Three dangerous exercises you should not do under any circumstances
Three dangerous exercises you should not do under any circumstances
One of the things that will always stop you from making any progress in the gym as regards your muscle building is getting injured. One key to avoiding injury lies in the choice of exercises you do.
In this article I'm going to highlight three movements that are often recommended but are not worth the risk, because of the long term damage they cause.
The mainstream bodybuilding press, and under-qualified instructors in gyms all over the world are directly responsible for a lot of the awful advice given out to amateur bodybuilders who don't know any better, due to lack of experience or knowledge.
Unfortunately I can't see the situation changing anytime soon, which means that you need to get the knowledge to recognise right from wrong, and therefore not follow advice that is bad.
One serious area that this bad advice manifests itself is in recommending exercises that are dangerous to do, because of their harmful effect on your joints and connective tissues.
Often genetically more gifted muscle builders can do these dangerous exercises without ill effects because their joints are more robust than our joints. (It will catch up with them in the end.)
They fail to allow for this. We are told to copy them, and because they seem to know what they're talking about we do so, and as a result we get injured sometimes permanently.
Here are some popular and often recommended muscle building exercises that are truly bad for your joints you should never do these movements in any circumstances;
1/ The bent over row
This is incredibly bad for the lower back. Essentially you are bent over at the waist and then you lift a heavy barbell to your midriff. This puts your lower back in a very vulnerable position, because you're moving a heavy weight and your back is unsupported.
2/ The upright row
This unnatural movement is very bad for the shoulders, elbows and wrists. It even looks unnatural when it's being performed. Do this exercise with a meaningful amount of weight and a rotator cuff injury is almost a certainty.
There are two safe versions of the rowing exercise;
First, the one arm dumbbell row this is safe because you can support your back during the exercise.
Second, do the row face down on an incline bench again the back is supported, but some folks may find it hard to breath properly from this position, and it can be tough to find a comfortable head position.
3/ The Smith Machine squat
The Smith machine looks a bit like a doorframe, which has a bar set inside it. You load plates onto that bar and then squat up and down.
The problem is that you are locked into the pre set path of the bar, so you can only go straight up and down. This almost guarantees either a knee injury, a back injury or even both, depending on where you place your feet inside the machine.
Stand too far forwards and you risk a low back injury, or stand too far back and risk a knee injury.
A rock and a hard place.
The orthodox squat with feet flat on the bar, ideally inside a power rack, is far, far safer and much more productive as a muscle builder. My guess is that people feel safer squatting inside a Smith Machine because they don't have to worry about controlling the path of the bar.
It's ironic that the preset bar path is the one thing guaranteed to cause an injury!
Next time you see someone doing a squat with free weights take a look at the path of the bar (assuming the person doing the exercise knows what they're doing). I can guarantee that the bar path will not be straight up and down, which is what the Smith machine forces you to do.
Listen to me, this is really important;
Learn the barbell squat and do it as a free weights exercise, preferably inside a Power rack.
Yes, you will need to control the bar path yourself, but if you have a good safety set up, and if you cut the weight down, get used to doing the exercise the right way, and keep that form whilst building the weight back up, you'll be a lot more likely to build muscle without ruining your joints.
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