Don't Waste Your Time on THESE 8 Exercises
It’s officially time to start setting those New Years Resolutions! We figured there is no better way to trim the fat from your workout routines (pun heavily intended), than to eliminate some of the most overrated exercises.
Treadmill
Good lord does this contraption leave a lot to be desired. I have many a gripe with the treadmill, so let me keep this short.
The most important reason that we do not even have treadmills in our gym, is they are proven to be less effective forms of running. Treadmill running has been proven to result in higher peak forces passing through your knees and feet when compared to outdoor running (actually 12.5% higher peak forces in the Achilles Tendon!). (Richard, W., et. al.) Higher peak forces can lead to more frequent overuse injuries such as tendinitis, arthritis, and plantar fascitis. Treadmill running has also been shown to have a lower energy requirement. (Andrew, J., et. al.) Less energy usage means, you guessed, less calorie burn!
On top of this, the treadmill is the ultimate excuse maker in the gym. I have seen thousands of perfectly good workouts get flushed down the drain as soon as someone steps on the treadmill and turns on the TV or sets down their Ipad. When this happens the attitude generally becomes, “I’ll just sit here and move my legs for the next 40 minutes and I completed my workout.” Next time you step off the treadmill, take a moment and think about this simple question.
“Did I actually push myself to the limit?”
In our years of experience the general answer is NO. Most of the time gym goers step off the treadmill after 40 minutes and probably could go and do another real workout. To get your body to change, it must experience a stimuli that forces it to change.
This does not mean a good treadmill workout is impossible, but are there better options? Yes.
What you should do instead:
Run outside. Its harder. Healthier on your joints. Plus you get some fresh air!
I know what you are thinking… and yes, this was my short answer.
2. Leg Press
I like to call the leg press the “excuse to skip real squats”. Does it work your legs? Yes. Does it produce anywhere near the same results as learning to squat properly? Not in a million years.
Learning to squat correctly leads to a stronger core, stronger upper and lower back, better hamstring and glute development, more muscle mass recruitment, more energy expenditure, better kinesthetic awareness, stronger healthier knees, (gasp)… I could go on for the rest of the article.
What You Should Do Instead:
Do I even need to say it?
Bottom line is get a good teacher. Learn to squat. Get real results for your legs. Use Leg Press as an afterthought accessory movement.
3. Single Arm Curls
This one goes out to the gym bros. Everyone has seen that one guy isolating 1 bicep at a time, for hours on end. The reason this looks awesome, (when you see it on instagram, not your local gym jabroni) is because the professional bodybuilders who use it have incredibly developed biceps (from years of doing actual exercises). This exercise is really only useful if you are fine tuning an already highly developed bicep.
What You Should Do Instead:
Bi-lateral Curls.
Curl both arms at the same time. Yes, it is that easy. Try it and discover a world of core work. Bringing both weights in front of your center of gravity creates a massive amount of tension on your abdominal wall. Slow and controlled, not like this:
4. Seated Leg Extension
This is basically the leg press on steroids… or I guess whatever the opposite of steroids is. Do literally any leg exercise other than this. This open chain movement is the bane of beginners at a mega gym. It applies a massive amount of force to your patellar/quadricep tendons, which is a quick shortcut to knee pain for someone who is just getting into working out.
Can it ever be used? Yes, but it requires a lot of neuromuscular control and experience using and isolating muscles.
What You Should Do Instead:
I wasn’t joking. Literally any other leg exercise (see LEG PRESS above).
5. Bench Press
(Queue the gasps!) Yeah yeah, I know bench press is a vital movement to have a strong, developed upper body.
It is also the most overused, misunderstood, hard to grasp, high risk, shoulder destroyer this world has ever seen.
It takes some serious coaching to become even halfway decent at bench pressing. Even then, you see some of the strongest people on the earth, coached by the highest echelon of coaching talent, end up with torn pecs, crushed heads, and obliterated rotator cuffs.
The barbell bench press actually doesn’t even activate the chest very well. The motion of using dumbbells for a bench press is a much more efficient way to hit the pecs.
I am not saying this is a bad overall exercise. But if you are brand new to the gym and starting off your first days of a New Years resolution fitness program, or even just not an experienced/coached lifter, stick to dumbbells or push-ups.
What you should Do instead:
Learn a proper push-up and how to actually activate chest, then work slowly into Dumbbell bench
6. Sit-ups, Crunches, Leg Lifts, 6 minute Abs, etc.
We’ve all been there. Dying to have that sculpted 6 pack just in time for beach season. Unfortunately there is no such thing as “targeted fat loss”.
You cannot simply do crunches and lose fat specifically in your abdominal region. Body fat is the determining factor, and unfortunately the order that you lose body fat is determined mostly by genetics.
There is still hope! Getting those abs to pop through is only a matter of consistently losing body fat, which will eventually include your abdominals no matter who you are!
You can also help that six pack pop out by building muscle on your abdominal wall, which brings me to my second point. In the grand scheme of building a strong abdominal wall, sit ups and crunches are pretty inefficient exercises.
What Should You Do Instead:
Work on Deadlifts, Squats and diet!
Loading your core with weight, and forcing it to support your trunk and back is by far the best way to build a strong, aesthetic core. Pair that with a consistent diet and you have some shredded abs.
7. OLYMPIC LIFTS
I have written enough about this already. To summarize, these lifts are incredibly complex movements that really aren’t worth perfecting unless you have very specific goals (sport performance based goals like vertical leap, explosive power, speed, etc.).
Red flag #1: You walk into a gym and say you are there to lose weight/are new to working out and within the first week the trainer is having you use Olympic lifts. There are dozens of movement patterns that a person should master prior to olympic lifting, and if a coach doesn’t walk you through ALL of them prior to introducing things like snatch and clean, they don’t know what they are doing.
I’m not going to beat a dead horse but if you feel like reading more into my humble opinion on this subject, this is a separate article I wrote on it.
What Should you do instead:
stick to simpler, compound lifts that involve the entire body. If you are deadset on Olympic lifting or want to compete, FIND A GOOD Coach!
8. Hip Abduction/Adduction Machine
An entire machine… dedicated to something a simple 30 cent band could achieve. Sounds like a solid investment for any gym owner. This is pretty much common sense. Although there has been a massive spike in popularity with these machines (mainly due to instagram “experts” using it as a chance to zoom a camera in on their skin tight spandex), it still remains a complete mystery to me how companies keep selling these machines.
Like I said before, a bag of resistance bands costs under $10 on amazon and can perform every function that this entire machine can. Bands can be used in hundreds of other ways as well.
What should you do instead:
Banded abduction and banded glute bridges
Citations:
Richard, W., Lisa, H., Andrew, H., Holly, J., & John, W. (n.d.). Patellofemoral joint and achilles tendon loads during overground and treadmill running | journal of orthopaedic & sports physical therapy. Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy. Retrieved from https://www.jospt.org/doi/full/10.2519/jospt.2016.6494
2. Andrew, J., & Johnathan, D. (n.d.). A 1% treadmill grade most accurately reflects the energetic cost of outdoor running. Journal of Sports Sciences. Retrieved from https://shapeamerica.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02640419608727717#.XegPBuhKhPY