Exercises To Stop Doing Forever

Exercises To Stop Doing Forever

8 Gym Moves You Should Stop Doing Forever

Some exercises are dangerous, others are simply a waste of your limited and precious time, the worst are both. Bro science may tell you something different, but there are certain moves that force your body into unnatural positions, where you'll potentially do more harm than good. Here are eight exercises you shouldn't bother doing in the gym, why not, and what you can do instead.

Barbell Vertical Row

There’s a saying in strength coaching that there’s no such thing as bad exercises, just bad execution, and while that is true to extent, the upright row is top of the list of exceptions. 

The problem It's two-fold: firstly it puts your shoulder, elbow and wrist into an awkward position, leading to the shoulder being loaded internally. This makes the muscles and ligaments much more liable to both acute and chronic injury. The second problem is that the exercise isn’t hugely effective anyway. 

Alternative Cable row to chin, snatch grip high pulls

Decline Sit-Up

If you’re trying to hit your abdominal muscles and build a six-pack, this move is designed to do that. But it also trains your hip flexors hard, and that's bad news for your lumbar spine.

The problem With most sit-up variations, and declines especially, the overuse of the hip flexors and the shearing force on the spine exacerbates the bad posture and lower back issues from all the sitting you do.

Alternative: Plank, Anti-rotational exercises, hand walk-outs, Turkish get-ups.

Tire Flips

There’s a difference between sport and training. Training is about building health and strength, sport is about points. Tire flipping is popular for one reason: it looks badass, and in recent years it’s escaped the realm of sport (ie strongman), and made its way into the gyms and bootcamps.

The problem While it looks badass, in terms of the health of your back and biceps it’s just bad. The lower and upper spine is well rounded at the start of the lift when you’re working the hardest, and the arms are holding large loads with the elbows slightly flexed, putting your biceps at a greater risk of strain or tear than the majority of alternatives.

Alternative Deadlift, cleans, snatches, kettlebell swings

Behind The Neck Press

In an ideal world the behind the neck press would be a safe and effective shoulder builder. The thing is, it’s not an ideal world. Desk work, driving and bad posture all take their toll on the shoulders, which makes things complicated for this move.

The Problem Having chronic poor posture and overly tight pecs and lats — that's 99% of gym goers out there — changes how your muscle around the shoulder joint function, and reduces your healthy range of motion, something which the behind the neck press needs a lot of.

Alternatives Dumbbell see-saw press, dumbbell press, kettlebell press

Leg Extensions

This quad isolation exercise is popular because a) you can do it sitting down watching the gym’s TV, and b) because bodybuilders seem to like it — and who doesn't want a bit more muscle?.

The problem The quadriceps muscles weren’t designed to work on their own, and leg extensions apply forces across the knee that it wasn't built for, affecting function and potentially leading to damage in the joint. Added to this, they don’t really make you stronger in the real world.

Alternatives Split squat, lunges. Both huge quad builders that also improve whole-leg function as well.

Triceps Kickback

These are the poster boy of a whole host of isolation exercises that are so way down the list of priorities that, for most, they’re just best forgotten. They aren’t dangerous, they’re just pointless.

The problem This is down to how muscles function and the angle and leverage of the weight. Muscles tend to be weak at the extremes of their action, and in a kickback when the arm is out straight and your tricep is in a weak position the weight’s leverage on your arm is at its greatest. This means that not only do you have to use those tiny pink dumbbells to do them, even on a very light weight you'll likely use poor form and fatigue quickly.

Alternative Pretty much every heavy pressing movement such as close grip bench press, push up variations.

 Smith Machine Squats

Many coaches refer to the smith machine as an "expensive coat rack", and with good reason. Using a smith machine for anything confines you to a movement path, and that straight-up-and-down-no-matter-what means you can get away with using poor form.

The problem The machine can’t take account of your body's individual mechanics. In an ideal world the barbell should go straight up and down in a squat, but being confined to this path actually means you use fewer stabilising muscles, moving unnaturally and working in all sorts of odd directions. This increases injury potential.

Alternative: Barbell and dumbbell front squats, unloaded squats, goblet squats