In order to achieve any fitness goal, you must strive for Full Range of Motion (FROM) in all your movements. Sacrificing full range of motion to finish quickly or try to get more reps faster isn’t safe and isn’t contributing to overall fitness. Sure, we all want to go faster (especially when someone’s yelling at you “Go faster!”), but we aren’t getting any better if we’re shortening the range of motion. Maybe more importantly, making ROM errors puts you at risk for hurting yourself.It matters not if you goal is weight-loss, better general fitness, or increased endurance and speed...the bottom line, the end, the “period”... if you want to be more fit, you need to prioritize range of motion and proper form, end of story!
Why?
1) Power (Force) = m x d/t: This means that the greater the d (distance) the greater the force you are applying. Said otherwise, the more Powerful you are. Said otherwise, the more calories you are burning! So go for FROM...move your body a greater distance...faster!
2) I’ll briefly summarize what CrossFit guru Mark Rippetoe says about bad form and limited ROM...
a) it shoves your joints into positions those joints ought not be in.
b) when your joints are in compromised positions, you are using muscles in ways they ought not be used. (read full article here)
Hence, this is why performance suffers and injuries are more prevalent when we let limited ROM detract from good FORM.
What are examples?
1) Butt wink or rounded back on Air Squats.
2) Butt above parallel on Air Squats.
3) Not going on toes or getting air on Wall Ball/Push Press (full extension).
4) Short-arming, turtle-necking push-ups.
5) Staying bent over when coming up in a Bend/Thrust (squat to standing)
6) Staying bent arm on pull-ups, or not going C2B.
7) Shortened leg on bicycle crunch.
8) Not dropping knee on a lunge
9) and the list can go on and on.....
Why?
1) Insufficient strength, balance, flexibility. This is fine...that’s why we come...to get better.
2) To go fast. Boooo...Hiss! That makes us uncomfortable.
3) It’s easier. Boooo...Hiss #2! That’s not the CF way, and technically, it’s not easier. Bad form and limited ROM works the body inefficiently! Inefficiency is the enemy of endurance. Just consider the Air Squat, people with exquisite form can go all day while those who bend and go half way down run out of steam quickly. FORM and FROM = Efficiency = More Movement = More Calories Burned and More Endurance Built.
The point is....go half the distance, get half the results....go FULL ROM and get full results.
10 comments:
Nice use of anagrams...and soooo right!
Guilty as charged on most of this! The truth hurts but not as much as bad form.
Here is my 2 cents, I do try most of the time to do them the correct way, but if I concentrate on my form I cannot keep the Commander's cadence, especially on the multiple movement calisthentics in the warm-up. During a timed circuit it is much easier to concentrate on form, but when reps are involved; then speed becomes a factor and speed and form are not necessarily synergystic. I am open to suggestions......
I'm with ya Johnnie! The 1-2-3 cadence often makes it very challenging to keep up and maintain correct form. I would suggest practicing some of the exercises off the clock - I've been working on B&T. I never knew what a proper B&T felt like until I did it in a very slow, methodical manner...concentrating on each element as I proceeded. Now that I know what to focus on, it makes it easier to 'conjure' a proper one on a cadence count. (work in progress, for sure). As you begin to do more & more using FROM and FORM, you'll get stronger...and that will allow you to do more...and you'll get stronger still...damn, that's a vicious cycle of building muscle! You just might end up Mr. Universe!
me three!
Mike:
You should try this T5:30pm Bodyweight class to help your form...and bring your friend BF.
Speaking of which...Livewrong was representing the Y chromosome last night...and check out who he was up against...an all-star gals team Lisa, K-Tri, DJ, Tennis Karen...no crap, they rained reps down on him like HellFire.
At the end he said "They just never f@^&!#g quit!" Had a beer. Limped home.
My only suggestion would be to make sure you are not do more movements/steps or engaging muscles that you should not be using during an exercise. Burpees is a good examples where we added steps. Some will do a variation of 1. Squat 2. Hands down 3. feet out 4. down position... with each of these movements as individual step, but in reality the first 4 steps can be combined into one movement where you kick your feet out catch yourself in the bottom of pushup position. During air squats I find myself slowing down at times because I am too tense on the negative movement (wasted time and energy). Using a controlled relaxation during the negative movements will not only help with speed, but 908 reps feel like 906. If these two suggestion don't help, you can always chug two redbulls.
Matt D....I limped home and had another beer.
We should make that a Tabata.
Matt,
Good article, albeit exceedingly long! Do we have a "proper form" session scheduled? I know I've seen the idea out here before.
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