Is your Exercise Form Setting you up for Injury?

There are few topics that trigger gym-goers more than “form” and “technique.” It is safe to say that most of us at some point in our lives have had a coach, trainer, friend, or nosey stranger snap at us to correct our exercise form in the gym. 

Even when we’re in the comfort of our own homes, we’ve all been bombarded on Instagram and YouTube with anxiety-inducing headlines such as: “STOP Lifting Like This,” “Top 10 WORST Exercise Mistakes,” and “Fix Your Form to Save Your Low back.” 

This topic has become so belabored that many people get overly fearful that they are not lifting with proper technique that they begin to avoid the gym ENTIRELY.

So the question is: how important is exercise form really? 

Are you setting your back up for future injury by bending too far forward or slightly rounding your back during deadlifts? Are you going to wear your knees out by squatting past parallel, going knees over toes, or performing “high impact” activities? Or are our bodies a bit more resilient than we are giving them credit for? 

As it turns out, there is more and more research emerging that suggests that exercise form and technique may not have much to do with injury risk. 

I know this sounds counterintuitive and may come as a shock to some, but believe it or not our bodies are much more resilient than we give them credit for. 

Take the low back, for example. Despite widespread opinion, there is a significant amount of research coming out that indicates there is little-to-no correlation between rounding your low back and injury occurrence during squats and deadlifts. 

The same goes with the knees and squatting below parallel. The research indicates that not only does this movement have no association with joint degeneration or serious injury, but it can also have positive implications on ligament strength and joint lubrication. 

While injuries certainly can and do happen in the gym, there are many more factors at play than just exercise form that can contribute to injury risk. The main reason “form” has been under the crosshairs for such a long time is primarily because it is the first thing that meets the eye when performing an exercise and is the easiest low hanging fruit to draw immediate conclusions from. 

Then what causes injuries in the gym?

Injuries in the gym are much less a result of bad form and much more a result of a combination of subtle factors such as training experience, workload management over time, recovery optimization, sleep patterns, and stress management. 

Training experience comes into play when people try to jump into high intensities too soon when they don’t have much experience with a particular exercise or movement. The more the body has experienced a specific movement or heavy lifting in general, the more time it has to adapt to that movement on a body tissue level. The more adapted your tissues are to a specific movement, the less likely it will be for those tissues to experience irritation, pain, and injury. When just getting started in the gym or with new movements, it is recommended to take it easy for the first few weeks and gradually increase intensity over time so the body has a chance to adjust. 

The balance between workload and recovery are also highly important factors in injury prevention in the gym, whereas mismanagement of these factors is an extremely common reason why people start to experience pain and injury. On one end of the spectrum, working too much without enough recovery can lead to tissue breakdown without sufficient time for tissue building. When the body doesn’t have time to rebuild between workouts, it will continue to break down at a tissue level which can lead to nagging pain or more significant injury. On the other end of the spectrum, if one has been undertraining for weeks or more, the body can become deconditioned. Many injuries in the gym will happen when an athlete performs a particularly heavy or difficult workout after several weeks or more of not going heavy. This puts the body at a higher risk for injury because it is less prepared for heavy loads or volumes after it has been taking it easy for a prolonged period. 

Sleep and stress management hold a similar significance to recovery periods. Sleep in particular is when the body heals and generates more tissue after a heavy workout. This is how we build strength and adapt to our workouts. When sleep is lacking, the body isn’t able to sufficiently recover from a workout and the tissue building phase can begin to lag behind the breaking down that is happening during a workout. 

Stress management is equally important if not slightly more complex. When the body is in a state of chronic stress, it is put on high alert for potential dangers. When it is in this high alert state, the threshold is lowered for what types of stressors are tolerated. Exercise, which is typically categorized as a positive stressor, can then start to exceed the body’s threshold for tolerated stress. When this threshold is exceeded, the body will start to set off the alarm system to signify potential danger. This can be another reason why we start to experience pain during or after a workout and can even contribute to decreased healing potential and therefore increase one’s risk for injury. 

So while it is easy to jump to the conclusion that injuries can be prevented by lifting with good form, the reality is that one technique is rarely “better” than another when it comes to injury risk and prevention. Yes, form can be very helpful when it comes to optimizing performance and efficiency. But from a health and injury perspective, it is better to ask the question: “is my body well adapted to and prepared for this task and this intensity?” This is how you can ensure that you are controlling the weights, as opposed to the weights controlling you. 

Dr. Brooks Kenderdine

PT, DPT, CSCS, USAW-1

Co-owner | The PATH Rehab & Performance