Why Most Lifters Get It Wrong/ The Case for Putting Technique First

Why Proper Technique in Weightlifting Should Come First—and Why Most People Don’t Have It

When it comes to lifting weights, most people focus on the wrong things first: how much weight they can move, how fast they can progress, or how shredded they’ll look in a month. But the truth is, none of that matters if your technique is trash.

Proper lifting technique isn’t optional. It’s the foundation. Without it, you're not training your muscles—you're training your joints to take a beating. Poor form is the fastest way to stall progress, cause injury, and waste time. Yet, ironically, it's also the most overlooked aspect of training.

Why Technique Should Come First

1. Injury Prevention
   This is the obvious one. Lifting with bad form puts stress on joints, tendons, and ligaments instead of working the targeted muscles. Over time, this leads to pain, inflammation, and chronic injury. A rounded back in a deadlift might not hurt today, but give it a few weeks and you're looking at a herniated disc.

2. Muscle Activation
   Good technique ensures the right muscles are doing the work. If you’re bouncing the bar off your chest during bench press or swinging the dumbbells during curls, you're letting momentum do the lifting. That’s not strength—it’s just movement.

3. Progression and Longevity
   Solid technique lets you train harder, longer, and more consistently. You can increase weight safely over time. You’ll also avoid having to “relearn” movements after an injury or plateau, which happens often when people skip the fundamentals.

So Why Do Most People Ignore It?

1. Ego Lifting
   Gym culture rewards big numbers. It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking more weight equals more respect. Social media doesn’t help—scroll through your feed and you’ll see countless lifters maxing out with garbage form, getting likes anyway. It fuels the idea that technique is secondary.

2. Impatience
   Learning proper form takes time and discipline. Slowing down to focus on mechanics feels like a step back—especially for beginners eager to see results. But skipping this phase is like building a house on sand. It might look fine for a while, but eventually it collapses.

3. Lack of Education
   Many people simply don’t know what proper form is. They copy what they see, whether it’s a friend, an influencer, or some guy at the gym. Without coaching or critical feedback, bad habits form early and stick around.

4. Gyms Don't Teach It
   Most commercial gyms are filled with machines and mirrors, not coaches. Unless someone invests in personal training or goes out of their way to research biomechanics, they're on their own. And most people don’t even know what they don’t know.

The Bottom Line

Proper technique isn’t flashy, but it’s the smartest investment a lifter can make. It sets the stage for everything else—strength, size, safety, and sustainability. Skip it, and you’ll either stall out or break down. Get it right, and you’ll be ahead of 90% of people in the gym.

Leave your ego at the door. Master the basics. Then build.