Your First Rep Should Look the Same Technically As Your Last

Your first rep should look the same technically as your last rep is something I learned from Charles Poliquin many years ago. Strength is a skill. You want to learn a movement pattern and become very good at it. The more perfect reps you perform in your training, the more productive it will be. By focusing on perfect reps, there is also less chance of injury.

Some of the common errors you see once the weight starts getting heavy, or you start getting fatigued during a set, are bouncing / using momentum, cutting the range of motion shorter, or changing your movement pattern, like worming around under the bar on the bench press trying to wiggle it up, type of thing.

Bar speed may slow down on the concentric range but your technique should remain the same.

You call an end to a set when you reach technical failure, not absolute muscular failure. So, once you have to start deviating from the optimal technique, you call an end to the set there.

When you increase load, your technique should remain. Don't increase the load at the expense of your technique. This is something I see far too often. I would much rather you stay at a lighter load and use perfect technique then to increase the load and have to cheat the weight up. There are many ways to increase the overload during a training session, then to simply add more weight.

This tip is simple but it takes discipline to stick to. The rewards for doing so have paid off for myself and clients over the years so I think it is good for you to focus on. You may have to leave your ego at the door and back off on some of your current lifts for a few weeks, but it is like regressing to progress further later on. Two steps back to take 4 forward.

For more information on the perfect rep, see the article written by Charles where he explains other tips on top of this one for completing a perfect rep.

Technique Is Most Important

Technique Is Most Important

September 19, 2019

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Nathan Waters - Total Health Performance

When training young athletes, the main thing you should be focused on is technique. It is important for all athletes, but it is especially true for younger athletes as it will set them up for a successful life in physical activity if done correctly. If not focused on at a young age, they could end up injured, or have their long-term development hampered as it is much more difficult to improve technique at later ages and once bad movement patterns/habits have been formed.

The Russians found that technique was best learnt between 6-12 years of age. Skills such as running and jumping, were well formed by 10-11 as they focused on teaching the kids optimal technique in elementary and secondary skills.

I feel this is something that we are missing these days. I watch a lot of kids play sport and the coordination and skill level of the kids is dropping very quickly. Whilst there are many factors that go into this such as the increased use of technology etc., we also don’t teach the kids who are active and want to be involved in sport the correct techniques. We just assume they can all run and jump properly. Even the better athletes can improve their technique so I think it is something we should be focusing on a lot more.

The other problem that arises is that most coaches can’t coach proper technique either. This is why I highly recommend people to see the best in given fields. For example, if you want to learn proper sprinting mechanics, then go and see someone like Roger Fabri who produces a lot of results with a lot of athletes. I have read a lot of books, been coached by a lot of sprint coaches, and have done seminars with some great coaches but I still can’t teach the technique as well as someone like Roger, so I refer out. Same goes for Tom’s Dad down the road. Just because he was a fast runner doesn’t mean he can teach you the optimal running technique you need.

In the gym we spend a lot of time working on technique. I often get asked what age can kids start coming to see us and I say as soon as they want. We have 9 and 10 year old’s start with us. We don’t load them up with heavy weights, we focus on improving their technique and other physical qualities. Strength is gained due to this but adding weight to the bar isn’t the main focus. We are trying to set them up so that once the time comes for them to start focusing on increasing their strength levels, they can do it more safely and so they can make faster progress.

Too often I see coaches worrying about how much their athletes can lift. This shouldn’t be at the expense of technique. I battle with this a lot. Most of my day is spent trying to hold our young athlete’s back. They want to keep adding weight to the bar and beat their previous lifts which is great, but I have to keep thinking long term and make sure their technique is improving. It is very easy to get excited about their progress and let them get ahead of themselves.

If I do let them continue to increase the load, chances are technique will deteriorate, and injury will follow close by. The goal is to have the last rep in the set look exactly like the first. As they begin to understand this, they start to make better calls as to when to end the set and aren’t as reliant upon myself to tell them when to stop. They begin to feel when they may have changed their technique slightly from one rep to the next which is better than my eye at times. This takes a long time to develop but I think the rewards are

well worth it. 

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Deadlifting and Young Athletes

December 3, 2017

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Nathan Waters - Strength Coach

The above video is of Mani deadlifting 65kg for 5 reps at 54kg body weight. This is a very good effort considering it is only his 7th time deadlifting. He still has plenty of improvement to go with his deadlifting technique but it is coming along really well.

I find many young athletes get injured when performing the deadlift but a lot of the time it is because they have not been shown the correct technique and many trainers program it way too early and expect their athletes to lift way too much. Also the young athletes just aren't monitored closely enough to ensure they are lifting with the correct technique.

Many trainers of young teams program all the big lifts like the deadlift, squat, and bench for example thinking they are writing the best program possible for their athletes but don't realise that they need a lot more general preparatory work before introducing these lifts. This is why you see the injuries in the gym. It isn't because the lifts are dangerous it is because of they way they are performed. You can't just verbally coach a young athlete through a deadlift. Sure a cue here and there helps but you need to make them strong enough and mobile enough to be able to get into the correct position physically. If they can't do this then you need to build them up with more accessory work first.

Being patient and constantly monitoring young athletes is critical for their safety, performance, and long term progress. 

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