Too many people sacrifice good technique and exercise form for the sake of doing a few more repetitions or lifting a little bit more weight. While this may seem like a good idea to speed up your progress, it is in fact the worst thing you can do.
Using proper technique when training allows you to more directly recruit the target muscles, thereby maximizing the effectiveness of the exercise. It also prevents injuries, creation of faulty movement patterns, bad posture, and looking like a goofball.
And I know, you're saying all that's nice and well, but what comprises good technique? Well, here're some basic pointers that will get you started on the right path.
Neutral Spine: Chest up, shoulders back and down.
For just about every exercise you care to do, with some exceptions, you want to have a "neutral spine." What this means is that you bring your chest up, rotate your shoulder blades back and down (scapular retraction and depression), while keeping your lower back slightly arched and your abs tight. This allows for the most "core stabilization" safeguarding you from injury. It also places your joints in the correct position to perform most movements and allows your muscles to have the proper range of motion.
Proper range of motion:
Using a proper range of motion is extremely important. Your muscles are meant to work through a specific range, and you want to make sure that they become strong through the entire range as this increases overall strength, muscular balance, and also safeguards you from injury.
This also makes sure that your muscles stay flexible and pliable through their entire range, laying waste to the myth that if you lift weights you're going to lose your flexibility. This only happens if you do partial movements and don't allow your muscles to get stronger through their entire range of motion.
Squat:
Keep a neutral spine. Initiate the squat by bending at the hips and then the knees, as if you're sitting back and down. Keep your foot flat on the floor throughout. Maintain a slightly arched lower back and tight core, with your chest up and your shoulder blades retracted.
Assuming your flexibility and joint health allows this, squat to below parallel. What this means is that your hip goes down below the level of the knee. While there is a myth that this is bad for the knees, it is not so. In fact, the greatest shear force through the knee is found in a parallel, or just above parallel, squat position, making it the most stressful to the knees.
Try to look ahead as you squat, as if you're maintaining eye contact with yourself. Don't look down, and don't look up, either (despite what many like to advise.)
Once you've reached the low point of the squat, start going up by driving through your heels into the floor as if you're trying to push the earth away, and simultaneously straighten out your keens and hips.
Chest press:
As you lie on the bench make sure that your chest is up, shoulders are down, with your shoulder blades in contact with the bench (chest up, shoulders back - start seeing a pattern here?). Make sure your shoulder blades are in constant contact with the bench throughout the movement - no lifting of the shoulders as you press up! Lifting your shoulders up will take the stress off the pecs and transfer them onto the deltoids and can also result in injury.
Utilize a full range of motion. Ignore all the bodybuilding magazine bull about "keeping constant tention on the muscles" by doing a 1/3 range of motion press. Refer to the "full range of motion" section.
Training arms:
Keep your chest up, shoulders back, core tight. Same deal as everywhere else.
When training biceps, make sure you don't swing the weight or generate momentum. This takes the stress off the biceps and puts your spinal integrity at risk. Don't rotate the shoulders forward when you initiate the curl from the bottom position, this can lead to a shoulder injury.
Don't move your elbows up or backward. Try to keep your elbows steady by the sides and just in front of your body (when curling with a bar).
When training triceps using a cable pushdown, make sure that you keep your elbows steady, not moving them back and forth or up and down. Also, perform the movement by starting with your forearm roughtly parallel to the floor and then finish by locking out your elbows, then bring your forearms back to a parallel position. Overextending the elbows on this exercise can lead to tendonitis which is very painful and takes a long time to heal.
Back rows and pulldowns:
Chest up, shoulders back. When rowing, whether seated or standing, make sure that you maintain a tight core, with a slight arching of the back. Let your shoulders come forward while keeping your upper spine straight and then pull them back for a nice contraction between your shoulder blades before you continue the pull by bending your eblows.
When performing a pulldown make sure you maintain the chest up, shoulders back posture. Let your shoulders come up while keeping your upper spine straight and then pull your shoulder blades back and down to initiate the movement and complete by bending your elbows. Try to touch the bar to your chest.
Avoid doing pulldowns behind the head as most people don't have the shoulder flexibility for that and will eventually earn themselves a few injuries using this technique.
