The Intersection of Progress and Safety

Hot take: constantly obsessing over technique is overkill.

It should remain perpetually self evident that technique is always at the forefront of how we move. Furthermore, if you spend the appropriate amount of time learning movement before testing it then your default patterning under load will likely keep you safe. But, if all we ever did was lift weights at a load that allowed for our movement positions to remain unchallenged then we’d never progress. If we want to push adaptation then a degree of discomfort needs to exist, both psychologically and physiologically. Conversely, if you are so focused on constantly challenging your positioning through load to the fullest extent possible then there is little doubt that over time you will develop overuse conditions or injuries.

The rub is that proper technique is not only important to stay healthy but its important to get results. Proper technique allows us to initiate the right motor recruitment in the right muscles, and place stress on the soft tissue not the joints. Think of a deadlift. Too much weight sends the stress into the joints of our lumbar spine, where the right amount of weight sends it into the soft tissue of the posterior chain. The trick is carefully walking that fine line of enough load to challenge, not overwhelm your technique.

As you embark on this month’s training keep the following goldilocks scenarios in mind.

Too Much: “I don’t feel great today, but if I don’t do the maximum weight I am physically capable of doing I won’t get better”

Too Little: “All I want to do is a get a nice sweat, I don’t do want to do anything that feels too strenuous.”

Just Right: “I think I can move that weight, but I am just a little out of my comfort zone doing so.”

This is the intersection of where progress and safety reside. Your coach will catch shoddy technique, but we cannot increase the physiological stress that’s needed to progress. That needs to come from you.

Level up.

-Dave