Good Form: What Does Good Exercise Technique Actually Mean?

What does good form actually mean?

You'll often hear that there's a right and wrong way to perform an exercise.

Keep your back straight. Knees behind your toes. Shoulders back and down. Feet pointing forwards.

Unfortunately, human beings aren't built identically and exercises don't all require the same positions.

Good technique is important, but it's a little more complicated than following a universal checklist.

WHAT IS GOOD FORM?

I'd define good form as:

Performing an exercise with a technique that is appropriate for the movement, the individual, the load and what you're trying to achieve.

Someone squatting a maximal weight won't necessarily move exactly like someone performing a light goblet squat.

A powerlifter won't necessarily deadlift like a weightlifter.

Someone with long femurs might squat differently to someone with short femurs.

And someone lifting a natural stone definitely isn't going to look like they're demonstrating a kettlebell deadlift in a textbook.

Context matters.

There are still some useful principles we can apply.

CONTROL THE MOVEMENT

Generally, you should be in control of the weight rather than desperately trying to survive it.

That doesn't mean every repetition needs to be painfully slow.

It means you should understand the movement you're trying to perform and be capable of maintaining an appropriate technique as fatigue and load increase.

Technique will naturally change slightly when something gets heavy.

That's normal.

But if every repetition increasingly resembles a completely different exercise, the load may have exceeded what you can currently control.

USE A RANGE OF MOTION YOU CAN MANAGE

There isn't one correct range of motion for every person and every exercise.

Your available range will depend on the exercise, your anatomy, mobility, experience and what you're trying to achieve.

Generally, use as much range as is useful for the goal and that you can control comfortably.

Over time, that range can often be developed.

You don't need to force yourself into somebody else's positions simply because that's what their squat looks like.

YOUR SPINE CAN MOVE

You'll often hear that the spine must remain perfectly neutral during exercise.

A relatively stable spinal position can be extremely useful when handling heavy loads, particularly in exercises such as squats and deadlifts.

But your spine is also designed to bend, extend and rotate.

Movement itself isn't inherently dangerous.

Some exercises deliberately train spinal movement. Others require you to resist it.

The important question isn't:

"Did my spine move?"

It's:

"Was that movement appropriate for what I was trying to do, and was I prepared for the load?"

YOUR KNEES CAN GO OVER YOUR TOES

This one deserves killing off properly.

Your knees are allowed to travel forwards past your toes.

They do it when you walk, run, climb stairs and perform plenty of perfectly sensible exercises.

Depending on your anatomy and the exercise you're performing, allowing the knees to travel forwards can be completely normal and useful.

Rather than obsessing about keeping the knee directly above the ankle, concentrate on maintaining a stable foot and controlling the movement.

Likewise, your knees don't always have to track in one perfectly predetermined line.

YOUR FEET DON'T HAVE TO POINT STRAIGHT AHEAD

Your stance should suit you and the exercise.

Some people naturally squat comfortably with their feet almost straight.

Others need more turnout.

Neither is automatically correct.

Experiment with stance width and foot angle until you find a position that allows you to perform the movement comfortably and effectively.

YOUR SHOULDERS DON'T ALWAYS NEED TO BE "BACK AND DOWN"

"Shoulders back and down" can be a useful cue for certain exercises.

It isn't a rule for human movement.

Your shoulder blades are supposed to move.

When you raise your arms overhead, for example, your shoulder blades naturally rotate and move around your ribcage.

Trying to permanently pin them down can actually interfere with the movement you're trying to perform.

Again:

Use the position appropriate for the exercise.

CREATE TENSION WHERE YOU NEED IT

One thing from the old BearWolf checklist that absolutely survives is learning how to create tension.

For heavy compound exercises, being able to brace and create a stable position can make you considerably stronger and give you more control over the load.

Useful cues might include:

Grip the floor.

Grip the bar hard.

Brace your trunk.

Create tension before you move the weight.

You might hear a coach tell you to "bend the bar", "spread the floor" or "screw your feet into the ground."

These aren't literal instructions.

They're cues designed to help you create the muscular tension required for that particular lift.

And different cues work for different people.

TECHNIQUE SHOULD BE REPEATABLE

This is one of the things I look for most when coaching.

Can you perform the movement consistently?

If five repetitions look like five completely different exercises, there's probably something worth working on.

As you become more experienced, your technique should generally become more repeatable and efficient.

That gives us something we can progressively load.

GOOD FORM ISN'T ONE PERFECT SHAPE

This is probably the most important point.

There isn't a single perfect technique that guarantees you'll never get injured.

And moving outside some imaginary perfect alignment doesn't mean you've damaged yourself.

Training itself involves exposing the body to stress.

The aim is to develop your ability to tolerate and produce that stress progressively.

Technique is one tool that helps us perform movements effectively, manage load and target what we're trying to train.

It isn't a magical protective forcefield.

IN CLOSING

Good form matters.

But good form doesn't mean forcing everybody into identical positions.

It means finding a technique that works for your body, the exercise you're performing, the load you're using and the outcome you're trying to achieve.

Learn the movement.

Control it.

Create tension where you need it.

Use an appropriate range of motion.

Build the load progressively.

And don't panic because your knee travelled two centimetres past your toe.

If you're unsure, that's where a good coach becomes useful. Sometimes a small adjustment can make an exercise feel completely different.