With so many exercises in the gym, it can be hard to narrow down your routine a pick a few solid ones for a workout. Further complicating the situation, some of the most common exercises are also those that can lead to injury. Staying healthy in the gym involves selecting the appropriate exercises, performing them correctly, and staying away from movements that may cause pain or lead to injuries down the road. Build your program correctly, and you’ll reap the benefits of consistent training. Toss in some exercises prone to causing injury and you may see yourself on the sidelines for the long haul. We highlighted the best and worst exercises for your routine to keep you injury free.
5 Best Exercises for Your Program
It’s worth noting that any exercise performed incorrectly can drastically increase your chance of injury. However, some exercises are just too good to pass up in your program. All of these movements are compound lifts which means they move more than one joint at a time. In doing so, they will increase size, strength, and coordination as well as decrease muscular imbalances.
Goblet Squat
Benefits: This exercise targets every major muscle group when performed correctly, although it mainly targets the abdominals, lower back, and lower extremities.
How to do it: (1) Grasp a dumbbell by the head and hold it at chest level. (2) Widen your feet to just past shoulder width; with toes point slightly out. (3). Extend your spine by “puffing your chest out” and pushing your hips back. (4) While descending during the exercise, continue to push your hips back while keeping your chest puffed out. (5) Push your knees out and drop your hips. (6) Throughout the exercise, keep your feet flat on the floor. (7). Keep a neutral or extended spine. (8) While ascending during the exercise, focus on bringing your hips forward until you are back to the start position.
Deadlift
Benefits: Often touted as the king of total body exercises, this movement works every muscle group as well. Mainly beneficial to the abdominals, lower back, and lower extremities.
How to do it: Conventional Deadlift. (1) Stand by a loaded barbell with about one inch between your shins and the bar. (2) While in spinal extension, drop down and position yourself to where your scapula is directly over the bar. (3) Grip the bar with an over/under grip. (4) During the pull phase, keep a neutral or extended spine. (5) Sit back and pull the bar to just past your knees. (6) Once the bar is past your knees, focus on bringing your hips forward and eventually lockout the lift. (7) On the descent, control the weight down while keeping a neutral spine. (8) Between reps, reset yourself so you are in the correct starting position.
See how to build your deadlift.
Standing Dumbbell Shoulder Press
Benefits: If you’re looking to build insane upper body strength as well as a set of huge shoulders, look no further. By pressing a bar overhead, you’re engaging not only your shoulders but also your core and legs for balance and stability. This exercise targets the abdominals, lower back, and of course, the shoulders.
How to do it: (1) Grasp two dumbbells and hold them at shoulder level. (2) Keep a big chest, tight core, and neutral spine. (3) Use a pronated or neutral grip (4) While in the ascending phase, just simply push the dumbbells directly over your head just before elbow lockout. (5) On the descent, control the dumbbells back down to starting position.
Pull-ups
Benefits: Pull-ups may be the most impressive feet of bodyweight strength. They also can help you to build a huge back – a key component of an impressive physique. This exercise targets the upper extremities, scapulae muscles, rotator cuff, and latissimus dorsi.
How to do it: (1) Grasp a pull-up bar with a grip of your choice, but is wider than shoulder width apart. (2) While in extension, begin by retracting your scapula. (3) Once your scapula is retracted, begin to pull yourself up with your lats NOT your arms. (4) Once your posterior muscles are fully contracted, you can use your arms to pull your body up the rest of the way. (5) When descending, let your arms extend first. Then lower yourself the rest of the way with your upper posterior muscles.
See how to increase your pull-up.
Renegade Row
Benefits: Looking to combine core training with building muscle? This exercise has you covered. When performed correctly, this exercise targets every muscle group in its own way.
How to do it: (1) Place a pair of dumbbells on the floor, approximately shoulder-width apart. (2) Assume a push-up position over the dumbbells. While gripping the dumbbells, your chest should be directly over them. (3) Your feet should be slightly wider than your shoulders, and your spine should be in neutral position. (4) Keep your hips locked in place throughout the exercise, to activate your abdominal muscles. (5) Shift your weight to one side of your body. (6) When you are stable, start by retracting your scapulae and then pull the opposite dumbbell to your hip and squeeze your back muscles at the top. (7) Return the dumbbell to the floor in a controlled manner. (8) Then shift your weight to the other side of your body and repeat the rowing action with the other arm.
5 Worst Exercises for Your Program
Some exercises cause more harm than good. Even when done correctly, the following movements leave you at an increased chance of injury when in the gym. Although they may be effective, they put your joints, tendons, and ligaments at an increased chance of injury therefore increasing your risk of sitting the bench.
Leg Extensions
Leg extensions are used by many athletes and rehab patients to rebuild quad strength especially after a traumatic injury. But this exercise is not necessarily the correct one to perform. A lot of bodybuilders do leg extensions to get a “pump” but other than that, there really aren’t any other benefits. During the giant cycle (walking or running) you never experience the type of stress a leg extension will put on your quadriceps or knee joint. This exercise causes constant ACL tension when being performed. To top it off, this is a machine isolation exercise that puts unneeded stress on one of the most important joints in the body.
Do these instead: Squats, lunges, and step-ups will benefit you and keep your knees healthy.
Sit-ups
Sit-ups are one of the most commonly discussed abdominal exercises. With the majority of gym-goers suffering from some sort of back pain, they may not be the best choice for building up an impressive midsection. Sit-ups force your back into spinal flexion, a movement that puts extra pressure on your lumbar spine. Spinal flexion can cause many problems when performed over a long period of time.. Instead, focus on the stabilization aspect of your abdominal wall. Rather than moving into a crunch or sit-up, brace your abdominals in an exercise like a plank or side plank to build strength while keeping your back health.
Do these instead: Exercises you should do instead should be ones that put your abdominal muscles in isometric contraction like planks, pallof presses, and abdominal roll-outs.
Find out how to do an abdominal roll-out.
Upright Rows
Upright rows are used frequently to target the upper body. However, this exercises can often lead to excess stress on the shoulder joint. Driving the arm up and shrugging the shoulders often leads to an impingement at the shoulder joint. In order to stay health and in the gym training, it’s best to find a better exercise to build bigger shoulders while staying injury-free.
Do these instead: Barbell high pulls or cleans which are explosive movements that use the entire body in coordination to build strength and power.
Dips
This is an exercise that many people may actually have pain when performing. This pain is caused by unnecessary stress on the rotator cuff and impingement in the shoulder joint. That is just two reasons why you should not perform this exercise. Another reason you should not perform dips is because they are non-functional and do not transfer benefits over to any other activity.
Do these instead: close-grip bench press, neutral grip dumbbell press (incline or standing), and good ole push-ups.
Find out how to do a close-grip bench press.
Dumbbell Side Bends
Many people often perform this exercise incorrectly leading to it being highly ineffective. They also tend to use momentum during the exercise as well leading to a potential injury down the road. Rather than focusing on movement side to side, focus on stabilization. This will improve your abdominal strength and athletic performance.
Do these instead: farmers hold/walk, side planks, and pall-off press.
Check out how to do a farmer’s walk here.
[box_light]This was a guest post from Patrick Thompson. If you are looking to contribute to ConFITdent, please check here or tweet to @JeremeyD. [/box_light]