Listen to your body: Change posture, resistance

Postural adjustments can make a significant positive impact on the quality of one’s exercise technique — but knowing when and how to adjust posture can be tricky. It helps if you can recognize a few indicators that signal a postural change is needed.

Strength training, at any level, always presents the exerciser with a trade-off. The internal dialogue that takes place is usually something along the lines of:

“I am going to lift more weight.”

“Wait, I also must maintain good form.”

“How much weight can I lift while maintaining good form?”

“Don’t be a coward. Pain is weakness leaving the body!”

Even if this is not a conscious thought, the exerciser makes this decision — lift or stop — dozens of times during a given strength session. As the individual becomes more experienced, the decision becomes easier and more automatic.

The trouble is, we aren’t always self-aware enough to know when we are making concessions in form for the sake of lifting more weight.

A little dumbbell swing here or there goes unnoticed, and the risk for injury increases while the quality of the workout decreases. It can be difficult to navigate.

There are two identifying characteristics of poor form. When either of these two things happens, it is time to lower the amount of weight or change your posture, or both.

■ The first identifying characteristic is a shortened range of motion. The hips are not lowered far enough during a squat, the elbows fail to reach full extension during a triceps press.

■ The second characteristic is an increase in repetition speed that causes postural changes. Swinging dumbbells wildly during a shoulder raise is a great example.

Reducing resistance is certainly one way to curtail harmful form concessions, but there are also some easy ways to do the same exercise with different posture.

If you’ve been standing, sit down. That’s a good one. The seated posture increases stability, lowers the center of gravity and makes an exerciser less likely to sacrifice form. An overhead press, for example, is far easier to control in a seated position as compared to standing.

The half-kneeling position is even better, because it’s almost impossible to swing dumbbells or lean back to hoist a weight. For those often challenged with “cheating” during an upper body exercise, the half-kneeling position could be the ticket to success.

Of course, this week’s exercise is performed in the half-kneeling position. The Half-Kneeling Curl and Press demonstrates how form quality can be dramatically improved by simply changing posture.

1. Select a pair of light/medium dumbbells.

2. With one dumbbell in each hand, kneel with the right knee on the floor and left foot in front of you.

3. Maintaining a very upright posture, perform a normal dumbbell curl with both arms.

4. As the dumbbells reach your shoulders, press both arms straight overhead until they are fully extended.

5. Slowly lower the dumbbells to the shoulders, then extend the elbows to reverse the bicep curl and return to the starting position.

6. Repeat this sequence for two sets of 12 repetitions.

The Half-Kneeling Curl and Press is a great way to test the theory that postural change can improve one’s form. Almost everyone has done curls and presses, but I’m guessing few people have tried either of them in the half-kneeling position, and even fewer have tried to combine them.

It’s a great way to ensure you maintain control to maximize your workout effectiveness. Enjoy!

Matt Parrott has a doctorate in education (sport studies) and a master’s in kinesiology and is certified by the American College of Sports Medicine.

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/CELIA STOREY Lorie Scott does a combo curl and press while kneeling with one leg, a position that makes it almost impossible for her to think she can lift more weight than her muscles can manage safely.