There is a lot of bad advice out there in social media land. If you are one who scrolls through the millions of influencers searching for the secret exercises to success, I hate to tell you that more often than not you’ll be following fad exercise trends.
Even more, you might be an exerciser for 20, 30+ years and have fallen into the trap believing that the old exercise science still stands today.
Times change, exercise science changes and some movements are better left in the past where they belong! Youtube videos don’t have all the answers and are probably doing the bare minimum in exercise selection.
Today I want to give you my top 3 picks for exercises that you shouldn’t be doing anymore. Before I dive into the exercises themselves, I want to first highlight what I would consider a bad movement.
What is the rubric for a bad exercise
So in deciding which exercises we need to forget about and leave them in the past, I want to first state that this isn’t a total bash of these 3 movements.
Every movement in some capacity serves a purpose. At one point these movements were popular and even staples of workout programs.
With new science, knowledge and with more anecdotal evidence there are clearly better ways to get the results you are hoping for when performing these movements.
However the grading I want to use today is the following:
How effective is this exercise in producing the change it’s working towards?
How safe is this exercise for both young and older populations?
How time efficient is this exercise, does it get you there in a timely fashion?
Let’s dive into the 3!
#1 Upright Row
I’m starting off with an exercise that I’ve personally done and programmed for clients earlier in my training days.
The upright row is a movement that wants to build the upper back, specifically the upper trap muscles, rear delts, and biceps.
On the outside looking at this movement, it doesn’t look “dangerous”. You simply take a barbell or kettlebell, grip with an overhand grip with just a few inches in between your hands. You then pull the bar up to your chin, allowing elbows to flare out.
No doubt that you can feel a burn in those trap muscles, and there’s no doubt that this exercise is a staple in many bodybuilder style programs.
However the big red flag with this exercise is the poor position this movement puts on your shoulder, specifically your rotator cuff muscles.
When you raise your hands up with elbows flaring, you might notice that you shoulder joint becomes smaller. What happens with added weight is putting undue stress on those small rotator cuff muscles. Specifically, something called shoulder impingement happens.
If you don’t have super mobile and intact shoulder muscles then this movement over time can really put a beating on your rotator cuff muscles.
Not just that, but the way you hold the bar with a narrow grip limits the amount of weight you can use with good form.
IF you need to limit weight on a movement because of body mechanics, it’s not going to produce the most muscle gain possible. (because you need to limit the weight!)
So for my scoring above:
A better exercise that produces more results is the “High Pull”
This is an exercise that not only has you pulling the bar up, but also BACK. This relieves the shoulder impingement as well as allows for a higher weight to be used, thus producing better results.
This exercise is NOT safe for everyone.
Anyone with rounded posture from years of desk work will not have fun with this one. Anyone with a shoulder injury should never do this exercise!
It would take many, many more reps of this exercise to get the same out of something as simple as a deadlift, a shrug, or Farmers carry.
These exercises not only will work the trap but they will also work your core, and legs as well. More muscles in a movement = more gains.
So stop doing upright rows please, and at the very least switch it to a high pull!
#2 - Tricep Kickbacks
Ah yes, this one is an old school favorite of many. The classic tricep kickback.
You take 5-10lbs at max, hinge over and do your best to get that weight parallel to the ground only using your tricep.
This one, to me, is a disaster.
I get it, many women and men want those triceps to pop. What’s cooler than being able to wear a tank top in the summertime and having the line in the arm as you go to grab something.
Having defined and lean arms is one of the first things people will see from you.
However the way we work the triceps can be done in far more effective ways.
Let’s explain using our rubric here.
A better exercise for tricep isolation will be the Overhead DB tricep extension, rope tricep extensions, or simply close grip bench presses.
The kickback puts you in a less than ideal position to work the tricep. You get a limited range of motion with the kickback due to where you need to start the movement. Not to go off about physics, but your tricep only works for about 40% of the movement, depleting its usefulness compared to other movements.
This exercise potentially isn’t safe because it’s hard to actually do correct. Can you do this exercise without swinging at all? Can you get into the correct parallel position with your body, and extend the elbow back without you seeing it?
I’ll add that the lack of control with your shoulder in space is not a good challenge, more often than not you’ll find that your shoulder rounds forward, furthering the problem many people have with rounded shoulders, and poor posture.
This exercise cannot be scaled well.
Have you ever seen someone doing 20lbs on this exercise? Probably not, and if they were…they were probably swinging. It’s just not an exercise you can scale. If you can’t add weight effectively over time, your body won’t get stronger, you won’t build muscle and you’ll be wasting your time.
Please stop doing this exercise and opt for the other mentioned above. It can be a cool novelty thing where it’s just a different movement….but in terms of it being effective…let it die!
#3 - Crunches / sit ups
Whoa whoa, keep those pitchforks stashed away in the shed. No need to call the rest of the angry mob to come get me on this one.
I’m just here to spit facts and have you stop wasting your time!
Hear me out on this: direct ab work isn’t doing what you think it’s doing for you.
Many people dream about having a flat, ripped stomach. Hell many influencers will post about their “super special ab routine to get abs in 7 days!”
I just laugh….and then cry a little.
It’s because so many people fall for this belief that doing ab exercises will in fact give them a ripped stomach.
I think I’m not far off about saying this, but people do Ab exercises in hopes of ….well, getting abs. Let’s assume this is true for 90% of people doing 3 sets of 20 crunches every night.
Let me explain using the rubric why crunches and sit ups are a waste of your time.
Focusing on nutrition, and fat loss will be far more important in getting ripped abs.
I’ve talked about this before but any type of muscle cannot be “spot trained”. Meaning, that you can’t just move one body part and then have fat fall off from that spot. Your body is a system that works together, not separate pieces that we have control over. You’ll be far better off spending the extra 30 minutes of ab exercises to instead meal prep for the next day, plan a schedule for eating or simply make a healthy snack!
In terms of better movements…what if you just want a strong core? Well, if that’s the case I recommend movements like Planks, Hollow body, deadbug, pallof press, suitcase holds…all these movements work exactly on what the core is RESPONSIBLE for. And that is, stabilizing the spine.
Crunches and sit ups are not safe. Point blank
Continually doing these movements can do more harm than good for your lower back. With a movement that is supposed to build a strong core (which also means low back) it does a pretty terrible job on that fact.
The excessive bending in the lower spine can lead to some serious discomfort and possibly an injury. I’ve seen people get hurt while doing sit ups that cause the lower back to overextend. Not great for spine health, don’t do it.
Doing endless sit ups is not time efficient.
You won’t get those 6 pack abs if you are doing some ab only program. It’s just not going to happen. What you need is to eat healthily, train for stability in your core and lift heavy.
Not many people realize that by doing big barbell movements like the deadlift and squat will work a ton of core muscles while also producing changes in the whole body.
So there you have it, situps and crunches stink and we should let them be a thing of the past.
What do these exercises have in common?
Now that I was able to rant about these 3, I want you to become an investigator yourself. Investigate exercises that you are given either by some influencer, youtube video, or even a trainer.
These 3 exercises are not the only ones who fail with the rubric that I created. There are plenty more and maybe another post will bring those up as well.
What is common amongst these 3 you ask?
Well, I’d say that they all are isolation exercises. Meaning they only work one muscle at a time. (The exception might be the upright row as it does get some bicep work in there, but it’s still attempting to isolate the trap muscles!)
When an exercise only includes one muscle, you will be far less time efficient in building overall health and strength. This is why compound movements are always superior (at least for the average person , looking to be healthy and fit. Bodybuilders look elsewhere!)
These exercises cannot be progressed effectively. Meaning, they can’t have weight added to them without risking injury or form. Like mentioned above, have you ever seen someone do a 20lb tricep kickback?
These exercises have been well-known and popularized for decades. Hey I’m not trying to say all old ideas are bad ideas…it’s just about time we stop raising these movements up to be more than what they are…bad alternatives to other better options!
Injury risk is higher, especially for those with aging joints. The idea for exercise is to keep you safe, and get stronger over time. These do none of that and it’s something you need to look out for. Are you in a vulnerable position? Does this movement feel “weird” in any way? Yeah, let’s look elsewhere. At the very least, let’s look towards an exercise that might have equal risk but much more reward.
Final thoughts
The upright row, tricep kickback, and situps aren’t the only exercises that we need to get rid of. There are more but I think these are some of the more popular ones that need to be re-imagined.
Just because an exercise may cause you to “feel the burn” (I’m looking at you situps) it doesn’t mean that it’s actually doing anything for you long-term.
I’ll leave you with this:
I was a culprit of the ab circuit nonsense. Every night I would do 5 exercises of about 10-20 reps each, all specific crunch variations.
I did this when I was younger, so one would think I would have better results as a 23 year old. What happened was the opposite. Not only did I not get that 6 pack ripped ab look, my back was very, very beat up.
The only thing that helped me out of that terrible feeling was switching my ab routine to a mobility/yoga flow. More static holds, more planks, more hollow bodies.
I was able to recover my back and I vowed never to do or teach the ab circuit nonsense for actual real results.
So don’t feel bad if you’ve been doing your nightly 100 crunches for 3 years still hoping that something will change. I’ve been down that road and I can assure you, it’s never too late to change.
Hope this one helps : talk to you soon!
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