Five Important Weight Lifting Techniques

Weight lifting technique is extremely important and there is a lot to know. Its an ongoing learning process that takes years to perfect. Even still, there are at least five incredibly important techniques that everybody should know right away.

Five Important Weight Lifting Techniques

1. Bend Your Knees. When you are lifting in a standing or lying down position you should always bend your knees slightly to take pressure off of the low back. This is also called "keeping the knees soft" because it's not much of a bend. It's more about not locking your knees than anything else.

Common exercises for this technique are standing shoulder press and dumbbell curls, floor crunches and chest press. *Note- While performing a bench press (on a weight bench)your feet should be on the floor or the supports provided if your feet don't reach the floor. The only time you should bend your knees and put your feet on the bench is if you are lifting very light and experience current back problems. Otherwise you risk losing your balance and toppling off the bench while holding weights. Not very safe!

2. Don't Push With Your Wrists. A common mistake is using your wrists to do all of the work. I see this mostly with bench and shoulder presses. When you lift, you want to focus on using the muscle you want to work, definitely not your poor wrists. You will know if you are making this mistake if your wrists seem to collapse under the weight and your palms face upward or toward the dumbbell. When performing lifts correctly, your wrists should be straight and in line with your arms. Your palms should be facing the same direction as the under side of your forearm.

3. Breathe. This is a common one. Holding your breath raises your blood pressure and puts you at risk for various acute and chronic conditions. Always remember to exhale on exertion. This means, exhale during the hard part, or the lift and inhale on your way back to starting position. If this is too hard in the beginning, just remember to breathe!

4. Don't swing the weights. If you are swinging, you are lifting too heavy. Either drop the weight before your next set, or start with a heavier weight and when you start swinging, switch to a lighter weight to finish. Swinging weights takes the focus off of the muscle you are trying to isolate and puts a lot of pressure on bones, ligaments and areas you do not want to work hard, like your rotator cuff.

5. Start from bigger muscle groups to smallest. Starting with larger muscle groups is the correct way to organize your lifting program. Starting with bigger muscles helps to warm up the smaller ones. Also, the larger muscle groups need more energy and should be performed at the beginning of the session. Bigger muscles are the glutes, chest and back. Smaller muscles are the calves, biceps, triceps and shoulders.

Weight lifting is one of the best ways to tone your body for a fit and healthy appearance. Not only does it make you look and feel fabulous but it strengthens bones and ligaments and improves balance and co-ordination.

Lift with proper technique to reduce the risk of injury so you get the most out of your workouts.

Lift Safe!

Kaleena Lawless
Personal Training Specialist
http://www.kalisthenixfitnessblog.com