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5 Exercises You Should NOT Be Doing

By on December 3, 2013
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from the Go Fit Gals.

I realize that the blog title may perhaps be a little bossy.

I actually contemplated using a little smiley face at the end, to cheer it up a bit, but I’m sorry I’m not really the smiley face kinda of girl (just ask Risse, she will attest to that).

What I am, however, is a trainer who has spent the last two decades in the trenches. I hold the necessary certifications and schooling that one needs to train, teach and instruct – and I want to make sure that I train, teach and instruct the best exercises to you.

You see I don’t want you going to the gym and A) wasting your time, B) feeling lost and out-of-place, or C) getting discouraged because you aren’t seeing the results that you should be.

These are precisely some of the reasons why we started our business in the first place. To teach people how to train dirty, how to move their bodies confidently (both in the gym and out of it), and get their workouts done in the safest and best way possible for the greatest results. Anything less I would be not be doing my job.

 

5 Exercises to Avoid

1. Stretching.

I cringe when I see people at the gym stretch their quads before they push start on the treadmill.

Stretching BEFORE you workout is one of the worst things that you can do to prepare your body for exercise.

I actually thought, as an industry, we were getting the word out there until I was at the gym the other day and saw someone do that stretch before ramping up the treadmill (they also added a calf stretch too and watching it all was equal to hearing finger nails slide down a chalk board).

Stretching does nothing to prepare the central nervous system for movement. It is a static exercise and will not warm up the muscles, tendons and the synovial fluid around the joints and so will not protect the body against injury. In fact, stretching before sport has been found to decrease an athlete’s performance because it impairs strength and speed.

All not cool when trying to train dirty.

What do you do instead? A dynamic warm-up like this one or a light jog and then some body weight squats and push-ups.

Or, even some Sun Salutations. Do anything that moves the body slowly, while working it up to its target heart rate and intensity after 8-10 minutes. Save the stretching for the end of the workout.

2. Behind Head Lat Pulldowns, Pull-ups, or Push/Presses

Pulldowns and pull-ups are great to train the large muscles down the back, as well as the smaller ones responsible for pulling the shoulder blades back and down. I love these exercises. However, what I don’t love (and neither will your neck or shoulders) is pulling the bar down behind the head.

Most people are not flexible enough in the shoulders to get away with this movement. Over time all you will do is increase your risk for shoulder impingement syndrome—a painful condition in which the muscles or tendons of your rotator cuff become entrapped in your shoulder joint.

Instead, pull the bar down in front of the chest and do all push/presses in front as well.

3. Seated Leg Extension Machine

A lot of people believe that this popular machine in the gym is a safer alternative for the knees than squatting or lunging.

However, it is not. Physiologists at the Mayo Clinic determined that leg extensions place significantly more stress on your knees than squats.

This is because the resistance is placed near your ankles, which leads to high amounts of torque being applied to your knee-joint every time you lower the weight.

If you truly want to protect the knees perfect your form with body weight squats and lunges with this short tutorial.

4. Pec Deck or Chest Fly Machine

I hate this machine. It over stretches your anterior shoulder, and since the body does not like to placed in dangerous positions the shoulder joint has no option but to tighten itself up.

Continuous tightening of this joint will lead to shoulder impingement syndrome and you at physio.

Please stick with good ol’ push-ups and chest presses and flys off the ball or bench. And, if you are bored with your push-ups check out this blog post about “Spicing Up Your Push-Up“.

5. Sit-ups and Crunches

While one of the functions the abdominals’ is to flex our spine (which is what a sit-up does), that flexing activity is not functional at all.

The abdominals are actually used as stabilizers to the spine, as well as throughout the day to help us twist, bend, assist on breathing and so forth.

Taking that into consideration, you can see why sit-ups and crunches will not help you out in daily living, and they provide even less help in sport. In fact, there is also loads of anecdotal evidence indicating that sit-ups and crunches cause and aggravate lower back problems, among other things.

More preferable exercises are ones that lengthen the body and then use the abdominals to hold that position. Such as: planks, push-ups or a boat pose.

We also need exercises that ask the abdominals to assist in stabilizing the spine, such as squats, deadlifts, lunges, pull-ups and power cleans.

We have a ton of crunch-free ab workouts on our blog and YouTube channel. Here are a few of our most popular to get you started:

Crunch Free Abs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqgG-swH8Qs

Tabata Core Circuit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWtQ1tsoU0U

Happy Spine Workout: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miZAEG_n1C4

 

pjgofitPJ is the fitness half of the Go Fit Gals. The Go Fit Gals are experts in fitness and nutrition for women from new mommies to menopause. They provide the coaching and the inspiration to get their members strong, healthy and confident through their unique online programs based on eating clean and training dirty.

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