FBE (Form Before Everything)

When discussing training and exercise, form is always the staple of that conversation. Or if it’s not, it certainly should be. Whether you are starting out with training, or you’ve been exercising for a long time, form has the same impact. It is the key component of successful training. The reason for this, is that along with a sufficient warm up and cool down, form is the KEY to preventing injury. Also correct form ensures the right muscles are working and supporting us at any given time through an exercise, leading to correct muscle gain and strengthening.

As a Personal Trainer with a holistic approach, I love embracing the little nuances that make us different to each other. These nuances are what make us, well, us. This, whilst seemingly unrelated, can affect how we take on and learn proper form. The main reason for this is called ‘associative learning’. The basic definition of ‘associative learning’ is that our brains are processing so much information, all the time, that if we are shown something, our brains have the tendency to fill in the blanks and interpret what we are being shown as something similar it already knows from our experiences and knowledge. This means, when being taught form for the foundations of an exercise, progressions will follow much more easily as they already have the correct base to work from.

If you’re just getting started with training, firstly that’s fantastic. Congrats! And I hope I can take you further on your fitness journey! Secondly you MUST make it a habit to make sure you have correct form with any given exercise. The amount of times I have seen clients, trainers and coaches, in training sessions, completely ignore errors in form is crazy. I can’t say whether it’s because they simply didn’t notice at any given moment, or if there was some other reason, but complete focus and concentration aren’t just required from the client, but from the coach as well, when it comes to establishing correct form.

As a health & fitness professional, honing one’s skills is something we are always looking to do. Fundamental learning is never out of our thoughts for too long. Whether we are improving our teaching techniques and explanations of different exercises, or gaining new qualifications, learning about new scientific principals or new ways of training, there are always improvements to make. And the guiding and primary principal to ensure we train our clients correctly is form.

FBE is the acronym I like to use, Form Before Everything. 

Using the internet for guidance as a starting point is a great way to get started. Make sure you do your research though. There’s a lot of misinformation out there when it comes to training (which I’m sure I’ll discuss in the future) so make sure any tutorials or demonstration videos come from reputable sources, who have knowledge based around scientific research. This leads onto another facet which will make analysing your form easier: Anatomy. Now by no means do you need to get a degree in the subject, but a base knowledge of which muscles and joints are to be engaged, or moved respectively, will definitely help you. Not only will it expand your knowledge of training and its foundations, but it will also help you further down the line. If you want to target a specific muscle or muscle group, for example, during your workouts or you want to make your own programme, this knowledge will be a great base to build on.

When you start to blend your knowledge and physical video feedback and associate it with how muscle engagement feels, you can then start to build a mind to muscle connection. These connections need to be trained, adjusted and strengthened over time as well, creating fundamental reflex actions, making correct form and muscle engagement second nature, allowing more mental and physical focus to be implemented throughout an exercise. What this basically means is, when the engagements of an exercise require less thought, you can focus more on lifting heavier weights, or increasing your range of motion during a bodyweight exercise, for example.   

If you’re weight training, bodyweight training or learning new techniques, start performing an exercise with very little to no weight, and make use of your new best friend, your phone camera. Video yourself performing one slow rep and one slightly faster rep and compare the differences between the two. This method is merely for observational purposes only. When performing the exercise during a working set (i.e. after any warm up work, or practice repetitions) make sure your tempo is smooth and controlled. This is very important as, when weight is added or another facet of the exercise is made more difficult, the injury risk becomes greater so taking extra care is hugely important. 

I would recommend filming yourself from three angles – the front, side and back. This way, you can analyse your form much more clearly. You can also see which muscles are engaged correctly or incorrectly, whilst also being able to notice any discrepancies in movement, for example, if you’re leaning over to one side too much during a back squat, or during a lunge your hips aren’t quite in alignment. It’s amazing what you can pick up just by watching yourself back and comparing it to form you have learned, or been taught previously.

When I first started training, around 10 years ago, I taught myself using YouTube and the internet, and yes, I made mistakes along the way just as we all would without guidance, but a real revolution came about for me when I started training with my PT, who would video our sessions through using his phone and show them to me. Now the thought had crossed my mind before, and I don’t know why I didn’t implement it sooner. I think there was a psychological element that maybe I’d be taking my training too seriously, or just the faff and hassle of setting up a camera, or even just filling up space on my phone and not watching anything back. It was probably a combination of all of these, but in all seriousness it’s probably the best thing I ever did for my own training to implement it. It completely revolutionised how I performed my exercises. Sometimes you instantly know when an exercise feels right, but sometimes you only think it feels right when actually your body angles, or joint movement or whatever else, are actually some way off. But being able to have a reference to look at, you can definitively see what is working and what is not. For me it is like driving a timed lap on a racetrack, only you have your best timed lap driving the track with you so you can correct your racing line as you go.

Everyone works differently and has their own unique way of doing things, which should be celebrated 100%, so there will be a multitude of different approaches to doing this. I would recommend using a phone, as it’s something you will always have with you. If you can’t find someone wherever you’re working out to help video you, don’t worry. You can always just prop a phone against a piece of equipment, a water bottle or buy a mini-tripod. If you want any recommendations, tips or tricks for equipment, angles or shot setup, just get in touch and I can give you some advice.

I will be sharing tips and tricks in my mailing list emails to so don’t forget to sign up for those as well. On signing up to the mailing list you also get access to the Raise The Game Discord channel, where there is a private Mailing List members discussion group. You can ask any questions of me or the community. And you can also check out any of the other chats on the Discord channel. 

Also if you have any questions about the content of this article, head over to the contact page and send me a message. I’d love to have a chat with you about it, or give you any further advice.

I hope this article will help you Raise Your Game.