The way to exercise: Intelligently!

Pec flye--and way too much green

Here’s the truth. Some people just waste their money with gym memberships.

And the gym employees, in most cases, just don’t care.

Can’t totally blame them. They see it all day, every day. LOTS of bad form. They can’t correct it all, and, often enough, their opinion isn’t wanted.

I know this to be true. I’ve worked in gyms. I’ve offered help, only to have someone look at me like I have two heads. Especially guys. God forbid a woman has anything to say about a man’s exercise form!

(Why exercise technique is generally deemed to be within the exclusive knowledge of men, I’ll never know.)

Sign up for personal training and you may get someone to show you how to do things properly. But that’s not a given.

One trainer at my gym has put a woman up on a bench, standing on one foot, with an EZ-curl bar in her hands, doing biceps curls. Ack!

Want to hear something better? She was recently promoted.

Dangerous movements, dangerous form, dangerous trainers!

So what are you to do?

Spare yourself. Learn! Read!

You wouldn’t put an addition on your house without researching how, would you? You could easily end up with a disaster on your hands. If nothing else, a sad little house.

Same goes for working out. Only you could end up with a broken body!

And the idea of exercising is to improve your health, no?

Just two cautions:

• If an exercise doesn’t make sense to you, don’t do it!
• If an exercise hurts while you’re doing it, don’t do it!

What got me going today

I went to the gym this morning and was soon astounded to watch as two people in a row exercised in a manner that would do neither of them any bit of good.

First, a woman sat at the lat pulldown machine next to mine and leisurely pulled the weight toward her. Her form was acceptable, but it appeared she put NO effort into moving the weight.

I looked. She was using the minimum amount of weight possible. Something a 10-year-old could do without breaking a sweat.

Not a minute after the woman moved off, a man took her place. He put some weight on there, but pulled the bar just down to his forehead. This is a partial rep.

(What you want to do is pull the bar down to the top of your chest, where you can maximally squeeze/contract the lats—the muscles that are most obvious in the upper/outer portion of your back.)

Now, I’ve always said that you never know what’s behind a person exercising the way they do. Either one of these individuals could have had an injury or some health condition which prevented them from (1) performing the exercise properly and (2) using enough resistance to make the exercise count.

I don’t think so, though.

The woman looked lackadaisical in general. The man continued to perform exercises improperly.

The value of bad workouts

I have to admit, there can be some value!

The best thing that could come out of their workouts was a mental benefit: A sense of accomplishment at getting to the gym and moving their bodies (however lamely).

An imperfect workout can nonetheless get you in the habit of getting to the gym. And it can tip the odds that you’ll opt for good health habits in general—such as making healthy food choices, getting sufficient rest, not smoking and abusing alcohol, and managing your stress.

A bad workout opens the door for better workouts.

Don’t waste too much time, though.

If you join a gym, take some time to learn how to exercise.

Exercise books and fitness magazines (men’s and women’s) can help. But don’t just look at the pictures. Read the exercise descriptions. Take them with you to the gym when you’re trying something new.

And if you know of a knowledgeable personal trainer and you can afford it, sign up for a few sessions.

But don’t stop there. Continue reading.

Because every workout gets old fast. Like in about 6-12 weeks.

You need to keep changing things.

That’s if you want to continue to make progress. To get stronger and potentially leaner and develop more muscle.

No wincing! Muscle is good! Muscle helps you move heavy things and gives you pretty curves!

• Have you struggled with using good form in the gym? What did you do about it?
• How long do you hang with a workout? Or do you change them all the time?
• What kind of exercise do you enjoy the most?