In order to fully grasp your potential within the weight room, you need to be relentless with your technique. Be critical of where you could be better and address the flaws within your program. Quite often people see programming as a chance to create an improved version of themselves with their strength or body image, but fail to use the gym as a way to improve the function or the body and minimise injury risk. It’s quite common for postural issues to creep into the way you move under a barbell, and without improving these issue long term, your chances of getting stronger are decreased as well as your chances of remaining injury free.
Video 1, 2 years ago:
I’d like you to take a look at 2 different videos, 2 years apart. They both show my girlfriend Kalina squatting 100kg for 1 repetition of a back squat. Within the first video we see the bar path deviate slightly as the hips kick upwards, out of sync with the rising of the torso. Whilst the squat itself passes below parallel, we see the trunk struggling to stabalise the weight on the accent. The knees do not track very far forwards and the emphasis is placed firmly on the glute musculature to save the lift and return the barbell to the rack safely. At the time of her doing this lift, we were very proud of her recent strength improvements and began looking forwards to adding even more weight to the bar over time. I did however begin to address the need for more mobility and quad drive to clean the lift up. My main focus was the tightness within the posterior chain and to address this we included as much incline board work as possible. Hitting full trunk flexion in a standing position with the toes elevated on an incline board will allow for a full calf, hamstring, and lumbar stretch. Let’s fast forwards to now, 2 years later.
Video 2, now:
The below video shows a very recently completed 100kg squat. Yes the camera quality has also improved during this time, thank you iPhone. Whilst assessing this squat we see a far lower squat, performed with very nicely balanced decent and accent. The torso remains upright, the shins translate forwards and the hips rise at the same time as the trunk. There is still a slightly deviating bar path due to the extensive loading, however when compared to before, it’s like watching 2 different people. Throughout this time, Kalina has placed at least 10 minutes worth of specific mobility work prior to her lifting. Pause lifts during the warm up have also sometimes been a feature, as well as being critical of every lift and adding extra stretching if required. This improvement in technique has not only been apparent when addressing the squat either. Her deadlifts have progressively gotten better, smoother and slightly stronger too.
Be critical and check your ego:
The idea of constantly adding weight to the bar and not addressing the quality of your lifts is a recipe for long term disaster. I’ve always been an advocate for mobility assessments and the correct interventions to improve mobility/technique and long term outcomes. Without a watchful eye and an ego check, there is not going to be the fairytale you are after with your new found love of lifting heavy. I like to look at it as taking a step backwards to take 2 forwards. This is something that should be done often and throughout your lifting career. Whilst it hurts a little bit to do so (mentally), the long term outcomes will exceed your expectations greatly. I feel like with my above example of Kalina, I have seen even more improvement than what was once thought possible. Short term, we thought the first 100kg squat 2 years ago was a big improvement, and it was. Looking back now though, I wish I had some video of 4 or 5 years ago. Those little things that add up over time really are what it is all about in this game. It isn’t about never being satisfied but it is definitely about keeping an open mind to how far you really can go with the right approach.
My biggest pieces of advice would be to:
1) Get a proper movement assessment first.
2) Program with the intention of improving lifting quality as well as strength.
3) Video everything, small wins will happen often if you know where to look.
4) Be patient, work with a coach and think about 1-2 years from now, not 1-2 months.
5) Take steps back in order to take them forwards. Injuries suck, don’t rush things.