Form

                                                                Photo from:   Bioninja.

I wanted to slap him and say "what the heck are you doing?"  The guy on the cable machine was doing speed repetitions in the mid-range zone.  Not only was he doing nearly nothing for his muscles, he was stressing out his joints for nothing.  As you get older you lose muscle mass which means that your joints take a great deal more abuse.  This is why lifting weights is so important.  The more muscle that you have around your joints; the less wear and tear on them.  So that brings us to form and lifting weights.  Form is one of the most important things when lifting weights.  If you are going to go to the trouble of getting to the gym and working out; then you may as well get something out of it, right?

There is a huge difference between pumping out mid-range reps at lightening speed and performing a full range slow motion one.  Paying close attention to your form and going from point A to B, your muscles have to work hard.  When you slow it down and pay attention to form, you typically need to drop the amount of weight that you are using.  Oh, you'll get there again but you need to build those muscles before you raise your weights. 

Range of motion is probably one of the biggest mistakes that I see in the gym.  The other day there was a woman trying to work out her triceps (the biggest problem spot for us women.)  She was moving the weight no more than an inch in each direction.  At that range, it was going to take her forever to see any progress.  Using the full range of motion along with good form with achieve the greatest success as far as building those muscles that you are working on.  Obviously people can do what they want when they are at the gym; but why not get something out of it? 

Joints are a big concern the older you get.  Building muscle around your joints helps to minimize problems down the road.   If you have no muscles around your joints then the joint only has itself to fall back on.  This is never good.  When you start with good form and light weights you build your muscles the right way.  By slowing it down, you can pay close attention to your form and building those muscles slowly and without or injury to your joints. 

Hyper-extending, next blog.