Common Mistakes & Proper Form
by: Erica Wells, R.D.
Form is an important part of strength training for two reasons. The first and most important is for injury prevention. The second is that without the proper form, you are less likely to achieve maximum benefit from that exercise. This article will show several common exercises with the form issues commonly seen and the correct way each exercise should per performed.
Abdominal Crunches:
As demonstrated here, the common mistake is for people to wrap their hands behind their head and pull their head forward. This puts strain on the neck and should be avoided at all costs.

Instead if you need slight neck support, place your fingertips lightly behind your head with your elbows pointed out wide to the sides. Engage your core, pressing your belly button towards the floor and lift your chest up until your shoulder blades leave contact with the floor making sure not to pull on your head or neck. If you are unable to do this without pulling on your neck you can place your hands either to your sides or straight out in front of you.
Squats/Lunges:
A common mistake is to allow your knees to go in front of your toes during a squat or lunge. You want to avoid this as it puts stress on your knee joints.
The proper way to perform a squat is to sit back like you are going to sit in a chair with your weight in your heels with knees not going beyond your toes. During a lunge, your starting stance should allow for your front leg to be in a 90 degree angle with that front knee directly in line over that front ankle when in an end position.

Push Ups:
There are several mistakes often made when doing a pushup that you want to avoid. This includes dropping your head, letting you hips dip or lifting your bootie up as you can see in the below examples.


When performing a pushup you want to make sure you spine stays aligned from the top of your head all the way down to your tailbone and that you core remains engaged. Do not let your hips sag or let your bootie stick up in the air.

Tricep Kickbacks:
A mistake frequently seen during this exercise is where the weight is thrown back (while the below picture is a bit over dramatized, this is to show that when the exercise is done using momentum, form is greatly compromised often resulting in an arch in the spine). This happens when too heavy of a weight is chosen for the exercise.

Start this exercise by choosing a weight that will allow you to keep the upper arm in place while maintaining a steady, controlled motion at the elbow. Lean slightly forward at the hips with your back straight and core engaged. Lift your elbows back and hinging at the elbow, straighten your forearm arm behind you.

Picking up a weight:
The best way to strain your back is to pick up a weight incorrectly. This is particularly important as you move up in weight. The common mistake I have seen is bending over with a rounded back to grab weights and swinging back up to a seated or standing position.
Proper positioning to pick up weights to a standing position (or anything heavy for that matter) includes sitting back into a squat with your weight in your heels, keep a straight back with core engaged, picking up the weight then pushing back up through your heels “lifting with your legs.” When in a seated position maintain the same principal of keeping a straight back with an engaged core.

