Exercise Technique: Adaptations, Injury, and Performance

Summary of article

• Exercise technique affects the way forces are distributed.

  • Well dosed exercise can cause tissues exposed to these forces to adapt and become more robust.

  • Forces that exceed absolute tissue capacity, or the ability of a tissue to adapt, may result in injury.

• The commonly held view that certain lifting techniques and movements are inherently safer is not supported by evidence.

• If you are competing in certain sports, meeting technique requirements is an absolute necessity.

Article

It is common, when describing how a squat should be performed, to state that the knees should travel in line with the toes, and that “neutral spine” should be maintained. But why is this? Why should we attempt to achieve certain positions and movements when performing an exercise? Is there research evidence that can help to answer these questions?

Broadly, there are three main reasons why an exercise may be instructed in a specific manner:

• In order to load certain tissues, and generate the desired adaptations

• In order to mitigate injury risk, and manage pain

• In order to meet the performance requirements of certain sports

This article will explore the evidence underpinning this reasoning.

Controlling Exercise Technique to Generate Specific Tissue Adaptations

When a living tissue is exposed to a mechanical force, or a change to its chemical environment, structures within those tissues generate electrochemical signals. Some of these signals go on to stimulate nerves, and we may experience the sensation of muscle stretch, contraction, or fatigue (1). Other signals feed into processes that cause adaptation of the tissue, so that it would be better prepared to tolerate those mechanical and chemical stressors in future (2-5). This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as: specific adaptations to imposed demands (SAID) (6).

When we are exercising to develop certain physical characteristics, the SAID principle provides a framework to understand some basic parameters. For example: to improve lung function, the exercises we use should challenge our lungs’ capacity, such as running or swimming. While someone who is deconditioned may develop additional lung function by performing barbell back squats, most people would respond more readily to traditional cardiovascular exercise.

When it comes to performing resistance exercise, our exercise technique changes which tissues are placed under stress, and therefore what adaptations may be accrued (7). For example, someone who performs a bicep curl with their elbows locked into their side will more directly stress their bicep muscles than a person who uses their shoulders to swing the weight backwards and forwards. The person swinging the weight will still load their biceps, but if the goal of the exercise is to focus stress on this muscle, then this goal has not been achieved.

Likewise, allowing the knees to drop inwards during a squat, or driving through the legs when performing an overhead press, changes the tissues that are stressed, and the magnitudes to which they are stressed.

Over the years, conventions in exercise coaching and prescription have emerged (7). These conventions make it easier to prescribe exercise, and be reasonably confident of how it will be performed, and the types of adaptations that might be elicited. While it may not necessarily be “wrong” to use your legs to assist you to perform an overhead press, if the reason you are performing this exercise is to develop upper body strength, this may not be optimal.

Exercise Technique and Injury Risk

As explored in this article, injury does occur when people engage in strength sports such as powerlifting and strongman. Additionally, it is a commonly accepted truism that lifting or exercising with “poor technique” increases the risk of injury. However, this is a belief that has not been borne out when tested scientifically (8-10).

Injuries can broadly be classified as occurring due to acute tissue overload (such as a hamstring strain), or due to cumulative application of load the tissue cannot adapt to (such as an Achilles tendinopathy) (11). Theoretically, exercise technique can increase the risk of injury if either:

• A deviation from the usually performed technique results in tissues being exposed to forces they are not ready for OR

• The tissues loaded by a certain exercise are stressed more frequently and at higher volumes than they can adapt to.

To provide examples for each of the above scenarios:

• A person who is bench pressing a heavy weight loses their position, and subsequently their left pec major is loaded at a length and with a force it is not accustomed to. As a result, some fibres of this muscle tear.

• A person performing a low bar back squat multiple times a week may load the tendon on the inner aspect of their elbow at rates above that which the tendon can adapt to. Subsequently, the tissue becomes tendinopathic and painful.

Often when people talk about technique and injury risk, however, they are not talking about examples like those above. Instead, they referring to specific standards of movement that are thought to decrease risk of injury. For example, lifting a weight from the floor is often seen as a task which should be completed with a neutral spine position, and a technique which preferentially loads the legs and offload the back. However, when these recommendations are implemented, they don’t reduce workplace injuries (9). Additionally, powerlifters who have improved control of their lumbar spine and hips do not experience reduced rates of low back injury (10).

While there is no compelling evidence that supports the commonly-held view that “poor technique” increases injury risk, it is also too simplistic to say that exercise technique does not affect injury risk. Instead, an understanding that living tissues adapt positively to well-dosed load, but can also be injured with excessive loads, provides a more nuanced framework to understand the relationship between exercise technique and injury risk (5,11).

Exercise Technique Requirements for Sports

If you are an athlete hoping to compete in certain sports, there are techniques which are dictated to you by the governing bodies of these sports. This ensures that athletes are being tested against the same standard.

For example, in the International Powerlifting Federation there are certain technical requirements that must be met for a squat to be considered satisfactory:

• “The lifter must bend the knees and lower the body until the top surface of the legs at the hip joint is lower than the top of the knees”

• “Double bouncing at the bottom of the squat attempt or any downward movement is not permitted”

• “The lifter must recover at will to an upright position with the knees locked” (12)

Failure to perform the squat to the required technical standard results in the lift being disqualified. Likewise, the bench press and the deadlift must be completed to a technical standard for the lift to be valid.

Additionally, in the sports of Weightlifting, Race Walking and Shot Put, for example, there are different technical standards to which athletes are held (13,14). If you are competing in these sports, the question “does technique matter?” has a very straightforward answer: yes.

In Summary

Exercise technique matters. If you are exercising with the goal of developing certain characteristics, the technique with which you complete an exercise should align with this goal (6,7). If you are hoping to avoid injury, avoiding certain positions under loads that you are not adapted to is a reasonable step to take (11). If you are competing in certain sports, meeting their technical requirements is absolutely necessary (12-14).

Recognising the importance of exercise technique, however, should not create a barrier for newcomers to exercise. It is common for people who are learning a new exercise or sport to move with variation, and to struggle to meet the sometimes-arbitrary criteria that imposed on certain exercises. Striving to perform an exercise with “correct technique”, while recognising that achieving this goal can take time, and a process of trial-and-error, is a good place to start.

References

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2. Lavagnino, M., Wall, M. E., Little, D., Banes, A. J., Guilak, F., & Arnoczky, S. P. (2015). Tendon mechanobiology: Current knowledge and future research opportunities. Journal of Orthopaedic Research, 33(6), 813-822.

3. Burkholder, T. J. (2007). Mechanotransduction in skeletal muscle. Frontiers in bioscience: a journal and virtual library, 12, 174.

4. Scott, A., Khan, K. M., Duronio, V., & Hart, D. A. (2008). Mechanotransduction in human bone: in vitro cellular physiology that underpins bone changes with exercise. Sports Medicine, 38(2), 139-160.

5. Lavin, K. M., Coen, P. M., Baptista, L. C., Bell, M. B., Drummer, D., Harper, S. A., ... & Buford, T. W. (2022). State of knowledge on molecular adaptations to exercise in humans: historical perspectives and future directions. Comprehensive Physiology, 12(2), 3193-3279.

6. Lorenz, D., & Morrison, S. (2015). Current concepts in periodization of strength and conditioning for the sports physical therapist. International journal of sports physical therapy, 10(6), 734.

7. Androulakis Korakakis, P., Wolf, M., Coleman, M., Burke, R., Piñero, A., Nippard, J., & Schoenfeld, B. J. (2024). Optimizing resistance training technique to maximize muscle hypertrophy: A narrative review. Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology, 9(1), 9.

8. Moran, R. W., Schneiders, A. G., Mason, J., & Sullivan, S. J. (2017). Do Functional Movement Screen (FMS) composite scores predict subsequent injury? A systematic review with meta-analysis. British journal of sports medicine, 51(23), 1661-1669.

9. Denis, D., Gonella, M., Comeau, M., & Lauzier, M. (2020). Questioning the value of manual material handling training: A scoping and critical literature review. Applied Ergonomics, 89, 103186.

10. Larsson, H., Strömbäck, E., Schau, M., Johansson, S., & Berglund, L. (2024). Lumbopelvic movement control in powerlifters with and without low back pain. Physical Therapy in Sport, 65, 74-82.

11. Kalkhoven, J. T., Watsford, M. L., & Impellizzeri, F. M. (2020). A conceptual model and detailed framework for stress-related, strain-related, and overuse athletic injury. Journal of science and medicine in sport, 23(8), 726-734.

12. International Powerlifting Federation. (2025). IPF Technical Rules Book. Retrieved from: https://www.powerlifting.sport/fileadmin/ipf/data/rules/technical-rules/english/IPF_Technical_Rules_Book_2025_Mar_-16_v2.pdf

13. International Weightlifting Federation. (2025) Technical and Competition Rules and Regulations 2025. Retrieved from: https://iwf.sport/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=598

14. World Athletics. (2025) Competition Rules. Retrieved from: https://worldathletics.org/download/download?filename=f9cfe5b0-2767-4eac-a43f-3d4f91b432d9.pdf&urlslug=C1.1%20%26%20C2.1%20-%20Competition%20Rules%20%26%20Technical%20Rules