Pick up any muscle building mag or book and you can also find people referring to ‘form’.

But what it is it – and is it important?

Well, firstly, you can find just as many people who say it’s not that important, as there are who say it is. So I haven’t got a clue who to believe.

But form is just the way you lift and hold the weight to get the most out of the three types of muscle contraction, which are: concentric, isometric, and eccentric.

Picture this: when you pick up your coffee mug and drink, that your bicep doing a concentric contraction.

When you plonk it back down, that’s eccentric contraction.

And when it just hovers by your mouth because it’s too hot, that’s isometric – or static – contraction.

Now picture doing the same with weights. You want to try and crow bar in all the contractions to get the most from the exercise.

You want as many muscle fibres as possible to contract (they are like light switches, they either contract or don’t do anything at all).

The more fibres you’ recruit’ to contract, the more stimulus your muscles get – so the more they’ll grow. So by concentrating on the three contractions you getting the most you can out of each rep.

Scientifically, it makes good sense to pay attention to ‘form’, whether you’re a skinny guy, or average guy.