How do I know if my technique is correct?

Please remember the advice we give is general and not meant to be used as a substitute for professional medical or health advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you want specific advice then please seek help from your doctor or local physio.

Despite what you may have heard, technique is not especially important when it comes to resistance training exercise.

The goal of resistance training is simply to make your muscles work hard against a resistance. There are thousands of exercises which have been developed to do this, and often they come with a list of rules in order to perform these with supposed "correct technique".

However, all of these exercises are just arbitrarily made up movements. Everybody is different. We all have varying joint shapes, bone lengths and body proportions, meaning that its naive to think there is only one correct way to do a physical movement. Put simply, there is a no "one size fits all" technique.

Ask 10 random people to squat, and you'll see 10 different squats. In fact, even ask an experienced weightlifter to do 10 squats, and each one of his squats will have slight differences and discrepancies - this is research that has actually been done!

The majority of research looking into exercise technique to date has not demonstrated that technique prevents injury. It may have some relevance to performance, but this only matters if you're chasing athletic glory, not so much if you just want to be fitter, stronger and healthier.

So, in summary:

• all exercises are just made up movements
• every body is different
• even experienced weightlifters can't perfectly repeat their own technique each time
• technique isn't a reliable predictor of injury

So if technique isn't so important, what is?

We have a saying: "preparation trumps technique"

What this means is, it's better and more important to be prepared for an exercise than to do it "perfectly".

You become prepared for an exercise by starting with a weight that is manageable for you, and then gradually increase that weight over time. This way you gradually build up strength and capacity. So that when you go to lift that heavy weight, your body is prepared for it.

When you are doing these exercises, it's sensible to try and do it in the same way each time, with your own "unique technique". That way you are efficiently training and targeting the same muscles each time. But understand that this technique does not have to fit some supposed perfect norm, its ok to do it in a way that works for you.

Watch the video below to better understand why preparation trumps technique.