages of working the entire body – all parts are related and need to support each other.

2. Start easy

Warm up and stretch – Yeah, you’ve heard this before. But it really matters, and here’s why: the muscles, tendons and bones need blood, oxygen and other nutrients to work at peak efficiency. Just as you walk slowly the first minute or two after waking up in the morning, the body needs to ease into exercise. Stretching early in a workout (after a few minutes of something light, like an easy run) enables your body to move in a larger range of motion. For a full understanding of this, take a dozen yoga classes.

Trace through the movement with lighter weights – Before you launch in earnest into an exercise, reduce the target weight level by half. Then slowly work through the exercise, just to see how it feels in the muscles. Squeeze out the muscles at the top of the exercise, then slowly return the weight to the starting position. Pay attention to how it feels before you move up to a weight that is more challenging.

3. Feel the pump – but not pain

How does it feel? When you’re done with a set of ten (more or less) reps, where do you feel it? If you did a tricep press, is the “pump” in the back of your arm – or your shoulder or lats? Note that all three work on that exercise, but you’ve nailed it when the tricep area feels most pumped.

Just as important, is the sensation that of a muscle that’s been worked or a tendon that’s strained? If it’s the latter, revisit the path of motion and reduce the amount of weight lifted. Proper form is a matter of nuance.

Despite what’s promised in television infomercials and on bodybuilding supplement websites, muscular development does not come easy or fast. You have to be consistent, balanced, focused and smart about what you’re doing.