What’s up Guys! first post!
Form is dependent on the goal. I define correct form, as positioning the body is in best mechanical position to generate the greatest amount of Power. - However, this is because my goals are in power. If my goals were strength oriented. My form is going to change.
It’s important to identify the difference between power and strength. Power is the combination of Velocity and Force. Where strength is only concerned with force.
Correct, or perfect form is something that in unobtainable. Elite level athletes are a perfect example of this. They are always working on perfecting their form. Whether it’s swinging a golf club or olympic lifting or marathon running. There will always be mechanical problems that the athlete needs to be constantly working on.
With that said, form should never be compromised for an athlete. The main reason I feel this way, other than increased injury risk, is that poor form results in inaccurate motor patterns. An athlete needs his CNS firing in the correct order. Efficiency is very important.
Any misaligned joint of inactive muscle will result in leaks, or energy lost. This means poor performance, and decreased potential. Bodybuilding is completely different. They can sacrifice some form, since their goals are not performance based, but Hypertrophy based.
Time under tension, is a very important concept for hypertrophy and “cheating” will help to increase TUT as well as allow for a greater magnitude of tension resulting in more trauma done to the muscles.
There is more to it. It’s possible to cheat right, and cheat wrong. On a seated row, if you add a little swing, just so that you can really get the handle in tight, and then really hold, and slowly work the negative.
That’s Ok, you will be increasing your TUT, and hopefully creating more micro trauma than if you were to use less weight. But if your cheating by shrugging your shoulders, activating your upper traps to pull the weight in, that’s bad.
The purpose of the seated row, is to hit the middle traps(back), not the upper traps. By engaging the upper traps, you are only reducing the effectiveness of the exercise and not getting the middle back work that you are intending to do. Most people have overactive upper traps and this is a very common form error.
That’s my 2c!