Does Technique Matter?
The short answer
"Keep your knees behind your toes." "Never round your back." "Chest up." If you've spent any time in a gym, you've probably heard at least one of these. Plenty of people I work with have avoided strength training altogether because they're worried about doing it wrong and hurting themselves.
So, does technique matter? Yes. But not in the way most people think. There is no single perfect squat, deadlift or push-up that suits every body. Good technique is the technique that suits you: your joints, your history, your build, and the muscles we're trying to work.
First, some reassurance. Strength training is one of the safer ways to exercise. A 2023 systematic review found traditional strength training had the lowest injury rates of all the resistance training styles it looked at (1). So the goal isn't to be scared of getting it wrong. It's to get it right for you.
The problem with the "gold standard"
Most gym rules started with a good reason. The trouble is that they get applied to everyone, whether they fit or not.
Here are a couple i always hear.
Knees over toes. Letting your knees travel forward past your toes does put more load through the front of the knee. But stopping the knees from moving forward doesn't make that load disappear. It shifts it to the hips and lower back. One well-known study found that restricting forward knee travel cut knee load a little but increased hip load dramatically (3). For most people with healthy knees, knees past the toes is completely fine, and often the more natural way to squat.
For some people, though, it isn't the right choice. If you have patellofemoral pain or other knee pathology, more forward knee travel and deeper knee bend increase stress on the kneecap joint (2,4). For those clients I'll usually keep the shins more upright, sit back further, or limit depth for a while. Same exercise, different technique, because the person in front of me is different.
Never round your back. This is probably the most repeated lifting rule of all. Yet a systematic review found no clear link between bending the lower back while lifting and developing back pain (5). That doesn't mean anything goes. It means the rule is far less black and white than we've been told, and the right approach depends on the person, the load and their history.
So yes, technique matters. But the "right" technique is the one that suits your body today, not one rule for everyone.
Everyone is built differently
Two people can do the same squat, with the same feet and the same depth, and feel it in completely different places. That isn't because one of them is doing it wrong. It's because their bodies are built differently.
Our muscles vary from person to person. Their thickness, the length of their fibres and the angle those fibres sit at all differ between people, and even between different parts of the same muscle. A 2024 study of 109 adults measured these features in the thigh and calf muscles and found differences between men and women, and between regions within the same muscle (6). Older ultrasound work on the quadriceps showed the same thing: architecture varies along the muscle, and one muscle's shape doesn't reliably predict the next (7).
Add in differences in limb length, hip shape, ankle mobility, past injuries and surgery, and it's no surprise that one "perfect" position won't suit everyone. A long-legged person with stiff ankles and someone with short thighs and mobile hips are never going to look the same at the bottom of a squat. Nor should they.
Feel it where it counts
My main technique goal is simple: I want you to feel the exercise where I want you to feel it. If we're working your glutes and you feel it all in your lower back, something needs to change. That change is often small.
Foot placement. Widening your stance a little in a squat tends to bring the glutes in more (2). Raising your heels slightly can increase thigh muscle activity (10), and in my experience moving your feet higher or lower on a leg press often changes where you feel it.
Grip. Changing grip width on a press or a row changes how much work the chest, shoulders and triceps each do (8). Sometimes just a few centimetres makes the difference.
Focus. Thinking about the muscle you're working, not just moving the weight, can help too. In one trial, people who focused on squeezing the working muscle grew more muscle in their arms than those who just focused on lifting the weight (9). Interestingly, it made no difference for the thighs, which is another reminder that bodies don't all respond the same way.
The research on these tweaks is mixed, and that's the point. The effect varies from person to person, so the only way to know what works for you is to try it, ask how it feels, and adjust. That's a big part of what happens in my sessions.
Why blanket programs don't work
This is where generic programs fall down. A program from an app, a magazine or a group class gives everyone the same exercises, the same positions and the same cues. It can't know that your left knee doesn't like deep bending, that you had abdominal surgery last year, or that you feel every squat in your lower back.
As an Accredited Exercise Physiologist, my job is to fit the exercise to you, not the other way around. In practice that looks like:
Assessing first. Your history, your goals, any conditions or surgery, and how you actually move.
Choosing the right version. A box squat instead of a barbell squat, a shorter range for now, a different grip or stance.
Checking in, rep by rep. Where do you feel it? Is anything painful? Small tweaks until it lands in the right place.
Progressing safely. As you get stronger, we load the movement that works for your body.
That's the difference between being given exercises and being prescribed them.
The bottom line
Technique does matter. But good technique isn't about copying a textbook picture. It's about moving in a way that's controlled, comfortable for your joints, and working the muscles we're aiming for.
If you've been avoiding strength training because you're worried about getting it wrong, or you've tried a program that never felt right, it might not be you. It might be the program. I'd love to help you find the version that fits.
References
Serafim TT, de Oliveira ES, Maffulli N, Migliorini F, Okubo R. Which resistance training is safest to practice? A systematic review. J Orthop Surg Res. 2023;18(1):296. doi:10.1186/s13018-023-03781-x
Straub RK, Powers CM. A biomechanical review of the squat exercise: implications for clinical practice. Int J Sports Phys Ther. 2024;19(4):490-501. doi:10.26603/001c.94600
Fry AC, Smith JC, Schilling BK. Effect of knee position on hip and knee torques during the barbell squat. J Strength Cond Res. 2003;17(4):629-33.
Pereira PM, Baptista JS, Conceição F, Duarte J, Ferraz J, Costa JT. Patellofemoral pain syndrome risk associated with squats: a systematic review. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022;19(15):9241.
Saraceni N, Kent P, Ng L, Campbell A, Straker L, O'Sullivan P. To flex or not to flex? Is there a relationship between lumbar spine flexion during lifting and low back pain? A systematic review with meta-analysis. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2020;50(3):121-30.
Martin-Rodriguez S, Gonzalez-Henriquez JJ, Diaz-Conde JC, Calbet JAL, Sanchis-Moysi J. The relationship between muscle thickness and pennation angle is mediated by fascicle length in the muscles of the lower extremities. Sci Rep. 2024;14(1). doi:10.1038/s41598-024-65100-6
Blazevich AJ, Gill ND, Zhou S. Intra- and intermuscular variation in human quadriceps femoris architecture assessed in vivo. J Anat. 2006;209(3):289-310.
Saeterbakken AH, Stien N, Pedersen H, Solstad TEJ, Cumming KT, Andersen V. The effect of grip width on muscle strength and electromyographic activity in bench press among novice- and resistance-trained men. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021;18(12):6444.
Schoenfeld BJ, Vigotsky A, Contreras B, Golden S, Alto A, Larson R, et al. Differential effects of attentional focus strategies during long-term resistance training. Eur J Sport Sci. 2018;18(5):705-12.
Ghasemi M, Gholami-Borujeni B, Briem K. Effects of various foot wedges on thigh muscle activity during squatting in healthy adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Appl Sci. 2024;14(5):2091. doi:10.3390/app14052091