Irealize today's headline might perhaps be a little bossy, especially with that capitalized "NOT" near the end of it.
I actually contemplated using a little smiley face at the end, to cheer it up a bit, but I'm sorry, I'm not really the smiley face kinda girl.
What I am, however, is a trainer who has spent the last two decades in the trenches.
I hold the necessary certifications and schooling that one needs to train, teach and instruct, and I want to make sure that I train, teach and instruct the best exercises to you - beginning with what exercises NOT to do.
Stretching I cringe when I see people at the gym stretch their quads before they push start on the treadmill.
Stretching before you workout is one of the worst things you can do to prepare your body for exercise. Stretching does nothing to prepare the central nervous system for movement. It is a static exercise and will not warm up the muscles, tendons and the synovial fluid around the joints, and so will not protect the body against injury.
"In fact, stretching before sport has been found to decrease an athlete's performance because it impairs strength and speed.
What do you do instead? A dynamic warm-up, or a light jog and then some body weight squats and push-ups.
Or, even some Sun Salutations.
Do anything that moves the body slowly, while working it up to its target heart rate and intensity after eight to 10 minutes. Save the stretching for the end of the workout.
Behind the head Lat Pulldowns, Pull-ups, or Push/Presses
Pulldowns and pull-ups are great to train the large muscles down the back, as well as the smaller ones responsible for pulling the shoulder blades back and down. I love these exercises. However, what I don't love (and neither will your neck or shoulders) is pulling the bar down behind the head.
Most people are not flexible enough in the shoulders to get away with this movement.
Over time all you will do is increase your risk for shoulder impingement syndrome, a painful condition in which the muscles or tendons of your rotator cuff become entrapped in your shoulder joint.
Instead, pull the bar down in front of the chest and do all push/presses in front as well.
Seated Leg Extension Machine A lot of people believe this popular machine in the gym is a safer alternative for the knees than squatting or lunging. However, it is not.
Physiologists at the Mayo Clinic determined that leg extensions place significantly more stress on your knees than squats.
This is because the resistance is placed near your ankles, which leads to high amounts of torque being applied to your knee joint every time you lower the weight.
If you truly want to protect the knees, perfect your form with body weight squats and lunges.
Pec Deck or Chest Fly Machine I hate this machine. It over stretches your anterior shoulder, and since the body does not like to placed in dangerous positions, the shoulder joint has no option but to tighten itself up. Continuous tightening will then lead to shoulder impingement syndrome and you visiting your physio.
Please stick with good ol' push-ups, cable, tubing or TRX presses and chest presses using dumbbells or barbells instead.
Sit-ups and Crunches While one of the functions of the abdominals is to flex our spine (which is what a sit-up does), that flexing activity is not functional at all.
The abdominals are actually used as stabilizers to the spine, as well as throughout the day to help us twist, bend, assist on breathing and so forth.
Taking that into consideration, you can see why situps and crunches will not help you out in daily living, and they provide even less help in sport.
In fact, there is loads of anecdotal evidence indicating that sit-ups and crunches can cause and aggravate lower back problems.
More preferable ab training exercises are ones that lengthen the body and then use the abdominals to hold that position, such as planks, push-ups or a boat pose.
We also need to perform exercises that ask the abdominals to assist in stabilizing the spine such as squats, deadlifts, lunges, pull-ups and power cleans.
PJ Wren is a writer in the Delta area and the fitness half of the Go Fit Gal team. Check out her show on Delta TV and reach her at www.gofitgals.com.
