Safety? No, not the main benefit of using the correct form.

Yes, I know safety is critical, and I am not encouraging anyone not to be as safe and functionally possible. We can benefit greatly more from focusing on exercise training with solid form-focused practices.

The form is vital when working out or lifting weights because proper form promotes the highest muscle and neurological recruitment.

Optimal neurological and muscular recruitment work together, resulting in safer lifts and movements and, more importantly, promoting more muscles and mechanical coordination to generate more power, speed, and strength. 

Our body is designed to work dynamically in bodily functions and physical movement. When we move this body as it is built to move, every part of it benefits and improves our overall health and longevity.

Synergistic movement, especially with intentional movements in exercise, recruits multiple muscles to move our body and joints smoothly and efficiently. 

At the same time, the nervous system builds connections and pathways that reinforce that movement to make it a bit easier and more coordinated the next time we perform it, which, when combined over time, allows us to grow stronger and, as it turns out, naturally creates the safest mechanics and form in the process.

Proper form is our body’s ideal use and balance to move in our environment.

Ideal movement is also the safest way we can move to avoid injury.

Ideal movement or proper form offers the potential for lifting the most weight and becoming as strong as we physically can when applied consistently over time.

Why is proper form important? 

Because it’s how we are supposed to move our bodies.

Why must we work to improve our form and maintain the best form we can when we exercise?

Because we no longer move our bodies in our natural setting, we have lost the innate ability to move naturally and correctly and have to work at it.

We need to work on the form because we have forgotten how to move and live in this world naturally and must rely on reminders and trainers to teach us how to move this devolved modern human body.

One way we can reconnect with this body and all of its built-in health and healing potential is to start moving our bodies daily, increase our movement, and lift heavy things as our body grows stronger in support and encourages us to do more and more.

The body is ready and waiting to be healthy, heal, grow, and move, and all we have to do is give it some attention and try not to hold it back through inactivity.

Well, my health and fitness friends go forth and pick things up and put them down.

We can do so much better!

Dr. Don