Exactly What You Need to Know Before You Start Lifting Weights
When you’re starting a weight-lifting program, it can be tough to remember proper technique—and tempting to fly through your workout without focusing on your form. However, this is a surefire way to get injured, says Julian Hayes, author of Body Architect. “The best way to ensure your long-term safety is to learn proper technique for all of the exercises you’re doing, which means you should start with basic moves and stick to them for a while,” says Hayes. After all, basic exercises will help you establish a solid foundation upon which the more advanced moves are built. (Here are 8 effective exercises for weight loss and how to do them properly.) And whatever you do, remember the phrase “quality trumps quantity,” adds Hayes. “It may be tempting to think that the more exercises you do per session, the better your results will be, but that isn’t the case,” he says.