Do a lot with bad technique or a little with good technique: what is bette

Author: Mikhail Ziborov - author of the site makefitness.pro.
2022-07-05

The question was raised in our public, and our subscribers have already received an answer to it. As well as to many others. Ask your questions – we will answer if possible.

So, is it better to perform poorly but do many repetitions, or to perform well but with fewer repetitions? What is better for those training? I understand what prompted this question. Everywhere it is said that you need to reach failure in training (when you can no longer lift the weight). But at the same time, it is said that you need to do it with proper technique (sloppy execution doesn’t seem to work). In practice, it turns out that the closer you are to failure, the worse the technique becomes. And the working weight is lifted somehow. So how should one train?

Why the number of repetitions is more important for results

The fact is that the body will not develop, and muscles will not grow if you have good technique but consistently underperform. Like, as soon as your technique starts to deteriorate, you drop the weight and stop performing the exercise. Muscle grows due to many factors (including how you eat). But an equally important factor is the sufficiency of the load. And sufficient load for growth can be achieved by reaching failure. But how will you reach failure if you underperform, even if your technique is excellent?

The body does not respond to exercise technique. Like: “Aha, this guy did 8 repetitions with perfect technique, so I’ll start muscle growth” (while in fact, he could have done all 12-15, but in a sloppy way). The body reacts to something like the following: “Wow! This guy did the maximum number of repetitions, squeezed everything out of me, I almost died! I need to stimulate muscle tissue growth so that this crap doesn’t happen again next time and it will be easier for me.”

That is, muscles start to grow when we stimulate them to grow, not when we perform everything beautifully and by the book.

But please understand me correctly: I am not saying that technique isn’t important. I’m saying that for development, the number of repetitions (sufficiency of load, reaching failure) is necessary. Technique is important for other reasons. If you want to grow, you don’t need just technique.

Why execution technique is more important for health and athletic activity as a whole

The technique of performing an exercise is more about health and injury prevention. That’s one. Two – technique is necessary for understanding which muscles need to lift the weight. You can lift the weight with muscles you shouldn’t be using. For example, when performing a narrow-grip bench press, you might be pressing not so much with your chest and triceps, but with the front deltoid muscles (shoulders). And because you’re using the wrong muscles, you might get a shoulder injury: you won’t be able to bench press for several months.

Therefore, technique is very important, but not for muscle growth. The ideal solution is to master the technique and perform the work to failure. It’s clear that at some point, technique will break down.

For example, in the bench press (for simplicity of understanding and clarity): you perform 8 repetitions with proper technique, get tired, then do it with poor technique up to 11-12, get even more tired, and do another 1-2 repetitions with the help of a coach or a spotter (forced repetitions). As a result, you worked with technique, minimizing the risk of injury, and you reached failure, providing a stimulus for muscle growth.

By the way, this is exactly how professionals work, using "cheating" – performing the exercise not with perfect technique but allowing for more repetitions, loading the muscles. A bright example of cheating is the bicep curl with a barbell, using swinging and back muscles.

I’ve talked a lot about various exercises in this material. An animated technique for performing these and many other exercises can be found via this link. There are sections by muscle groups and various equipment.

And a few words about failure and failure repetitions. The effective application of both failure repetitions and pre-failure repetitions exists, with pre-failure being slightly more effective (research). But for simplicity, everything is referred to as failure. And there are different types of failure: muscle burning is one type, just tiredness without the possibility of doing another repetition is a second type. There is a third type as well. Here you will find all the information.

A whole section for those looking to gain mass. It includes the differences in training and nutrition for ectomorphs/mesomorphs/endomorphs, how to achieve maximum muscle tension, and a list of the best products for mass gaining.