Exercises You SHOULDN'T Be Doing

We've all seen on just about every single training related website a list of exercises you should do that'll make you big, strong, lean, jacked, etc, etc, and that's all well and good.  But have you noticed when you walk into your local commercial gym some douchebag doing something that makes you go "What in the blue hell is going on here."  Odds are that if you haven't seen that, YOU are that douchebag.  Have no fear, this post will help weed out what exercises you should stop doing.

Good or Bad?

Theoretically, every single exercise in existence can have benefits as well as risks.  I'm not going to tell you to stop squatting because if your hip angle is less than X degrees you'll increase your chances of spinal disc herniation by 2000%.  Everything we do has a certain risk/reward or pro/con ratio.  It's just that some have a ratio so out of whack its best not to do them.

Squats and Deadlifts are excellent exercise for developing total body hypertrophy, maximal strength and a bulletproof posterior chain but if done incorrectly can send your L4/L5 flying across the room.  You shouldn't stop doing Squats and Deads immediately but we have to understand the risks involved and how we can minimize said risks by improving technique.  Similarly, for bicep curls we've all heard the argument that if you're under a certain weight or under a certain training age they're pretty useless, and I agree.  However, if you're a 300 lb competitive bodybuilder who needs to bring his biceps up, then yes bicep curls are an acceptable exercise.

This post is not going to tell you when Squats, Deadlifts or Bicep Curls are suitable to perform, but instead look at exercises have a very poor risk/reward ratio.

Situps

The situp has been a staple exercise since the dawn of man.  A favourite among gym teachers, fitness enthusiasts and Izzy Mandelbaum; the situp claims to boast superior abdominal training and allegedly develops 'totally hawt abz, bro.'

"I want you to sleep on this tonight, it'll toughen your vertabrae."

However, there are a few fallacies with the general principles of situps:
- Traditional situps recruit mostly hip flexors!  Studies have shown that during situps there is a high degree of activation of rectus femoris and psoas; both hip flexors.  Combined with the fact most of us who work desk jobs do nothing but stay in seated hip flexion for 8 hours a day you've done nothing more but shorten your hip flexors further and introduce a host of postural imbalances.
- Repetitive low load spinal flexion is the major cause of spinal disc herniations.  Research from Dr. Stuart McGill has shown a link between repetitive low load flexion/extension of the spine and disc herniation, and documented in Low Back Disorders: Evidence-Based Prevention and Rehabilitation.  When you're performing 100's of situps at once that's nothing but repetitive low load spinal flexion; keep doing that for a few years and your chiropractor and orthopaedic surgeon will be very happy - someone's gotta pay for their Ferraris and bidets.

Putting his Chiropractor's kids through private school.

Stability and Bosu Ball

I know you've all seen this:  some weirdo standing on a bosu ball doing 1 legged bicep curls, or overhead press or squatting on the stability ball.  Again, if you haven't seen it odds are you are that weirdo.

 This guy's orthopaedic surgeon just put a down payment on a new boat.

Why do people do this exercise?  You'll usually get one of two answer:  "It's totally functional, much more functional than those heavy squats you're doing", and "It works my core better than those heavy squats you're doing."

Come on, did you accidentally stumble into an anti-squatting convention?  Let's look at the first statement:  What is functional?  Common sense tells us that 'functional' will relate to something which will help function - didn't need an English professor to tell us that one.  So what kind of function do we get standing on a stability ball?  Unless you play Slamball, not much.

However, this sport looks so awesome maybe I will start squatting on a bosu ball

Additionally researchers such as Dr. Vladimir Zatsiorsky in his book The Science and Practice of Strength Training discuss the issue of Specificity - how well an exercise carries over to a specific act or performance.  So unless you play a sport with bouncy floors, performing exercises standing on a bouncy surface won't produce much specificity.

Going to the second statement, research stated in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research has shown that in comparisons of horizontal and vertical pressing on a stability ball vs. a stable bench, muscle activation of the rectus abdominis (the 'six pack'), anterior deltoid and pectoralis major showed no major difference on either surface.

Treadmill Running

Walk into your local commercial gym, what do you first see?  Other than the weirdo doing overhead press on a bosu ball, most likely a bunch of mice running on a treadmill.  "But what's wrong with a treadmill?  I want to lose fat/improve my aerobic capacity/stare at the chick in front of me on the elliptical."  I won't get into the arguments of steady state cardio vs. optimal fat loss, but here's the view from a biomechanical standpoint.

What's the difference between treadmill running and road running?  On the road you are master of your own domain?  Want to go further; run a bit harder.  You have complete muscular control of what you are doing.  On a treadmill you are stationary relative to an observer standing on the ground.  The belt you run on which keeps you in place is assisting with your hip extension - you perform the knee extension and hip flexion (forward stride), which by the way is mostly quadriceps activation, then the belt takes over and passively performs hip extension and knee flexion for you, which is mostly hamstring/glute activation.  So what's the problem here?  The passive hip extension/knee flexion eliminates the need for you to activate your own hamstrings/glutes - the belt does it for you so your body doesn't have to.  However, you are still activating your quadriceps during the knee extension; this is essentially highly repetitive quadriceps activation with very little hamstrings/glutes activation.  Talk about muscular imbalance - perform 300 reps on the leg extension machine and do no hamstring work.  In a week let me know how your knees feel.  That imbalance of forces, a force couple, exerts high forces on the anterior (front) side of the knee with no balancing force on the posterior side.  Unequal distribution of forces will produce what?  Structural imbalances, weak muscles and pain.

Enjoy your knee pain, ladies.

Conclusions

There are safe ways of performing exercises mentioned.  Want to train your abdominals but at the same time insist on using a stability ball?  Sure thing, try to stir the pot.  Have a 10k race coming up and want to improve your aerobic capacity?  Run outdoors or on an indoor track.

Like I said earlier, every single exercise we perform has an associated risk/reward.  Sometimes the ratio is favourable and that's why we perform that exercise, but at other times the ratio is so low we don't even think about it.  If I told you "I'll give you 10 bucks if you sprint 100 yards with steaks tied to you while being chased by velociraptors", is the risk really worth the reward?  The same goes for the exercises mentioned above.

References:

Juker D, McGill SM, Krpof P, Steffen T. Quantitative intramuscular myoelectric activity of lumbar portions of psoas and the abdominal wall during a wide variety of tasks. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 1998;30:301—310.


Guimaraes AC, Vaz MA, De Campos MI, Marantes R. The contribution of the rectus abdominis rectus femoris in twelve selected abdominal exercises. An electromyographic study. J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 1991 Jun;31(2):222-30

Callaghan JP, McGill SM. Interverterbral disc herniation: studies on a porcine model exposed to highly repetitive flexion/extension motion with compressive force, Clin Biomech (Bristol, Avon). 2001 Jan;16(1):28-37

McGill SM. Low Back Disorders: Evidence-Based Prevention and Rehabilitation, Human Kinetics, 2007, p106-107

Reynolds, Gretchen.  Is Your Ab Workout Hurting Your Back, The New York Times Health Online, July 17 2009

Zatsiorsky VM, Kraemer JW.  The Science and Practice of Strength Training, Human Kinetics, 2006, p6-9


Uribe BP et. al. Muscle Activation When Performing the Chest Press and Shoulder Press on a Stable Bench vs. a Swiss Ball, JSCR 24: 1028-1033,2010


Alton F, Baldey L, Caplan S, Morrissey MC. A kinematic comparison of overground and treadmill walking, Clin Biomech, 1998;Sep13(6):434-440