Why Is Good Technique Important?

Let’s face it. We’ve all found ourselves cringing as we watch someone sling there weights from A to B in a race to lift the heaviest dumbbells on the rack. Regardless of whether you are a qualified health professional or not, we can all recognise this is not the best way to achieve your goals.

Here are just a couple of reasons why good technique is important…

Safety and Injury Prevention

For me personally, I think this is the most important reason to have good form or technique. The main reason people’s technique falters is due to excessive load (i.e. your weights are to heavy). Decreasing load to ensure you follow the correct movement patterns will give you longevity with your training as it will take the strain off you joints, ligaments and tendons. It will also help you to maintain good alignment, flexibility and functionality. Whilst there are certain guidelines to follow for each exercise we do, it isn’t always black and white. Listen to your body and don’t be afraid to alter you technique slightly so that it feels better and lessens the strain on your body. I think it’s also important here to identify how proper breathing technique can reduce risk while training. Holding your breath increases internal pressure putting stress on your pelvic floor, increasing your blood pressure and increases risk of heart problems and aneurisms. Good breathing technique can help you generate more force in your movements and focus better on getting the best results.

Mind Muscle Connection

Having good form or technique will allow you to engage your muscles better and more consistently. If your form is sloppy you will be using other muscle groups to perform each action. As we touched on earlier this can compromise your safety and impact on your results. If you’re struggling to get a good muscle contraction try changing something about your technique rather than switching up your entire routine. Slow your movements down and focus on controlling both the concentric and eccentric phase of each movement. This will allow you to perform each movement with more purpose therefore improving your mind muscle connection. If you train with good technique every time you movements will become more efficient and autonomous.

Better Results

If you have big goals and your results are important to you (which I’m sure they are) then good technique can play a major role in allowing you to achieve your results a lot sooner. Not only will good technique keep you coming back by ensuring your safety and reducing the risk of you having to sit out because you are nursing an injury. But it will also improve the effectiveness of your training as your technique will be fine-tuned, specific to your goals and tailored to your individual needs. Good technique will optimise working time and fast track results.

Exercises come with set instruction and directions for a reason. Whilst it can be advantageous to tweak technique from time to time, it’s still very important to have a strong starting platform. Picking up technique isn’t always easy but it is something you should always strive to improve or maintain regardless of your goals and training experience. If you have hit a wall with your training or constantly find yourself having to take time off due to injury, now is a great time to employ the help of a qualified health professional. Remember good technique trumps higher load any day of the week. Good technique is the key to success no matter if you are chasing improved sports performance or you just want to stay safe in the gym.

xx Tara

Whats the hardest technique you have had to master? Let me know in the comments below.

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