Sorry I missed this comment. I recommend you look into Bikram yoga for compensating for your sport.

There is a vast array of factors involved in improved performance and they ultimately lead to moving more efficiently and translating that new efficiency into effective performance. Thus, becoming efficiently effective in your given activity.

You bring up an interesting point regarding using ‘good form’ and it’s protective nature against injury.

By definition, form is just an expression of one’s movement. One person’s form is completely different from another person’s. It’s impossible to mimic form exactly – we can only create our own expression of any movement = our form. So, the question must be asked, is there such a thing as good or bad form?

Every movement we make should be made with the intention to fortify our health and protect our body from injury. So, if we participate in an activity that requires repeated efforts, then we MUST compensate for those movements to counter-act the over-specialized conditioning they create. Endurance sports are an excellent example of this.

Being adept at lifting extremely heavy weights is great, but it will affect the integrity of your joints and it will always lead to injury if not compensated for.

Being adept at dancing, which sometimes requires extreme flexibility is great, but it will also lead to injury if not properly compensated for.

Being adept at cycling long distances is great, but will lead to overuse injury if not compensated for.

Every activity has movements that are emphasized and create very specific conditioning in the body. Sometimes, getting too conditioned for one activity will result in injury, which is why we must pay attention to the movements we do the most (even if it’s just sitting down), and setup a specific plan to decompress our joints, release chains of tension, and strengthen opposing movement patterns, among other things. Is it any wonder that baseball pitchers are notorious for shoulder injuries?

When we get really deep into this discussion, the importance of performance improvement versus training career longevity come into competition. For some people, better performance is more important than health and longevity, or vice versa.

I say that you get the best of both worlds if you put your health first, and prioritize longevity in your training program with every single repetition.

To your health and success,

John Sifferman

I’m inclined to believe that when you focus on good form, you are also focusing on developing good muscle patterns (using groups of muscles). That means, aside from performance, you are protecting yourself from injury. In some cases, bad muscle patterns grossly impair performance, e.g., squatting with hamstrings rather than glutes.

Great article! I’m looking forward to exploring more of your site.

-Ed