Thoughts About "Right" and "Wrong" Technique (Part 1...?)

The training world is absolutely full of people who want to tell you what to do and how to do it.  Hit these macros, do those lifts, move this way, and you'll be set.  Do any of those things the "wrong" way, and you're setting yourself up for disaster.  Do them the "right" way, and you're likely (if not guaranteed) to see good results.

It makes sense that this is the case, too.  People are busy, and they want quick and easily digestible info on how to exercise.  Training/exercise professionals want to give useful nuggets that can inspire others to be active while also giving off an air of confident expertise.

Unfortunately, it isn't really that simple.  Before we can really make value decisions about an exercise or how to execute it, we have to accept that these things are relative.  We have to realize that in a world of practical advice, the notion of an absolute right and wrong is flawed.  Human beings are just far too varied in too many ways for us to assign a single set of training priorities to everyone.  Note that when I say "training priorities," I'm not only talking about which exercises to do or how much of those exercises to do in a given span of time; I'm also referring to the ways those exercises are executed.

Let's look at an example of joint position for a single exercise. 

An argument is made for maintaining a "neutral" joint position while performing Exercise A.  How do we define that?  I've seen several different definitions of "neutral."  Here are a few:

• Right between two extremes" (e.g. halfway between maximum available flexion and maximum available extension)
  • Do we mean active range of motion extremes, or passive?
  • Do we use those extremes only at the beginning of the exercise, or do we reevaluate throughout the exercise and set a new "neutral" if additional range becomes available during the session?
  • Do we only apply this principle to a single joint/set of joints, or do we apply it (potentially) to ALL joints that have a meaningful involvement in Exercise A?
• Where the joint "naturally" sits
  • Ignoring how "naturally" can be twisted to mean different things, do we mean where that joint naturally sits while we're asleep?  While we're lying down?  While we're standing?  
  • What if this position is simultaneously one that we might otherwise consider to be "bad" posture?  Do we take that into account?  Does posture even matter to us here?  Why or why not?
  • Do we ignore pain/discomfort in cases where typical joint forces seem to put it into a position that's not comfortable?  This dovetails into the next definition >>>
• Where the joint is most comfortable (potentially least painful)
  • What if the most comfortable position is different under different circumstances?  For instance, maybe a person is quite comfortable with an internally rotated shoulder while they're standing, but that shoulder is in excruciating pain if it remains internally rotated while a person is lying down (or lying on one side but not another).
  • What if the joint has one position that feels best statically, but there are different positions/ranges that feel better when the individual is moving through them?  (I have a recently reconstructed knee that serves as a great example of this)

Plenty of people can accommodate these hip and spine positions while lying on their backs but NOT while sitting as depicted here.

So just with a simple joint position guideline, we see that executing an exercise the "right" way might involve a lot of fiddling and experimentation.  A straightforward rule or tip quickly becomes anything but straightforward as we start to unpack what those terms really mean and what is implied.  Thus, the most honest answer we can often give on how to perform an exercise is one that is based in how the person performing it feels and what is likely to be happening (from a mechanical and physiological standpoint).  That's it.  The numerous questions that we can ask all serve as reminders that a desirable movement, position, etc. might look very different for two different people.

Now just to be clear: This is not an attempt to tell trainers and coaches to stop giving tips!  There are a lot of very helpful, actionable pointers that we can give to the public when it comes to training.  I'm ALSO not saying that trainers/coaches who give simple guidelines (e.g. "keep your back straight during this lift") are unaware that the realities are more complicated than a simple infographic, tweet, IG post, etc. can convey.  Many of these people are quite smart and are more than capable of explaining a lot of the variables listed above.

What I am suggesting is that we soften our language or approach a bit so that it is more of a "here's something to think about" proposition, as opposed to a declaration of exercise rules.  It's easy to forget that while we might know that there is more nuance behind the simple verbiage we use, the people reading our words -- be they average people, journeyman lifters, athletes, or other coaches -- often do not.  With that in mind, let's try to consider whether we can use verbiage that is simple but still acknowledges that mileage can and will vary, particularly when we are talking about exercise technique.

So if nothing else is taken away from this, just remember that appropriate technique -- that is, technique that respects YOUR body -- will need to change depending on your needs and tolerances (and how much it changes will probably depend on which exercise you're talking about, when you're doing it, how it's "loaded," etc.)

Tell yourself and your clients: It's okay if your body doesn't move exactly the way someone else's does.  It's okay if what feels best for you or your client is different from what someone else -- even veteran coaches or world-renowned Canadian spinal biomechanics experts -- might suggest ;)

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- G