Five Worst Exercises

[JoeJustice]

I got this this morning from Men's Health Magazine...

Don't Do These Exercises

They're ineffective, injury-causing, and time-wasting. It's time to excise these exercises from your workouts.

Lose it: triceps kickbacks. The angle of your arm doesn't let you overload your tricep, and puts stress on your shoulder and bicep instead. Replace it with close-grip bench presses. You'll be able to put more weight on the triceps, meaning you'll build more, faster.

Lose it: wrist curls. You've got limited time in the gym, and you're expending 3 sets on a muscle you can build with whole-body exercises? Any pulling exercise will build your grip just as effectively while training your back. Rows, pull-ups, chinups—your choice.

Lose it: Floor crunch. The angle can hurt your spine. Do reverse crunches or curl on a stability ball—or do planks to engage your whole core and stabilize your entire body.

Lose it: Smith machine squats. When squats are performed correctly, the barbell shouldn't travel in a straight-line vertical motion as it does on this machine. If you're not comfortable using a barbell on its own, free yourself from the fixed range of motion with goblet squats, braced squats, or bodyweight squats.

Lose it: weighted dips. Adding weight and leaning forward is recommended for targeting your chest, but the weight will make you shift too far forward. The result: shoulder injuries. Stick to bodyweight dips, and try new exercises for your chest.


Pretty interesting stuff from a muscle mag. So what would you consider to be the top five worst exercises?

-Joe

[jgfergus]

I wonder if weighted dips is the cause of my muscle soreness in my right shoulder. It only bothers me when I try certain motions like reaching my right arm across my body either in front or behind. I haven't done them in a while but maybe I'll give them up for good.

[tom]

Watch out for overhead presses until you have the flexibility in the shoulders and have warmed up. I've had year or longer bad, crippling, shoulder injuries from careless or impulsive pressing. Ouch. Not that smart.

Tom

[bennyb]

I like that list........Since reading that how about a bad list of my own.

1. Bench Press...Considered to be the "King" of weights its also pretty much the most evil as it kills the shoulders and doesn't give a nice feel in the chest as it tends to break muscle more often then building it.

2. French Press aka Skull Crushers.....I'm sure whoever came up with this was either nuts or just showing off and became an exercise. Even the name itself doesn't sound good as it pretty much makes the triceps more stiff and the movement makes it less then what it looks like.

3. Toe Raises On Leg Press Machines...The feet were not meant to hold such an amount of weight I mean sure to help support more of a leg press but not while isolating the feet to get good calves. This puts a hefty amount of strain on the ankles and soleus muscle and even with light weight can break tendons if done with weight.

4. Stiff Legged Deadlifts....Now I realize this is something most of us who have done weights know what this does to us so i'm not gonna bother mentioning it cause its too scary to say.

5. Deadlifts....Another ankle breaking exercise that puts far too much strain on the lower back. Also causes tears in the skin of the hands when lifting heavy weight even with gloves on it happens.

Thats my list of bad exercises whe it comes to weights. I do agree with the other list thought i'd share my own. I have done all five of these and had at least one bad experience with all of them but i'm sure theres worse things then these exercises.

[Kevin Nickerson]

I would have to add behind the neck presses

[tom]

For me and many, behind the neck presses are horrible.

However, along the same line, behind the neck pull-ups are equally bad, but John has the flexibility to do them. So do some others - not me.

Just goes to show we all have to decide for ourselves.

In general, these lists are pretty accurate.

Tom

[tony84]

Pretty good list. I would have to say the worst exercise in my opinion are good mornings. How anyone can think its a good idea to put a barbell across your shoulders and then bend over is beyond me. I think thats how bruce lee messed his back up so bad. I also think weighted lunges are a bad exercise for anyone to do.

Tony

[Viking Dan]

Pretty good list. I would have to say the worst exercise in my opinion are good mornings. How anyone can think its a good idea to put a barbell across your shoulders and then bend over is beyond me. I think thats how bruce lee messed his back up so bad. I also think weighted lunges are a bad exercise for anyone to do.

Tony

Not to defend the good morning, but Bruce did one with nearly his own bodyweight on the bar sans a warmup, IIRC.

I think the Zercher Good Morning is a pretty safe alternative though. In the Zercher version, the weight is in the crook of your arms.

For me, my worst exercises are any kind of bench press. I always felt these in my shoulders more than my chest, with the exception of Gironda's Bench Press To Neck, but that one is asking for trouble.

Barbell squats always sucked for me, too, because I have a very long torso and shins.

I also hate any movement done on anything wobbly.

[budgiefan]

I agree with that list and the ensuing posts. I'll be the first to say it - barbell squats.

[mike]

The new thoughts on core training have shifted away from using the abs to flex the back and more towards the core as a stabilizing unit. I think this is a large part of the effectiveness of isometrics and the wheel rollouts

[Nathan]

Hey Tom,

I SO have to agree with Number 5. If you don't train you mind with you body you might as well not be training at all. This is just my 2 cents. All the best.

---Nathan

[kelbiz]

Deadlifts, with the over-under grip. My reason for this is as follows.

My son and I were lifting weights and deadlifts were a part of the routine. (It DOES build muscle, but at a cost). At age 18 my son was full of youthful enthusiasm and was lifting about 50 pounds above his bodyweight. He wore a leather lifting belt and used canvas wrist wraps to get a better grip. The wraps were very tight around his wrists and hands. All of a sudden, POP goes his thumb nail clear off his hand! Wow - pretty nasty stuff, especially going to the hospital where they had to stitch it back on.

That being said, I have never had a serious weightlifting injury. However the residual effect was felt in my joints over the course of time. Bodyweight training with DSR's and ISO's have kept me in great shape for almost 4 years since retiring my weights.

As I have often said, weightlifting builds muscle...but at a cost. The best quote about the wisdom of taking care of the body that was created for you is by the late Mickey Mantle. He said "If I knew I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself." Sad but true.

Physical culture should always be approached with the long term affects and not just the immediate results.

Jack

[gruntbrain]

Performing cardio without heartrate monitoring can be likened to weight training without knowing the weight - LOSE IT

I dunno - wrist curls with or without weights seem to be both safe & effective.; the limited ROM allows one to more easily & effectively focus on the grip muscles. That said, time crunced folks may wanna LOSE IT

[bundaberg]

Sometimes it's not just the exercise but the way it's performed, much like the "20 rep squat" routine...