RIO Fitness Chicago® Exercise & Nutrition Blog

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

PROPER FORM is essential during exercise! Improper form is putting a lot of pressure on our spine, joints, and ligaments which eventually will lead to injury and chronic daily pain when we're older.

Proper form examples:

When doing squats/lunges, keep your upper body upright & your knees behind your toes. Also, always push off of your heels not your toes, when doing anything (running/walking/jumping/lower body exercises), to not overdevelop your quadriceps; which causes an imbalance in your lower body = eventual injury.

When doing crunches, don't put your arms behind your head = neck/cervical spine pressure. Instead, cross your arms over your chest, and as you come up, look up to the ceiling. This is so you don't come up neck first, but your upper body will come up as one piece.

When holding anything (free weights/machine handle/etc) make sure your thumb is relaxed. Don't wrap it over your other fingers, because then you will be putting more focus in your forearm instead of the muscle you're trying to focus on.