In my work with athletes over the past 25 years, I've isolated only three causes of incorrect technique for any given lifting skill:
You have sufficient physical attributes to perform the skill, but not the necessary cognitive understanding.
During my former life as a martial artist, I totally understood how to kick a 7-foot tall opponent in the face, but (much to my chagrin at the time) I lacked the requisite flexibility.
In the gym, sometimes people understand how to arch their low back during a squat, but their hip structure doesn't allow an arched lumbar spine during a deep squat. This is a problem without a solution, but if it's short muscles/connective tissue that prevents proper technique, you can work on lengthening those tissues until proper form is possible.
If you have bad technique using a heavy weight, but good technique with a light weight, you understand and have adequate mobility to correctly perform the lift in question. The solution is to get stronger.
I categorize technique acquisition into three successive categories:
A few thoughts on this schema:
Either way, if you hit a new lifting PR but did so with shaky technique, dial it back a notch or two and do what I call a "consolidation cycle," which simply means, take a month or so to hit that PR with form you're happy with.
This is a useful way to conceptualize the process of attaining mastery:
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