Don't let the program ruin your technique, or vice versa

There are two ways in which technique and training program are not coordinated, and thus we may find ourselves spending hours in the gym with little or no progress.

I'll give two examples that I see all the time. The first case was a few days ago, I saw someone performing a squat that seemed inspired by Mark Ripetto. He made sure that his knees didn't go past his toes in the squat, to the point that he would lose his balance and fall backwards. And in both the squat and the deadlift, he performed a serious overextension of his back (strong back contraction and relaxed stomach to highlight the chest) so that, God forbid, there would be a strain on his back (his words).

Since I try not to interfere in other people's lives without being asked, I bit my lip and said nothing. But when he asked me to look from the side to see if the knee did indeed pass the toe, I asked him if he had read Mark Ripetto's book, and perhaps that was his inspiration. He told me no, but that he had heard from a professional that it was important not to allow the knee to pass the toes.

After a few minutes of conversation, he said that the weights in his squats were so low because he was afraid to lift more weight and ruin the technique he had worked so hard to cultivate.

I see it all the time, people who are obsessed with technique that usually doesn't allow them to lift more weight, and is unlikely to prevent injuries. In that case they ruin their program with their technique, they won't add weight when they need to because their technique will be compromised.

The second case is also very common: an athlete approaches me and asks for my opinion regarding a particular exercise he is performing. Sometimes I will suggest a few things that should be improved, and I will even give the exercises and how to perform them to improve the deficiency I have seen.

One of the things I see a lot is a trainee who still insists on lifting heavy weights and correcting their technique, which is unlikely to succeed in my opinion. When the weight is heavy, the body will work automatically and in a way that is comfortable for it to lift so as not to get buried under the load. It is almost impossible to make changes to technique in such a situation.

Instead, you need to lower the weight to work on the new technique, and gradually return to the heavy weights and implement the new technique.

As with many other things, a plan and technique require balance and coordination so that each helps the other achieve the real goal, which is strength and control of heavy weights. And God forbid that technique be the reason for being weak and not adding weight. Or vice versa, that the plan takes up all the attention without seeing that technique does not improve if we do not lose weight.

We need to know which technique we should improve by lowering the weight, and which technique we should not insist on and simply add weight.

Personally, I avoid accepting and giving blanket recommendations for technique. For example, I am not saying that the back should not round in a deadlift, or vice versa, that the back should not round in a deadlift. I want to see exactly how the technique follows the trainee, and understand why it prevents us from progressing. Only if I understand why a particular technique prevents the trainee from progressing will I see fit to improve and change the technique, and this will have to be done by lowering weights an