Which of everyone's favorite exercises are actually ineffective and why? Fitness trainers say.
When starting to play sports and selecting a training program, we often come across the same recommendations from trainers. But, diligently adhering to these tips, we do not notice any progress.
This is not a reason to be disappointed in fitness. The fact is that the popular opinion is not always true. We have compiled a list of exercises that have gained their popularity completely undeservedly.
Inessa Timoshina
fitness trainer
Body pain after exercise is not an indicator of quality. If they beat you with sticks, your body will also hurt, but this does not mean that you have pumped up anything.
Curtsy lunges
It is generally accepted that this exercise is aimed at working the gluteal muscles and is highly effective, but this is not so. When performing such a movement, damage can be very serious. This type of lunge puts a lot of strain on the cruciate ligaments (one of the main stabilizers of the knee joint). When performing these lunges, the ability to take a lot of weight is excluded, so curtsy-style lunges are the most useless exercise option.
Read more about the curtsy exercise →
Medicine ball squats
Why it's useless : YouTube is full of videos with amateurs claiming that this exercise solves all problems. Well, professionals know that it is absolutely useless. A squat is a squat, even on an unstable surface, so why increase the risk of injury?
Are there really perverts who actually do this? Take Bosu for example.
What to do instead: Squats with your arms criss-crossed on your shoulders. Be a real man: squat without any tricks. Regular squats develop lower body muscles, build strength, speed up metabolism and work on stability. And you won't have to go to the emergency room.
Smith machine knee squats
It is also supposedly a highly effective option for working out the buttocks. When performing this exercise, you can injure the spine and knee joints. This option was borrowed from weightlifting. In this sport it is considered auxiliary, and is performed differently. Firstly, the athlete makes a movement with a barbell, and secondly, the bar of the sports equipment does not go vertically, but in an arc. In weightlifting, the exercise is aimed at developing strength, not building mass.
Read more about the good morning exercise from your knees →
Plank longer than 30 seconds
On the Internet you can find hundreds of sports plans that advise you to stand in the plank for as long as possible. This exercise is designed to work your core muscles. And they enter the active development phase only for the first 20-30 seconds.
After this period, the effectiveness of the exercise disappears and the load from it is transferred to nearby joints and muscles. For them, in turn, this load is uncharacteristic, which is why we suffer, standing in the plank for five minutes. This was recently discovered by Canadian scientist Stuart McGill.
Elena Skoblova
supervisor and master trainer of the World Class gym
To effectively perform a plank, you need ideal body proportions and muscle balance, which none of us have.
Photo: istockphoto.com
Torso rotations with a barbell
This exercise is aimed at strengthening the abdominal muscles, especially the obliques. This exercise is not effective, since the muscles do not contract when turning, as with oblique twists on the floor, but it is also highly traumatic for the spine, since rotation of the spine with weight can damage the integrity of the intervertebral discs.
Crunches
Incorrect execution of twisting Mistake:
press your chin to your chest, cover your head with your elbows and tear off your lower back.
Correct execution of twisting
Correctly:
stretch the crown back, maintain axial extension, keep the lower edge of the shoulder blades and the sacrum in contact. Start moving behind your elbows: they should be in the field of lateral vision and, like triangles, pull the body to the sides and up. It is better to start the movement by pushing off the floor with your shoulder blades. As you exhale while twisting, keep your stomach as tight as possible.
Hyperextension with round back
This exercise is aimed at training the muscles of the lower back, buttocks and hamstrings, but this does not give the best effect and contributes to pinching of the piriformis muscle, and this can lead to serious consequences.
Read more about gluteal extension →
Push ups
Improper execution of push-ups Error:
gaze is directed downwards, shoulders are raised towards the ears, shoulder blades are unstable.
Proper execution of push-ups
Correct:
elbows are located at an angle of 45 degrees. The palms should seem to be tearing the floor in different directions. Keep a wide distance from ear to shoulder. The neck is long and the gaze is directed diagonally forward, as if towards the edge of a rug. The shoulder blades remain stable.
Lumberjack exercise
Aimed at working out the oblique abdominal muscles. It is performed in a crossover and is also not effective. Regular classic oblique crunches are much more effective than this exercise.
Wrist curl with dumbbell
Why it's useless:
Do you want forearms like Popeye the sailor? Spinach will help faster than this exercise. After all, it is so specific that it is not worth wasting time on. If you've already tried it, you'll understand what we mean.
What to do instead:
fingertip push-ups. To do this, you don’t have to be a Shaolin monk, just the desire to pump up your upper body is enough. And don't worry, it's much easier than it looks. All muscle groups in the upper body are used, which heats up your metabolism.
Smith machine leg press
One of the most useless exercises on this list, it can also cause injury if the weight with the bar falls off the feet, which cannot be secured under the bar. Of all the exercises for developing legs, it is the most useless; it does not need to be included in the training at all, even in order to diversify the training process.
What exercises can be considered harmful or useless?
What exercises can be called unequivocally stupid, useless and harmful? Some will say that this is information about leg raises on exercise machines. Others are about overhead barbell pressing, which kills the shoulder joints. Still others will say that everything is pointless except the “base” - squat-press-deadlift. Still others will call those exercises that they personally do not like bad.
There is not much objectivity in all this, because it is always important to take into account the context - the person’s experience, his state of health, his personal anatomy and the goals that he sets for himself. If we take all this into account, then there are definitely not so many harmful and pointless exercises. If you try to list senseless, harmful and stupid exercises from the point of view of science, logic and just common sense, then you come up with six types.
Exercises that make no physiological sense
This group includes exercises that are used for something for which they cannot work. For example, crunches to get rid of belly fat. Or training and breeding on special simulators for “drying” the thighs.
One 2007 study found that contracting a muscle increases blood flow to the fatty tissue adjacent to that muscle []. But this doesn’t work for targeted weight loss []. Strength training is effective for weight loss, but it happens throughout the body, not where the muscle is moving []. Another study found that six weeks of ab training to lose belly fat did not reduce belly fat [].
But exercises for raising and spreading legs cannot be called absolutely useless, always and for everyone. It's important to consider the context. They can be used in a rehabilitation program after injury and surgery, when a person is unable to do more complex exercises. And in terms of activation of the gluteus medius muscle, they are more effective than the same squats with a barbell with a wide stance. It all depends on the goals: if you need to load the gluteus medius muscle in isolation, the exercise is not bad. If you need to lose weight in this zone, it’s useless.
Exercises that don't make sense from a biomechanical point of view
A great example is side bends with dumbbells in both hands. The weight of the dumbbell on the opposite side works as a counterweight, and purely mechanically makes the exercise meaningless, and at the same time harmful to the spinal discs.
Another exercise that does not have much biomechanical meaning is internal and external rotation of the shoulder while standing and holding dumbbells with your arms bent at right angles:
The rotator cuff is weakly loaded due to the force of gravity, which is directed vertically downward. To work these muscles, you need to create a horizontal load vector using a cable or rubber band, which is installed at the same height as the elbow. Or perform the exercise with dumbbells, but lying on your side.
There is an example for cardio: a person puts a large incline on a treadmill and walks along it, holding the handrails with his hands and leaning back. By doing this, he compensates for the inclination: the angle of the body in relation to the treadmill remains the same as if there was no inclination at all, and the body “hangs” on the hands.
The same can be said about the stepper, on which many people also hang by their hands, relieving the load from their legs. Although, this all makes sense if a person is recovering from an injury or surgery and has not returned full strength to the leg muscles.
Exercises with a poor risk-benefit ratio
Unstable surfaces are good for balance training or as part of a rehabilitation program to strengthen the ankles, knees or hips. But this is an excellent example of exercise that has little benefit and many risks if used for other purposes - to become stronger, to gain muscle, and to perform more effectively on the ground.
To get stronger, you need to lift heavier weights. To increase muscles, you need to overload them and increase weights. None of this can be done effectively on an unstable surface [, ].
One of the principles of training is the principle of specificity. The body acquires only those qualities that it lacks to overcome a specific load. If you are a performer at Cirque du Soleil and you balance on a ball, you need to do different exercises on the ball. If you want to squat with a barbell on the ground, it's best to train that way.
When someone learns to ride a bike, they don't expect it to improve their performance in other non-cycling activities. Endurance will improve, and this will help you be more resilient in other activities, but it is not a specific “cycling” skill. But playing basketball, swimming and squats with a barbell, riding a bicycle will not help. To learn to swim, you need to swim, and to learn to squat, you need to squat.
And although this sounds logical, trainers still offer their clients training with weights on exercise balls or Bosu in order for them to somehow become more functional and productive in any other exercise.
Even if one denies the science and ignores universal training principles in favor of creating one's own, common sense dictates that the risks associated with training on an unstable surface with free weights far outweigh any perceived benefits.
- If the goal is to develop coordination, balance, and strengthen joints through stabilizer muscles, then exercises on fitballs and bosu are great and can be included in the program, but they do not involve working with heavy weights.
- If the goal is to improve your floor squats, then it is more effective and safer to perform floor squats.
Exercises that cause pain
We are not talking about pain associated with high muscle tension or burning during training. We are talking about pain that exists outside the gym or appears during some kind of movement. These are weak areas of the body that can be further injured. But many continue to train through pain in the joints, because otherwise they are satisfied with the exercise, but they don’t want to give it up - it doesn’t hurt that much. Although, this is a direct path to big problems in the future.
There are many options for how you can replace or modify an exercise. Sometimes you can simply reduce your range of motion and stop until discomfort occurs. This is an example of why you shouldn't criticize every shallow barbell squat you see.
All physical exercise is stressful for the body. This is what forces him to adapt, becoming stronger, bigger, carrying the load more efficiently and easier, in order to reduce the likelihood of injury.
Training smart means putting enough stress on the body to force it to adapt. But strictly control the amount of stress so as not to reach the point where it causes only damage.
It’s stupid to train - do the opposite: give insufficient load or too much, leading to the accumulation of microdamages in tissues and injuries in the future, and train through pain.
Ego-guided exercises
The simplest example is too large working weights, which do not allow you to do the exercise in full amplitude, force you to violate the technique, use jerks and inertia to throw or pull a barbell, dumbbell or exercise machine handle towards you at any cost.
It's one thing to do a shallow squat based on a person's personal anatomy, injury history, or some well-understood reason. Half-squats are a completely different matter because a person simply cannot rise up from a squat if he does the exercise in full amplitude.
Dogma-guided exercises
A prime example of how people confuse training methods with universal principles of fitness training is strict dogma. For example, saying that you cannot become strong and pump up without the “base” - bench press, squats and deadlifts.
The only thing without which you cannot become strong is progressive overload, that is, increasing the load over time. The principle of overload is one of the main principles of strength training [].
Heavy squats and deadlifts aren't the only way to go. Weight training is simply a way to transfer force through your joints. When you understand this simple thing, you will see the pointlessness of dogma and a fanatical approach to certain exercises. No exercise in itself has magical powers. Barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, cables, machines - these are all just different tools that allow us to transfer force through our joints.
When it comes to a good training program, we don't focus on methods (type of exercise). We start from the main training principles that are universal for everyone.
So the assessment of the exercise is not determined by the personal preferences of the trainer and his/your emotional attachment to something (“only the base grows muscles” or “girls should never have the base”). The validity of any exercise or training approach is determined by how well it aligns with common sense, scientific evidence, and universal training principles.
Translation of the article by Nick Tumminello
Zottman Curls
This is a biceps curl with a forearm twist. It is also useless and ineffective. The best option would be to perform dumbbell curls or hammer curls. The hammer can be performed with the hand supinated. Although this option is also very controversial, it can still be considered if done in combination with biceps curls.
Read more about the Zottman curl exercise →
Exercises that cause pain
If you feel pain while performing an exercise, you should stop doing it and choose another one that does not cause discomfort. Of course, this does not apply to pain in the muscles during a productive workout; such pain is quite logical and acceptable.
Training through pain is strictly prohibited, because you are harming your body at this very moment. Moreover, sometimes you shouldn’t give up the exercise itself, you can simply try different variations of it - reduce or increase the range, reduce the intensity, etc.
The goal of any workout is to give the body stress to develop. By adapting, the body becomes stronger and more resilient, endures previous loads much easier, and accordingly, the likelihood of injury decreases. But stress on the body should also be moderate, so common sense is important in every workout.
Parallel grip dumbbell press with seated rotation
From the neutral position of the dumbbells at the lowest point, the press is performed with the hands supinated upward. The benefits of this exercise option are not justified. Rotating the wrist from a neutral position does not affect the contraction and is not more effective than a regular standing or seated dumbbell press.
Shadow boxing with weights
Why it's useless:
If you want to build muscles like those of participants in mixed martial arts tournaments, it’s better to pay attention to something else. To lose weight or gain muscle mass, this exercise is also not suitable for you. Poorly controlled movements increase the risk of injury if you take on a lot of weight, and a small one will not be enough to work effectively. And there is no “golden mean” to be found here.
What to do instead:
reverse grip pull-ups. Do you want arms like mixed martial artist Anthony Joshua? Consider bodyweight exercises rather than weights. Calisthenic exercises like reverse-grip pull-ups produce greater muscle gains in the long term. And not only because they build up biceps, but also because they increase testosterone levels. And this is better than beating the air with your girlfriend’s dumbbells.
Love
Lyudmila Chursina has her own unique and very clear opinion about love:
Love is one of the greatest human talents. Love comes in different forms. It can be painful, it can be the highest manifestation of the spirit - it depends on the person, on how rich his soul is, how generous he is in his love for the adored object, not possessive, how much he understands that love does not tolerate any bondage. Love is also a very big responsibility and the work of the soul, first of all. When you are burdened with love, and at the same time you do not feel the same attraction to the person, this causes a strong internal protest. This is a very painful condition.
Romantic relationships often turn out to be difficult, although they can bring incomparable pleasure and pleasure. But in order not to spoil them and preserve them, you need to be able to be unobtrusive.
“Being intrusive” can be interpreted as being too attached to a person, not allowing him to act freely and depriving him of personal space.
Exercise machine for pumping the back of the thighs
When exercising on this simulator, two body movements occur - flexion at the knee and extension at the hip. It is this simulator that bases its work on bending the knee, which does not entail any benefit. In everyday life, this movement is practically not used by people, while performing it on a simulator puts a large load on the tendons.
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Hoop
Many girls sometimes kill themselves by twirling some fancy hula hoop for hours, which after prolonged exercise can cause a lot of bruises on the body. It’s sad that with such zeal and diligence you get nothing, since the hoop has absolutely no effect. Perhaps it will somehow make your waist thinner, but exercises with alternate lifting of legs from a sitting position on the floor are much more productive.
Excessive ab training
Those who are dissatisfied with their figure, as a rule, first of all begin to pump up their abs. And they often overdo it, driving themselves to the point of exhaustion with this exercise.
Remember, the principle “the more the merrier” does not work here. The abs are a muscle just like any other. There is no point in pumping it every day, performing a large number of repetitions.
It is better to work out the abdominal muscles about 2-3 times a week, doing three sets of 15-20 repetitions for each exercise per workout.
Exercises that other people's opinions incline you to do
In the gym, you should not be guided by other people's advice (of course, if it is not the advice of your trainer), but by general training principles and common sense.
If someone tells you that you can't get strong without bench pressing or squatting, this is a clear illustration of how people confuse specific methods and general principles of exercise. To develop strength, an increasing load is required, and this can be achieved with a variety of exercises.
Any resistance exercise will improve your strength, each has its own advantages and disadvantages, which is why it is important to perform different exercises rather than focusing on the same ones.
Scientific works confirm the effectiveness of just different exercises, so you should not squat with a barbell at every lesson, even if someone told you that this is necessary. Make your workouts varied and then your muscles will grow productively.
Workouts that are too short or too long
Cardio sessions when losing weight are extremely necessary. True, hours of training combined with a strict diet will have the opposite effect and will only increase fat accumulation. The body, which finds itself in a stressful state, will begin to store nutrients in reserve.
Training that is too short will also be ineffective. During physical activity, glycogen obtained from carbohydrates is first consumed. Only after this does fat come into use.
Therefore, if the workout lasts less than 40 minutes, the fat burning process will not start.
Pulse is also important: if you exercise to lose weight, your heart rate should be in the range of 120-140 beats per minute .
