Perfect Form for Fat Loss

First things first.

No more Halloween candy today!

Now, onto your regular fitness message...

When I train people, I'm a very, very serious person. I can't stand to watch trainers and clients continuing their conversation while the client does an exercise. It drives me nuts.

You can talk between exercises...that's fine. But not when you are standing behind a client doing seated rows...that's just begging for them to twist their head during a row and hurt themselves.

But I see these trainer-client conversations go on for the full hour, never stopping - not even for a difficult exercise. (You can only imagine how much I love to see clients talking while they are standing/wobbling on a BOSU ball - what a waste of their money.)

The client should be in complete focus on the exercise, not reminiscing about American Idol to the trainer or listening to what the trainer did last night. What message does this convey to the client? That they're just here for the trainer's amusement?

How can the trainer expect good form when the client is talking and turning their head to keep the conversation going?

Perfect form is imperative for injury-free success.

I'm a stickler for exercise form. In fact, some of my clients think that I take exercise form too seriously.

But you can't fool around with exercise form. You must do each rep of each exercise with the best form you possible - even when you are tired and struggling to get through the set (that's where the real benefits are achieved!).

You must go through the safe, full range of motion to get the most out of the exercise. By doing so, you will get more out of the exercise. And more work equals more results.

That's not hard to see, is it? If you go for perfect form on a squat or split squat or dumbbell press, we all know that is harder and takes more energy than to use poor form or to do only half the range of motion.

If you do an exercise with picture perfect form that means you've also done the exercise in its most difficult form. And that means you will gain the most muscle and lose the most fat when the exercise is done to its full capacity.Poor form is often lazy form - its the easy way out - and this will not get you the results you need.

On the other hand, if your mobility (a better training term than flexibility) prevents you from doing the exercise, then you are best to work on your mobility with bodyweight exercises, such as the Spiderman Climb, Spiderman Pushup, Y-Squat, and the other BW exercises.

For my encyclopedia of bodyweight training, get the 6-Month Bodyweight Manual.

By improving your mobility, you'll be able to all exercises with better form.
For other resources on improving your mobility, check out Mike Robertson's website. Magnificent Mobility

I tried out 3 new exercises from his DVD "Inside-Out" with a client this week, and they were great. The client needs more mobility in the hips and thoracic spine, and that is exactly what Mike & Bill Hartman's lunge exercises accomplish.

Now, in addition to focusing on a full range of motion, you must also remember all exercises should be done with your abs braced (as if someone was going to punch you in the stomach) and your low-back slightly arched, but never, ever rounded.

Train safely, train consistently, and train successfully,

CB

P.S. The November workout is out...
And I'm already thinking about the December Monthly TT Workout. It's going to be different from the recent TT workouts. You'll love it.

Learn more about the November workout here.

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