We all cheat. Maybe not in the sense that we all
prearrange the Candyland cards or cork our bats or something, but we do
it. Blame it on our bodies.
The body, like water, will always
go the easiest way. It will always
use momentum and leverage and other handy tricks to avoid expending muscle
energy. Easiest, however, is not
always most useful or most efficient or even safest. And so the handy warning poster was born: lift with your knees, not your back,
for example.
Good form requires that we
remember our brains are the boss of our bodies. We can choose to pull our shoulder blades down our backs
when we lift things overhead to reduce stress on our necks. We can use our abdominals to improve
our balance so we never have to use the “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up”
button.
Maybe for a while we won’t be
able to lift weights that are quite as heavy as we thought we could when we don’t
cheat. We can’t lift at all when
we are injured, however.
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