Whether you’re a beginner in the gym and fitness world, or you’ve been doing it for years, there are some foundational movements that are important for everyone to think about, that are often done incorrectly. These movements form the foundation of many of the other movements that are performed in sports or just in daily life, and if they are regularly performed incorrectly they can lead to muscle imbalances and injuries.
The most important movements are functional – meaning that they mimic movements you complete in real-life, and compound – meaning that they use multiple joints and muscles together. These movements are more challenging because they require the body to work together and coordinate movement between body parts in a fluid motion, they engage the core and stabiliser muscles, and the use a lot of energy (burn calories!). As opposed to an isolation exercise that isolates one joint or muscle at a time, compound exercises give you a lot of ‘bang for your buck’.
Some of these foundational movements include
- Squat How to squat correctly
- Push How to push up correctly
- Pull How to pull correctly
- Crunch How to crunch correctly
Checking form
If you’re having a hard time correcting or checking your form, you can position yourself in front of a mirror to get a better look at what’s going on. You can have a friend watch or film you, or you can talk to a Trainer and ask them to take a look at your movements and help identify any areas of insufficiency.
