Instead today we’re going to go through the 3 WORST exercises you can perform in your workout, these exercises will at best do very little and at worst injure you.

The 3 Worst Exercises

1.) The Abs Machine

When you’re training the core it’s important to move the trunk through a variation of movements, i.e. rotation, static hold, extension, flexion, extension with rotation etc. Too many crunches can cause an imbalance between muscles which is bad for the spine and can cause neck and back pain.

The only thing worse than doing too many crunches is doing them in a machine that limits natural movement, these types of machines train your trunk in an unnatural extension to flexion motion while seated.

You’re far better off training your core through a range of movements using bodyweight or free weights.

2.) Back Machine

If the abs machine isn’t bad enough then meet the worlds most stupid machine ever invented – the back machine.

This machine is bad for you for many reasons;

Firstly it overloads the lower back without strengthening the butt and hamstrings which can lead to muscle imbalances and does nothing to stretch the hip area like squats and deadlifts do.

Secondly, just like the abs machine you’re seated moving the trunk through one plane of motion (front to back) which doesn’t help strengthen any of the smaller muscles (stabilizers).

Lastly, the way that most people perform this movement in such an out of control manner for speed just makes me want to vomit. It literally looks like they are trying to lie down for reps- is this the type of movement that we want to get really good at? Wait, don’t answer that;)

For a strong healthy back stick to the basics; deadlifts, step-ups, good mornings and hip extensions are much more effective.

3.) Elliptical Machine

To be honest, if you’re massively overweight and haven’t exercised for decades then this machine does have some value. But other than that it’s pretty useless.

It is a low impact alternative to running on a treadmill but you get very little range of motion and does not burn anywhere near the calories as it claims it does.

Also the elliptical machine isn’t a very good machine to use for interval training because it causes the knee to go into hyperextension – not good!

The only reason the elliptical machine is so popular is because it’s so easy – I’ve seen people read magazines while on these things – how hard can it be?

A far better option for your cardio training is interval training.

It’s proven to burn nine times more fat than steady state cardio and will get you fitter much quicker. If you’re a beginner or are excessively overweight use an exercise bike or use bodyweight i.e.
burpees, mountain climbers etc.

Train Hard!

Dan Clay
Dangerously Fit – Boot Camp Sydney

PS- What other exercises do you see people doing in the gym that make you cringe? What other exercises do you absolutely hate? What exercises have gotten you hurt in the past? Please share your personal experiences by posting a comment to this blog post, thanks!

                          

Just wanna ask you a question… Usually from what I have read, when you do exercise you
combine CHEST + TRICEP and BACK + BICEP in your workout routine.

(since triceps are used
as helpers on chest and it hits triceps secondarily)…

But is it okay If I will do BICEP
+ CHEST and TRICEP + BACK instead? Because every time I finished my workout on my chest
my triceps is getting tired already what more if I will do my triceps exercise I cannot
lift weights any more… My another concern is if I will do biceps is there will be a
problem or contraction between my triceps and biceps?

Because when I do the chest
exercise it warms up the triceps (also for back + triceps).

Hope to hear from you soon….

Jerome

A. Hi Jerome,

The type of workout your’e talking about is a relic from the bodybuilding days, unless you can train 2-3 hours a day 5-6 x per week are genetically gifted or using steroids there are definitely better ways for you to train.

If you’re the average guy training 3-4 x p/w for 45 min to an hour you’re much better off focusing on exercises that work more than one muscle at one time.

Instead of training chest and triceps or back and biceps or whatever else train the push and pull movement.

By pushing and pulling movements I mean horizontal push (i.e bench press), horizontal pull (i.e seated row), vertical press (i.e shoulder press), vertical pull (i.e chin up), lower body pull (i.e deadlift) and lower body push (i.e squat).

If you break down your upperbody day you’ll be training chest, back, shoulders, biceps all in one workout.

This system of training is very effective for getting the most out of your workouts because each muscle gets more exposure to training, and the more exposure a muscle has to training, the more adaption your muscles will have(be sure to give every muscle 48hrs rest between workouts) .

Core training should be included in every workout.

Here is a sample of one of our strength training workouts.

Train Hard!

Dan Clay
Dangerously Fit Personal Training
www.dangerouslyfitpersonaltraining.com
www.personaltrainersydney.com

P.S If you have any questions please feel free to post them here on my new blog.

                          

In the gym last week I watched a guy lifting weights whilst standing on a swiss ball for his entire workout.

Unless he was looking to improve his skateboarding skills (which I doubt) there really is no point spending an entire workout balancing.

Don’t get caught up in the fads, for the average person training on your feet with free weights is a much more functional way to train.

95% of people have one goal – to look better naked, spending an hour balancing on a ball isn’t gonna make that happen.

Unless your No.1 goal is to get better at balancing leave this form of training to the circus acts. Balance training is not the most effective way to make you lose weight, tone up or get stronger.

If you want to change your body you have to force it to change, whether you would like lose unwanted weight or increase the size of your muscles you need to lift a heavy enough to force your muscles to adapt – which will in turn make your muscles become leaner and stronger.

If you are standing on 1 leg or trying to balance on something there’s no way you can lift enough weight for this to happen.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying balance training doesn’t have it’s place, but the majority of balance training should be focusing on working the core. The total time spent swiss/bosu ball should only be a small percentage of your entire workout.

Stick with the basics, Always perform large compound exercises, which are exercise’s that use multiple muscles at one time, use free weights standing up and train movement patterns instead of body-parts.
Incorporate everyday movements into you strength training routine where you;

Bend
Lunge
Squat
Push
Pull
Twist

You’ll get significantly better results in a much shorter amount of time!

Train Hard!

Dan Clay

www.dangerouslyfitpersonaltraining.com
www.personaltrainersydney.com