Good Form

The top of a deadlift - hips and knees extended with bar in-hand.

Lifting with “good form” is a topic that comes up often in regards to strength training. The clients I train usually have an interest in lifting weights with good form. Lifting with good form tends to lead to better performance and less injuries. Deviations from what we subjectively think of as “good form” tend to be criticized as being dangerous and foolish. 

If we continue along this line of thinking, it seems like there should be one way that a lift should be executed. In a perfect world, we would all agree on that one way as the best. 

But it’s not a perfect world and there are lots of other factors to consider when it comes to teaching, executing, and judging lifts with good or bad form. 

My motivation here is two-fold. Firstly, I want to share the model I use to teach and coach clients how to lift with good form. Secondly, I want to dismantle the belief that lifting with “bad form” is inherently unsafe or foolish…

Let’s use the deadlift as an example. The deadlift involves a bar sitting idly on the ground. The lifter grabs the bar with their hands and picks it up off the ground. The lift is completed once the lifter’s hips and knees are fully extended (standing up tall) with the bar in hand. 

That’s the whole thing. Seems simple enough, right? It can be for sure, but imagine all the questions we need to answer in order to fill in the space between the bar sitting on the ground and the lifter standing tall with it in their hands. How close should Ithey stand to the barbell? How far apart should their feet be? Should they be parallel or staggered? Where should they put their hands? Should they be close together or far apart? Overhand or underhand grip? etc. 

With this beginner’s mindset, we can see how there would be a wide range of forms the simple deadlift could take on. So what does “good form” even mean? How do we measure good form? 

I use what’s called the R.E.P. method to evaluate all lifts. R.E.P. stands for Repeatable, Efficient, and Points of Performance.

Repeatable - Simply put, is this technique something that the athlete can replicate consistently over the long-term? Generally speaking, lifts completed with what looks like “poor form” (as per points of performance which we will cover shortly), will likely not be repeatable over the long term. For example - deadlifting with an overly curved spine will likely lead to lower back fatigue and discomfort after only a few repetitions. This would not be sustainable nor repeatable for very long. 

Efficient - Thanks to physics we know that gravity pulls everything to the center of the Earth. That means that the weight on the deadlift bar is only meaningful once it leaves the floor. So if gravity is the primary force acting on the barbell, we can posit that any weight loaded on a barbell is going to increase the vertical force that the lifter needs to overcome. Therefore, the most efficient path for the bar would be a straight vertical line in the opposite direction of gravity (aka, up). Any deviation from this path (aka, horizontal) would be wasted effort since it’s not opposing the force of gravity. For all barbell lifts, a vertical bar path (in line with the middle of the foot) is the most efficient path.

Points of Performance - This is where biomechanics comes into play and these points of performance should really help satisfy the first two criteria of the R.E.P. Method. Generally speaking, barbell lifts should be executed with a flat foot, knees that move in line with the toes, and a flat back. Things like stance width, grip, spine and shin angles, will vary slightly based on the anthropometrics of the lifter, but should always be considered to make the barbell lifts more repeatable and more efficient. 

If you’re still with me, let’s go back to our deadlift example. Now that you know the R.E.P. Method, you could imagine how different a deadlift would look for a female lifter who is 5’ 3” and weighs 125 lbs vs. a male lifter who is 6' 4” and weighs 240 lbs. These lifters have drastically different limb and torso lengths which would cause their deadlifts to look fairly different. Our goal would be to coach the lifters on the main points of performance in the lift, while considering their individual differences to determine the most repeatable and efficient form for them to move the bar in a straight, vertical line.

Suffice it to say that “good form” is really dependent on who’s lifting the weights and how the person evaluating that lift has come to imagine what good form looks like. In my experience, most folks who say things like, “oh, that’s terrible form!” have likely never read a textbook about biomechanics or barbell training. And that’s fine, but it brings me to my next point…

I think this belief and open criticism of poor lifting form leads to a misplaced fear of barbell training. Put simply - it’s not as dangerous as you think. Of course, there are exceptions. If a novice lifter loads a bar with too much weight too quickly, some sort of injury might be sustained. 

However, for the vast majority of the population, I would encourage them to go and try to learn how to lift a barbell. Do it wrong for a while. Lift with “bad form;” it’s the only way you'll know and appreciate the difference that the key points of performance can make! Like Seth Godin says about writing - “There’s no such thing as writer’s block. There’s simply a fear of bad writing. Do enough bad writing and some good writing is bound to show up.” 

There’s no such thing as lifter’s block. There’s simply a fear of bad form. Do some bad form. Try to learn, and some good form is bound to show up.

You get 1440 minutes every day. Get out there and lift the weights.