Most people doing these five exercises have at least one form issue they don’t know about. That’s not a knock – form mistakes are normal, especially when you learned the exercise from watching someone else or following along with a video. The problem is they add up over time: wrong patterns mean less results and more risk of injury.
The coaches at Kraken Fitness in North Burnaby see these mistakes constantly. Here’s what they are and how to fix them.
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Mistake 1: Walking Lunges – Too Narrow a Stance
The most common walking lunge mistake is stepping like you’re on a tightrope – one foot almost directly in front of the other, with almost no width between your feet. It makes the exercise way harder to control than it needs to be, and not in a useful way.
When your stance is that narrow, you’re spending most of your energy just staying upright. Your body fights for lateral balance the entire time instead of actually loading your quads and glutes the way the exercise is designed to. You wobble. Your torso tilts. Your knees compensate. None of it helps.
The fix: as you step forward into each lunge, step out slightly to the side so your feet stay roughly shoulder-width apart throughout the movement. Think of it as walking on two separate train tracks, not one. You’re still moving forward, but there’s width in your base.
Once you make this adjustment, you’ll likely notice a few things right away – you can go deeper into the lunge without fighting for balance, you stay more upright through your torso, and you feel the exercise more in the muscles that are supposed to be working. The wider base makes the whole thing more stable and more effective.
Mistake 2: Planks – Hips Too High or Too Low
Planks look simple. That’s partly why the form issues are so common – most people set up, hold, and never think much about their position.
The two most frequent errors are opposite ends of the same problem: hips piking up into an inverted V shape, or sagging down with the lower back arching toward the floor. Both positions take the core out of the equation in different ways. The sagging version is the worse of the two – it loads the lower back in a way that adds up over time.
The correct position: your body should be a straight line from head to heels, parallel to the floor. Legs fully extended. Tailbone tucked slightly under – not sticking up, not dropped. Chest tall, not rounded forward. If you’re in the right spot, it should feel like a push-up position that you’re holding rather than pressing.
If you’re not sure which mistake you’re making, film yourself from the side. It takes one second and it usually shows people exactly what’s off. Most people are genuinely surprised by how different their actual position is from what they assumed they were doing.
Mistake 3: Hip Thrusts – Overextending at the Top
Hip thrusts are one of the best exercises for building glutes – when they’re done right. The most common mistake is driving too high at the top of the movement, which shifts the load away from the glutes and onto the lower back.
At the top of a hip thrust, your hips should be in line with your knees. Not higher. Once you push past that point, your lower back starts to extend to compensate for where the glutes have already stopped contributing. You’re no longer doing a glute exercise – you’re compressing your lower back.
Here’s how to correct it: before you drive up, establish a neutral spine at the bottom. Give your tailbone a slight tuck. Then push – but only until your hips reach knee height. Tailbone stays tucked under at the top of the rep. If you’re doing it correctly, you should feel the squeeze directly in your glutes at the finish, not in your lower back.
A useful image: think “flat tabletop” at the top of each rep. Flat, not arched. That tends to land for most people faster than thinking about specific angles or measurements. Try it on your next set and see if your glutes start working the way they should.
Mistake 4: Cable Face Pulls – Finishing Too Low
Cable face pulls are one of the best exercises for shoulder health and upper back development – and one of the most consistently done wrong.
The mistake: pulling the cable toward your face but finishing with your arms too low, almost like a row. When this happens, you’ve lost the whole point of the exercise. Face pulls exist to train shoulder external rotation and the muscles of the mid and upper back – your rear delts and rhomboids specifically. Pulling low takes those muscles out of the movement entirely.
The correct finish position is higher – think “goal post” or “box” with your arms. Pull the attachment toward your face while driving your elbows back and out, finishing with your upper arms roughly parallel to the floor and your hands near ear height. Your shoulder blades should be pulling together. You should feel the squeeze through your mid back and the back of your shoulders at the top.
When it’s right, it genuinely feels different from a row. The shoulder external rotation is the whole movement. Without it, you’re just pulling cable from one place to another without much benefit.
Mistake 5: Lat Pulldowns – Leaning Too Far Back
The lat pulldown is designed to be a vertical pull – bar traveling downward while your torso stays roughly upright. What most people actually do is lean back far enough that it becomes a diagonal or horizontal pull, which is essentially a seated cable row with different equipment.
A slight lean back is normal and fine. It helps with range of motion at the bottom of the pull. But once you’re leaning enough that the bar is traveling across your body rather than downward, you’ve changed the exercise. The lats lose the vertical loading they need, and the movement spreads across muscles that weren’t the target.
The fix: start sitting tall. Allow a small lean – maybe 10 to 15 degrees – but hold it there. Pull the bar downward toward your upper chest, not diagonally toward your stomach. You should feel your lats engaging through the full range, especially at the bottom of each pull.
Same advice as with planks: film yourself from the side if you’re not sure. Lean is one of those things that consistently feels like less than it looks. Most people who think they’re sitting relatively upright are surprised to see how far back they actually are.
FAQ
Why does stance width matter for walking lunges?
A narrow stance in walking lunges forces your body to spend energy on balance instead of loading the target muscles. Stepping out to shoulder width gives you a stable base so your quads and glutes can actually do the work the exercise is designed for.
What should a correct plank position look like?
A correct plank is a straight line from head to heels, parallel to the floor. Legs fully extended, tailbone tucked slightly under, chest tall. Neither piked up nor sagging. Film yourself from the side – most people find their actual position looks different from what they expected.
How high should my hips go during a hip thrust?
Drive your hips up until they’re in line with your knees – no higher. Going past that point shifts load from your glutes to your lower back. Keep your tailbone tucked at the top of every rep and think “flat tabletop” rather than arching up as high as possible.
What is the correct arm position for cable face pulls?
Finish with your arms in a “goal post” position – upper arms roughly parallel to the floor, hands near ear height, elbows back and out. Your shoulder blades should squeeze together at the top. Finishing too low turns the movement into a row and removes the shoulder rotation that makes face pulls effective.
How upright should I be when doing lat pulldowns?
A slight lean back – roughly 10 to 15 degrees – is fine and helps with range of motion. Any further than that and you’re turning a vertical pull into a row. Keep the bar traveling downward toward your upper chest, not diagonally across your body, and you’ll feel the lats working as intended.
Ready to Start?
If you’re in North Burnaby and want a coach watching your form from the start – not after months of building bad habits – Kraken Fitness offers a free trial week. The onboarding process includes a movement analysis so form issues get caught before they become patterns.
About the Author
Josko is the Founder & CEO of Kraken Fitness in North Burnaby. He’s been coaching for over 10 years and now spends just as much time developing his coaching staff as he does coaching clients directly.
Brandon is the Co-Owner & COO of Kraken Fitness. He brings the kinesiology background to the team and is the person Josko calls when a client asks a science question.
[Josko]
I bet you’re doing at least three of these exercises wrong. And if so, let’s fix them right now. One really common mistake that people do when they’re doing walking lunges is walking like they’re on a tightrope. So, they’re really narrow in their stance. Instead, what you want to do is you want to actually step out to the side so you’re still about shoulder width stance as you go into this walking lunge. This is going to give you a much wider base and allow you to be much more stable through the movement.
[Josko]
Another common mistake is when people are doing planks, it’s either their hips are too high or sagging down too low. Where ideally you want them is in a neutral position with your legs fully extended, tailbone tucked, and chest tall through here to maintain a neutral spine so you’re parallel with the floor.
[Josko]
Another super common mistake that most people make is going too high and overextending, putting more tension through their lower back during hip thrust. Now, in order to fix this, at the bottom, you want to ensure that you have a neutral spine. So, you’re going to do a slight tuck here. And then, as you extend, you’re only going to extend where your hips are in line with your knees, ensuring that your tailbone is tucked up underneath here. So, you’re putting that pressure through your glutes and not your lower back.
[Josko]
One thing that people get wrong when they’re doing their cable face pulls is their finish position is way too low. They’re doing it more so like a row. So instead, what you want to do is you want to pull back with your shoulder blades and you want to finish in a box or an upright position with your arms. So you’re getting more rotation from your shoulders and squeezing through your mid back.
[Josko]
The last common mistake I see all the time is when you’re doing a lat pulldown, leaning way too far back, turning this into a row. So instead of being a horizontal movement, you want to be in a much more upright vertical position – still leaning back a bit, but coming downwards rather than across your body. So, hopefully you learned something from that video. And if you want to learn more about these exercises, we have tons of them on our YouTube channel.