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Pushup

What You Are Probably Doing Wrong
You're letting your hips sag as you raise and lower your body.

Perfecting Form
1. When in the pushup position, your posture should look the same as it would if you were standing up straight and tall,. Your hips shouldn't sag or hiked up. Your upper back shouldn't be rounded.

2. Before you start, contract and stiffen your core the way you would if you had to zip up a really tight jacket. Hold it that way for the duration of your set. Your body should remain rigid as you perform the exercise.

3. Don't just push your body up; push your hands through the floor. You'll generate more power with every repetition.

Squat

What You Are Probably Doing Wrong
You're starting the movement by bending your knees.

Perfecting Form
. Sit back between your legs, not on top of your knees. Start your squats by pushing your hips back. Most men tend to bend their knees first, which puts more stress on their joints.

2. When you squat, imagine you're standing on a paper towel. Try to rip the towel apart by pressing your feet hard into the floor and outward. This activates your glutes, which helps you use heavier weights.

3. Instead of raising your body, think about pushing the floor away from your body. This helps you better engage the muscles in your legs.

Rows and Pullups

What You Are Probably Doing Wrong
You're ignoring the muscles that retract your shoulder blades.

Perfect Your Form
1. When doing bent-over and seated rows, and any pullup variation, create as much space between your ears and shoulders as you can. Pull your shoulders down and back and hold them that way as you do the exercise. This ensures you're working the intended middle-and upper-back muscles.

2. As you row the weight, stick your chest out. This allows you to better retract your shoulder blades, which will lead to better results.

3. Imagine there's an orange between your shoulder blades. Then try to squeeze the juice out of it with your shoulder blades as you pull the weight.

Bench Press

What You Are Probably Doing Wrong
You're thinking only about pushing the bar up from your chest.

Perfecting Form
1. Every time you lower the weight, squeeze your shoulder blades together and pull the bar to your chest. This will help you build up energy in your upper body so that you can press the bar up with more force.

2. As you pull the weight down, lift your chest to meet the barbell. This will aid your efforts to create a spring-like effect when you start to push the bar back up.

3. When you press the weight, try to bend the bar with your hands. You'll activate more muscle fibers in your lats and move the bar in a stronger and safer path for your shoulders.

Straight-Leg Deadlift

What You Are Probably Doing Wrong
You're rounding your lower back as you bend over.

Perfecting Form
1. When you lower the weight, pretend you're holding a tray of drinks and need to close the door behind you with your butt. This cues you to bend over by pushing your hips back instead of rounding your lower back, putting you at risk for back problems.

2. Try to 'shave your legs' with the bar. The reason: Every degree the bar is away from your body places more strain on your back, which increases your chance of injury and limits the emphasis on your hamstrings and glutes.

3. As you lift the bar, squeeze your glutes like two fists. You will ensure that you're engaging your butt muscles. This helps you generate more power, lift more weight, and produce better results.

Lunge

What You Are Probably Doing Wrong
You're leaning forward, causing your front heel to rise.

Perfect Your Form
1 When you lunge, keep your torso upright, and focus on moving it up and down, not backward and forward. This will keep your weight balanced evenly through your front foot, allowing you to press hard into the floor with your heel, working more muscle.

2 Drop your back knee straight down to the floor. Consider this a second strategy to help you remember that you should drop your torso down, not push it forward, as you do the exercise.

3 To work your core harder, narrow your starting stance. The smaller the gap between your feet, the more your core has to work to stabilize your body. Your goal: Lunge so that it's almost like you're walking on a tightrope as you perform the exercise.