Ineffective exercises

Attention gym junkies! Did you know that some of your favourite exercises were doing more harm than good? Don’t believe me? Well ask yourself these questions -
Do you feel like your progress has reached a plateau? And you have been stuck lifting the same weight, for the same reps, for weeks? Or have your shoulders or other joints been sore during certain exercises?

Even if you are seasoned weight trainer, it is possible that you have been doing exercises with incorrect technique, doing those that are ineffective, or doing too many. Split routines which focus on different parts of the body, are good in theory, because they are designed to allow for adequate resting time. However, this is not always the case, because small muscle groups (eg. Shoulders) are involved in many exercises and are often over-trained.

Isolation exercises can be dangerous, for the same reason, they over-work certain muscles, and cause undue strain on joints. Isolated shoulder exercises are unnecessary because the shoulders are worked with all upper body exercises, such as Bench Press and Cable Row. Shoulder injuries may also be prevented by avoiding arm movements to the side and above the head, as in Wide-grip Lat Pull-down.

As for the lower body, Leg extension and Leg Curl machines place excessive strain on knee joints, and are not as effective as compound exercises such as Leg Press or Lunges. More weight can be lifted during the later, and thus greater increases in muscle mass are possible. Not to mention the fact that a compound exercise involving more than one muscle group is less stressful on joints, it also makes for a quicker workout.

For this reason, Bicep Curls and Tricep Extensions are also unnecessary, as these muscles are sufficiently trained during compound upper body exercises such as Bench Press, Cable Row, Push Ups, Chin Ups etc. Any time spent on curls or extensions is wasted, because your arms are not working to as hard as they do during these exercises. To put it simply, compound exercises give optimal results in minimum time, and are reduce the chance of injury.

Tina,