Maxing Out is Killing Your Technique
Why you should lift less if you want to get stronger
When you first started in the gym, whether you knew what you were doing or not, chances are you made pretty good progress in a short amount of time.
Beginners can do just about anything and get stronger initially.
But if you’ve hit a plateau since then, you need to be more intentional with your training. And a big part of that is improving technique.
Perfect Practice Makes Perfect
Good technique is important for a few reasons.
It makes sure you’re targeting the right muscles, reduces your risk of injury, and maximises the amount of weight you can lift.
When it comes to the squat, bench, and deadlift, technique is a huge part of the equation if you want to get stronger.
Lifting weights is a skill, and the big three lifts, in particular, require a high level of technical ability.
And as with any skill, practice makes perfect.
The more you practice a certain lift, the better you’ll get at it, and the more weight you’ll be able to move through technical improvements.
But only if you’re practising good technique.
The number one mistake I see newer lifters make when it comes to their technique is trying to lift as much weight as they can, week in and week out.
Constantly maxing out is problematic for a few reasons, but not least because of the impact it can have on technique.
You see, when you’re a novice or intermediate lifter, and your technique is not 100% dialled in yet, training to failure usually leads to some form of technique breakdown, especially under heavy load.
So, if maxing out makes up the majority of your training, you’re constantly training and reinforcing poor technique, which will prevent you from making technical improvements and getting stronger.
If you want to improve your technique, you need to develop an awareness of where your body is in space.
Where’s the pressure in your feet? What’s your ribcage doing? How tight is your brace?
But when you’re pushing to failure in the big three as a newer lifter, this awareness goes out the window.
You start to forget about what your body is doing and become more concerned with just getting the weight from A to B and hoping you don’t die in the process.
By dropping the weight, and staying further from failure, you gain back that awareness.
You no longer have to worry about whether or not the weight will actually get up, which gives you more control and, therefore, more time to think about where your body is in space.
Resisting the Temptation to Max Out
If you love lifting heavy, maxing out is the easy option.
It’s tempting to load up the bar and see how much weight you can really lift.
The challenging part is resisting that temptation.
It takes maturity to check your ego at the door, take some weight off the bar, and put in the work that will actually make you stronger when you’re a long way from competition or a testing day.
The aim of training isn’t to prove how strong you are.
It’s to deliberately work below your limit, in order to push that limit up.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be pushing your main lifts hard.
But if you’re constantly taking them all the way to failure, at the expense of good technique, you’re holding yourself back from making progress.
If you want to get stronger, drop the weight and any attachment you have to it.
You’ll improve your technique, and start to actually build bigger lifts.
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