If you want to lift big and add longevity to your lifting experience then good technique is key. Technique can be the difference between getting close to your goal and actually achieving it. Technique can be the difference between plateauing and continuing to make progress. The key is to stay on top of it, while leaving your ego at the door the second you walk in the gym.
I will give you a real life example. Back at the beginning of the new year I was fresh off my internship with Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training (I-FAST). Mike Robertson had helped me really groove my squat pattern and got me stronger than I had ever been on my squat. My squat was feeling better than it ever had and my confidence with it began to grow more and more. However so did my ego. My ego grew and my technique went to shit. I started to drop into a posterior pelvic tilt at about the last 1/4 of my squat and a lateral shift to my right to compensate for weakness in my in my left hip, but continued to add weight. I knew this, but I didn't care. I was adding weight every week and that is all that mattered. This eventually led to an insane amount of pain in my posterior left hip and made it so I had to quit squatting entirely. All that training and "progress" I made didn't mean a damn thing anymore. I broke it down, analyzed what I needed to fix and how to go about doing so. It's just unfortunate that it took an injury for me to realize what I should have been doing. And the sad thing is I knew better the whole time. I have fixed my hip and am able to squat again, but I probably would be at a lot better point in my training if I wouldn't have been a total broski and let my ego grow to the size of a Sequoia tree. Don't let it happen to you.
B-Scabs does NOT approve of your sub-par technique. Neither should you.
If your technique is as sloppy as your best friend at a MSU tailgate (if you don't understand this reference then I recommend attending the next home Michigan State football game), then eventually you will be back on the sidelines trying to figure out what you did wrong and how to fix it, all the while missing out on quality time of working toward your goal. You will have to regress in order to progress (more on this in a future post).
Even though I'm ranting and raving about proper technique, don't think that proper means perfect. There are times when you aren't going to use what would be considered "proper" technique. Proper form on a max deadlift? Fat chance. Proper form with Sally who has been sedentary for the past 5 years? Not gonna happen right away. You have to take into consideration the population you are working with, motor skills or lack thereof, and intensity of the exercise/lift. Be idealistic, not a perfectionist. It's just not possible in most cases.
I will finish this post with a couple more reasons on why proper technique is so vital.
1. Loading the appropriate musculature. If technique is neglected, then you risk loading muscles, ligaments, and tendons that aren't equipped to live up to the demands placed upon them and your chances of injury increase.
2. It will lead to faulty movement patterns that can have a negative carry over into your other lifts/exercises, daily activities, and any recreational sports that you play. Again increasing your chances of injury.
3. Ultimately it will hold you back from being as efficient in whatever your training target is. Whether it is maximum strength, muscular hypertrophy, explosive strength, etc. your performance and results will suffer.
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