5 More Common Technique Mistakes
by Eric Cressey


A few months ago, I published an article entitled 5 Common
Technique Mistakes.
It was originally intended to be a stand-alone article, but the
feedback was good, and I had some follow-up ideas, so I decided to
turn it into a series. Without further ado, here are five more
common technique mistakes you'll want to avoid.


1. The Asymmetrical Lunge
If you've read my stuff, and that of Mike Robertson and Mike
Boyle (among others), then I hope you know by now that single-leg
work is really important for knee, hip, and lower back health.
However, a lot of people have some technique flaws that can
undermine the value of the exercises.
Our first two examples — both are reverse
lunges — illustrate the importance of always coaching at
90-degree angles. In other words, be directly behind or to the side
of the athlete to observe the most glaring issues. There are
exceptions to this rule, but it's a good general
guideline.
Weakness and/or poor recruitment of the hip abductors and
external rotators — primarily the glutes — are a big
problem for a lot of people. Ask anyone who knows a lick about
ACLs, and they'll tell you that poor hip abductor and external
rotator strength, and the resulting tendency toward valgus stress
(knock-knees, in layman's terms) is a big risk factor for some
serious knee issues.


Serious knee issue.
In the following video, you'll see that the right hip slips into
adduction, and the resulting lunge is somewhat of a step-behind.

Essentially, this parallels the wider hips and greated Q-angle
we see in female athletes, who obviously have a lot more ACL
problems. In the correct video below, use the line on the floor
between my legs as a reference point. Notice how the legs stay on
each side of the line?



2. The Knee-Behind-the-Foot Lunge
When people first start doing lunges, you'll often see two
problems. The first is a really short stride. These folks have hips
that are tighter than bark on a tree, so they simply don't get out
of their comfort zones.

You'll see a lunge with more front-leg knee flexion and zero hip
extension on the leg that steps back. It's actually something you
see in bodybuilders, only they do it intentionally to emphasize
their quads:
In my opinion, aside from the frontal plane stability benefits,
single-leg work is awesome because it provides tremendous dynamic
flexibility benefits: you can really open up the trailing leg's
hip. So, when I see a lunge like the one above, my first cue (in
people who want to optimize performance and overall health) is to
increase stride length and "open up" that back hip. In many cases,
these folks will immediately substitute a forward trunk lean.

By flexing the trunk, they can avoid stretching the trailing leg
hip flexors — even though the stride length is the same. Just
as significantly, though, they put the front knee in an awkward and
potentially injurious position: the knee is actually behind the
foot. What I like to see instead is a more vertical trunk position
with the back leg's knee behind the hip. In other words, the hip is
extended, and the hip flexors are stretched.






3. Prioritizing knee extension over hip extension during
squatting
Here's a perfect example of how seemingly trivial differences in
technique on a particular exercise can make a significant
difference in training health and longevity.
A lot of people think that squatting is just about extending the
knees. So they wind up looking something like this, particularly
when they're doing multiple reps and are rushing to drop down into
the next rep:

This giant cambered bar box squat — which is intended to be
completed with the posterior chain — is basically completed
with the quads. Any posterior chain contribution comes from the
hamstrings, and you get very little glute recruitment, particularly
at lockout. Over time, these folks wind up with lower back issues,
anterior hip and knee pain, and the occasional case of mad cow
disease. Fortunately, though, the solution is very simple: extend
your hips and stand tall.