If you’ve been holding off on starting your lifting journey because you’re worried about having perfect form, I have some news for you: you don’t need to be as worried as you think.
As someone with a PhD in exercise physiology and years of experience coaching lifters, I see this fear constantly—especially among women who are new to the gym. This overwhelming worry about “wrong” or “imperfect” form holds people back from either starting their strength training journey or pushing themselves to improve their fitness.
Let me ease your worries with some practical, evidence-based advice that will help you feel more confident walking into the gym.
The Reality: The internet is full of videos showing “perfect” form with green checkmarks and “bad” form with red X’s. But the truth is, form exists on a spectrum—not a pass/fail test.
On one end, you have more optimal form. On the other end, you have less optimal form. But it’s not “no injury” on one side and “guaranteed 100% injury” on the other. There’s a massive range in between where most of us will live—and that’s completely okay.
Within that spectrum, we all fall somewhere differently. The way I back squat is going to look completely different than someone who’s much taller with longer legs. My deadlift setup might look different than someone else who’s built differently than me. Our leverage points, anatomy, and the way we move are all going to alter how we execute movements.
Form is individual, and it’s on a spectrum.
As a beginner or someone new to lifting, you are not going to walk into the gym and have the most optimal, perfect form right away. It’s simply not going to happen—and that’s perfectly normal.
Personal Example: A few years ago, I went through a journey learning Olympic weightlifting. Even with years of powerlifting experience, when I first started Olympic lifting, my form was really wonky. I looked uncomfortable, awkward—like one of those inflatable tube men outside a car dealership. But Olympic weightlifting under a light load as I learned the skill over time did not hurt me or leave me injured.
It gave me space to practice a skill that improved over time. My poor form didn’t immediately translate into injury—it just gave me room to move along that spectrum and figure out more effective, efficient form as I progressed.
If you’re new to the gym, your lifts aren’t going to look like they will five, ten, or even one year from now. They might look a little uncomfortable, a little awkward, or a little wonky compared to what you see as “optimal” online. And that’s okay.
Not only is lifting a skill, it’s also something that requires your central nervous system to adapt.
Right now, you don’t have the patterns and connections within your body—between your brain, your nervous system, and your muscles—that understand how to move in that plane of motion or move weight with your body that way.
As you start to train and practice lifting more frequently, you will get more efficient simply because your body will get better at sending signals, recruiting your muscles, firing them, and being able to move your body through time and space more effectively.
Key Point: You have to start where you are in order to refine, improve, and move along that spectrum. Your nervous system needs practice to build those movement patterns.
If you’re worried about form, here’s my advice: don’t put yourself under high volumes, high loads, or a lot of weight that you’re unfamiliar with or not yet adapted to.
It’s okay to use light loads—even if it isn’t “heavy enough” or the perfect RPE or RIR—when you’re starting out and building confidence and skill in lifting.
Say you’re learning how to back squat for the first time. You’re working on your full range of motion, your squat stance, and feeling more comfortable and confident. It’s okay if the weight isn’t loaded to what’s “most optimal.” As you work through that movement pattern and get more comfortable, you’ll be able to move better and start adding load over time.
And as you add load, guess what? Your form might change and shift—and that’s okay, too. It’s a skill to be refined and gained over time, not something you need to walk in and be perfect at immediately.
Need help building this skill progressively? Check out Foundations at The Lyss Method—our 9-month beginner lifting program designed to take you from “I’ve never lifted before” to confident, strong, and capable in the gym.
Now, you might be thinking, “Okay, Alyssa, I get it. I need to lift. But I’m still afraid I’m going to get hurt.”
I’m not a doctor of physical therapy, and I’m not an expert on injury prevention. My best advice is if you have an injury or something underlying, always talk to a physical therapist who can help you work through it. But as a coach, I can tell you what I’ve observed over years of training myself and working with clients.
The Real Injury Risk: When it comes to getting hurt, most often it’s coming from doing too much, too fast, too soon—or doing something your body wasn’t trained, prepared for, or exposed to in the past. It’s not “bad form” that’s the primary culprit.
That doesn’t mean injury can’t happen. Things happen all the time. Nothing is ever going to be 100% injury-free. But we can reduce risk.
| How to Reduce Injury Risk | What This Looks Like |
|---|---|
| Don’t add too much weight too fast | Progress load gradually over weeks, not days |
| Don’t increase reps and sets dramatically | Add volume incrementally as your body adapts |
| Don’t jump into high-frequency training | Build up training days progressively |
| Start with appropriate volume | Choose weight, reps, sets, and frequency you can recover from |
If you’re not doing more than you can handle, you will gradually adapt and be able to do more over time—and handle more load as you get better and more efficient at your lifts.
Example: If you’ve never deadlifted in your life and you go to a group fitness class where they’re maxing out on deadlifts that day, that’s not the best or most appropriate thing to do. But if you build up your deadlift over time, expose yourself to the movement, and adapt to it under load, you’ll have a much lower risk of overdoing it or getting hurt.
These are mistakes I see with a lot of general population clients who get thrown into fitness programs that throw everything at them at once. You’re drinking from a fire hose—doing a ton of volume, weight, reps, and sets—which can overdose your system. Then people get a bad taste in their mouth about lifting, thinking, “When I do this, I get injured.”
But a good training program will ease you in, allow you to adapt, and gradually improve over time.
Surprising Fact: Statistically, lifting is a relatively safe sport with lower injury rates than running, which has a higher incidence of injury. Most people who have a bad relationship with lifting or who’ve been injured did too much too fast, too soon—or unfortunately had a bad coach or program that didn’t train them appropriately.
Don’t give up on fitness. Don’t give up on strength training. And most of all, don’t give up on yourself.
Follow a good program that allows you to meet yourself where you’re at and build progressively over time. Don’t do too much too fast too soon. Be okay with things being a little wonky and imperfect in the beginning.
Recognize that even as you improve, small tweaks to your performance or form aren’t going to be what makes or breaks you. What matters most is what you’re adapted to, prepared for, and have historically been doing—along with recovery, sleep quality, nutrition, and all the other background factors that affect injury risk.
You can start where you’re at with imperfect, newbie form and improve over time without necessarily getting hurt.
It’s also okay if you need to ease into training to gain confidence before you start pushing harder. The submaximal training you’re doing as you gain confidence and skill in the gym is still better than no training at all.
If you need help with this, we can absolutely support you at The Lyss Method. Our Foundations program is specifically designed for beginners or people returning to lifting. Over the course of 9 months, it takes you from “I’ve never lifted before” to confident, capable, and strong—intentionally building your skill, confidence, and the volume you can handle in a way that’s actually recoverable and adaptable.
You can also use our free lifting calculator to help you figure out appropriate training loads as you build your foundation.
We meet you where you’re at. We take you where you want to go.
I’m Exercise Physiologist, sports nutritionist, weight lifter, and ultra runner. I am here to bring science to your training in a no-nonsense way. I have helped thousands of women crush big lifting goals, cross race finish lines, and even do both. I’m here to help you do the same!
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