Better Technique Feels Worse?
If your technique is better after a correction, why does it sometimes feel worse?
First, you’re not used to it! No matter how great the improved technique is, it’s new and you’re fighting the habits you’re comfortable with.
Second, how well you’re making the correction is probably inconsistent rep to rep, meaning you’re having to adjust and compensate each time to some extent.
No matter how bad your previous error was, you probably did it consistently, meaning the results were predictable, and your body knew exactly how to respond to save the lift—so the lift was comfortable in that sense.
Now you’re performing each lift a bit differently, meaning your body is having to instantly figure out how to correct for and stabilize a new and novel problem every time. That’s unsettling and unpleasant.
And finally, remember that skill in the Olympic lifts is tied closely to more basic physical abilities like strength.
You’re strongest in the positions you’ve been lifting in—that is what you’ve trained.
When you change those positions, even if they’re better, they’ll feel weaker and slower until you’ve trained that way enough to build the supporting strength.
The solution to all of these of course is time and effort. You have to continue putting in focused, intentional reps consistently over time to build a new habit and the supporting physical qualities.
This is one of many reasons that paying attention to the technique of supplemental exercise exercises like squats and pulls is so important. The way you perform those exercises doesn’t just reinforce the skill element that you need for the Olympic lifts, but it develops the underlying physical abilities that support the execution of those skills with heavy loads.
A really great way to drive yourself completely insane with frustration is to continue trying to work on technical changes without adequate attention to all those supporting exercises, and therefore preventing the progress that you are trying to make.
Remember that the process is a system of interdependent elements. The better you are at looking at it globally and addressing everything involved, the faster and better you will make improvements.
First, you’re not used to it! No matter how great the improved technique is, it’s new and you’re fighting the habits you’re comfortable with.
Second, how well you’re making the correction is probably inconsistent rep to rep, meaning you’re having to adjust and compensate each time to some extent.
No matter how bad your previous error was, you probably did it consistently, meaning the results were predictable, and your body knew exactly how to respond to save the lift—so the lift was comfortable in that sense.
Now you’re performing each lift a bit differently, meaning your body is having to instantly figure out how to correct for and stabilize a new and novel problem every time. That’s unsettling and unpleasant.
And finally, remember that skill in the Olympic lifts is tied closely to more basic physical abilities like strength.
You’re strongest in the positions you’ve been lifting in—that is what you’ve trained.
When you change those positions, even if they’re better, they’ll feel weaker and slower until you’ve trained that way enough to build the supporting strength.
The solution to all of these of course is time and effort. You have to continue putting in focused, intentional reps consistently over time to build a new habit and the supporting physical qualities.
This is one of many reasons that paying attention to the technique of supplemental exercise exercises like squats and pulls is so important. The way you perform those exercises doesn’t just reinforce the skill element that you need for the Olympic lifts, but it develops the underlying physical abilities that support the execution of those skills with heavy loads.
A really great way to drive yourself completely insane with frustration is to continue trying to work on technical changes without adequate attention to all those supporting exercises, and therefore preventing the progress that you are trying to make.
Remember that the process is a system of interdependent elements. The better you are at looking at it globally and addressing everything involved, the faster and better you will make improvements.
