Day eight begins the second week of the Body-for-Life Challenge. That is one week down and only eleven more to go!
Now that you’ve completed your first week of weight training, you may get a bit over enthusiastic and prematurely try to increase the amount of weight you’re lifting. At this point, it is important that we address the issue of form.
Too many people place entirely too much importance on how much weight they are lifting rather than how they are lifting the weight. I remember when I first started weight training, my cousin’s first question to me was “How much do you bench?” The fact of the matter is that you are not weight training to become a powerlifter. It doesn’t matter how much you lift. What matters is that you lift enough weight to cause your body to build muscle and burn fat without lifting so much that you cause yourself injury.
Put simply: using correct form is more important than using weights.
You could lift hundreds of pounds but if you use incorrect form in doing it, you’ll only cause damage to your joints rather than build muscle. However, if you use correct form in your exercises and just a little bit of weight for resistance, your muscles will respond to their proper use and movement and grow accordingly.
Don’t let your ego guide you in this. If you follow your ego, you’re headed for disaster and injury. How much you lift is never as important as how you lift it. As much as you may be inclined or encouraged to boost the amount of weight you are lifting, the fact is that if you are just starting an exercise program, at this stage of the game your muscles will grow whether you use weights or not.
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Lisa Pietsch is a regular Families.com Blogger on Weight Loss. You can read more of her blogs by clicking here.