10 Exercises All Men Should AVOID!
These are 10 exercises all men should avoid. Not only should you stop doing these exercises but you should never do them again. These are the worst gym workout mistakes if you're trying to avoid an injury. You'll learn about exercises that cause shoulder impingement, lower back pain, and knee problems.
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#1 Exercise to avoid: Selectorizer Ab Machine 0:44
#2 Exercise to avoid: Behind the Head Shoulder Press 3:13
#3 Exercise to avoid: Smith Machine 5:05
#4 Exercise to avoid: Hip abduction and adduction machine 6:43
#5 Exercise to avoid: Seated Torso Rotation Machine 7:33
#6 Exercise to avoid: Upright Row 8:15
#7 Exercise to avoid: Lap Pull Down Behind The Head 9:45
#8 Exercise to avoid: Leg Press Machine 10:44
#9 Exercise to avoid: Leg Extensions & Leg Curls 11:41
#10 Exercise to avoid: Back Hyper Extension Machine 12:19
How many times have you done an exercise & then as soon as you finish you feel pain. You might feel it in your lower back or your shoulder but you find yourself thinking did I do something wrong or does this exercise just suck. Well it really isn't always you. There are a lot of exercises out there that are plain bad for you & they only continue to exist just because they've been passed down from one misinformed gym to the next, & noones been smart enough to realize that these common exercises are no good. So today we're going over 10 exercises that all men should avoid & these exercises aren't only exclusive to men. Women should avoid these exercises as well it's just that in this video we'll be sticking to exercises that i usually find men doing wrong. The very first one that I want to start with is actually a group of exercises that guys are drawn to like moths to a flame. I'm talking about all the selectorizor ab machines at your local gym. The machines that you usually start by sitting down pulling out the pin, selecting your weight, then grabbing some handles behind your head & doing crunches. These machines are not only a waste of time but they are also dangerous for your lower back. All these selectorizor ab machines are locked into a range of motion, meaning that your joints & your disks can't travel down their natural path, you can only travel down the path that the machine has set for you. Even if you adjust the machine to your body perfectly, which by the way is very hard to do, but even if you somehow had a machine customized for your body you can still easily run into lower back issues because you're still locked in a set range of motion throughout the entire exercise. Besides a greater potential for a lower back injury you will also get significantly less results from these machines than if you stuck to regular ab exercises like crunches, hanging knee tucks, & declined situps. The reason is once again due to the fact that your locked into a range of motion. The core's main responsibility is stabilization. And it's important to improve your functional core strength because your core isn't only responsible for stabilizing your trunk but it stabilizes your whole body. It is the bridge that connects your lower body to your upper body. When you're locked in a range of motion you take all of the stabilization normally required for ab exercises out of the movement. The really ironic part is that those abdominal stabilizer muscles that you're not working on these machines are very important to strengthen in order to prevent the lower back injury that you'll likely experience on one of these machines. Due to the fact that you're not working your stabilizers you're missing out on all of those deep tissue abdominal muscles like your transverse abdominus & your only targeting mostly your rectus abdominus which is the very outer layer six pack looking muscle. The transverse abdominus is very important to work because not only does it help prevent injury, but it also pulls your stomach in keeping everything nice & tight giving you that flat stomach look. If you want to make your ab exercises tougher use weights by simply holding a dumbbell or a plate either behind your head or accross your chest while doing regular traditional ab exercises. Once again if you don't know where to start start with exercises like stability ball crunches, declined situps, & hanging knee tucks. The next exercise you should avoid is the behind the head shoulder press. First off there is absolutely no advantage to going behind your head. None. Even though I'm sure some old school guys will be disagreeing with me in the comments below you can research this yourself & you'll find that when you go behind the head you're still targeting the same muscles that you would if yo..
yea, my dad has had multiple rotator cuff surgery’s and he & his doctor have said it’s likely to behind the head shoulder pressing.
Trevor Daniel had two surgeries anything behind the back is bad not gunna lie military presses in front have made my shoulders a lot stronger
There’s nothing wrong with pulldowns behind the head. Been doing them for many years with no problems. You definitely have to lift lighter than from the front, that’s all there is to it.
Tech Master mil press (aka strict OHP), is a basic compound movement and very functional. Guys with a good strict ohp usually have a pretty good bench, but the reverse isn’t necessarily true. Kinda how you your front squat rocks, so does your back squat, but the reverse may not hold.
After 10 years of total bodybuilding, 15 years of hockey, 4 years of Muay Thai and mma and a sprained rotator cuff, many wrist sprains, pulled muscles and 2 herniated discs later I’ll tell you this guy is pretty much spot on.
no he’s wrong about some stuff
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Too bad that you do not write what he is wrong about.
I’m 44 years old. From the age of 16 through my early 30s I spent most of my time at the gym performing every exercise that you just said could be bad for ones body. I now have a damaged back, knees, elbows, wrists and shoulders. I sure wish I had this information when I was younger.
even you avoid these exercises, you’ll still ended up like this if you spend so much time in gym. Body is like a car, you drive it too rough, you damage it.
@Brant Z u weak, bruh
@Brant Z not true! with muscle maintenance and proper care before and after a workout.
like one doing proper all around maintenance on a car it’ll last you a long time.
Bro we need more alternatives for leg press, leg curls, and leg extensions. You just killed half my leg day.
Same !
So long as you use them as burners and not going heavy, i think youll be okay
Squat
yes please
@IamLotion so I think I should use them for light reps in the 12-15 rep range right?
Learned a lot although I felt that some of these exercises didn’t do well to my body and I automatically ceased to do most of them a long time ago. But I never got a sound and professional explanation why I should stop or do different exercises not even at the gym from the staff. Excellent video, thanks a lot!
I’ve been working out the last 7 months and getting deeper and deeper into fitness and I’ve lost a lot of weight but I’ve encountered a lot of strain and light injury along the way. I regularly do at least 5 of these exercises and never knew this information. All of the pain and discomfort you showed in this video is every last one of my problem areas and I wear sleeves and braces to keep them good, but I whole-heartedly think you just saved my joints in one video. Not only pointing out why these exercises are a problem, but you also gave alternates to work those groups as well. I’ve watched many of your videos already but you’ve just gotten a subscriber for life! 💪🏿💪🏿💪🏿
he forgot to mention that there are smith machines that are vertical 90 degres and you can do squatchs safetly in that ones, abduction machines are actually safe the problem is the user, people take their backs off the chair while doing and then becomes a very dangerous exercise, and you can say the same thing about the leg press, mainly wrong use of the machine
@Pensante He also straight wrong about never loading your adductor unless this guy doesn’t squat or deadlift. The both load that muscle and making them stronger will help this lifts
I agree with all, except *LEG EXGENSION* . It has single handedly given me the best legs ever, and even my personal trainer whose expertise I used for 4 months was impressed with my legs. I was swimming already before gymming, so legs were anyway my strength, but I could never work my legs the same way in pool! Even now, in pool, I can fatigue my legs and quads, but when I do *EXTESNION* , I feel like *BAT MAN* and *RONNIE COLEMAN* after doing them, and also when *DOMS* set in. *Hell Yeah* *Light weight baby!!!!!* *Yeah Buddy!!!*
BTW I go extremely heavy with them, and see no pain whatsoever in my knees. None at all! I can’t imagine giving this up for something like *SQUAT* , because, doing squats, even before our legs fail, our *stabalizers* give up! But with this, you can reach *QUAD FAILURE* which is important and not possible doing only *squats*. I do squats in addtion to this, but will never replace extension with squats, ever /,
Leg extensions literally helped my knee pain lol… I use to have bad knee joint pain til about 2 months ago when I started doin leg extensions once a week
I spent years. Literally years… 25-30 years doing all these day in and day out. I am only 59 and although I would not attribute it solely to these exercises ( I have had many hard on the body jobs over the years), but I now have a VERY serious case of Lumbar spinal stenosis. I am in a high degree of pain at every moment of every day. The only relief I get is sitting down. I would trade every muscle I ever built to reverse the debilitating situation I am in now. We did not have guys like this around back in the day evaluating the methods being handed down. So take heed.
Decade’s
@Marci boy decades
@Jignesh Ganjawala yes
“They never told us till the 80s” Junior Soprano
Seeing this video again I remember problems I had with some of these exercises. Behind the head shoulder press gave me trouble the first time I did it. Dropped it quick after that one time. Upright right rows was also hurting my shoulders. That too is something that I stop doing. Leg press I did two months ago. My lower back started hurting so another one of the exercises you mention is off my list. Some these exercises are on an old Joe Weider vhs tape. That is where I found these exercises in the first place. I do tell people about the exercises in this video when I see them doing the exercises. I do not tell it is wrong. Just that they just might want to get more information if they have pain doing it. Anyway I have found that you have been right about these exercises. Keep up the great work. Thanks for sharing your video.
I used to do upright rows mainly with dumbells. I feel it’s safer than with the barbell. It’s an odd excercise because if you do it with a neutral grip your shoulders hurt, but if you do it with wide or narrow grip, it’s feels better and gives better results too. It’s kinda extreme as an excercise i think.
This explains ALOT of health issues I have- thinking I was doing something wrong discouraged me to work out a lot, thank you for this video you saved mainly MY BACK 👍🏽
I agree with all of these, there are so many alternative exercises to safely work the same muscles , I wish I would have watched this 2 weeks ago , I was doing the lower back extensions and strained my lower back , I’m feeling better now but that really ruined 2 weeks of not being able to do anything
I’m extremely grateful for this video! I have a two decade old low back disc injury. I’m always trying to figure out how to support it and did not realize some of these exercises were so bad for it to begin with. Thanks again!
Should’ve known this 5 years ago. Thanks to one of this exercises I lost my lower back curve and been through hell. Thank you for making such videos. Hopefully more people are gonna listen to you, because you’re spreading the truth. Happy holidays!
What caused it and were you able to recover?
@Angel Ruiz Exercises for flexible spine every day, but never fully recovered. Too much pressure causes pain, but that happens 1-2 times a year. Just don’t do too much isolated exercises. Always stretch and make sure your spine stays flexible.
I had a knee injury and used leg curl (from very low weight to higher through weeks) and it helped me a lot to gain power without pain (together with other free-motion leg exercises)… therefore I think that it’s more about proper technique and precise motion when doing this particular one. Of course I agree that many locked, unnatural movements with gym machines may cause harm and are not good for health (like e.g. the seated rotation machine etc.)…
Well the first thing he does says about these machines are you should avoid them unless you are rehabing an injury (your case) or a bodybuilder.
There’s a lot of good stuff here. I never do the behind the neck stuff, but I’ve done every one of the exercises Max mentioned for close to 40 years with no issues. Understanding the dos and don’ts (i.e. proper technique & how to adjust the the machine) goes a long way to avoiding injury.
I totally agree, I’ve been lifting weights for 20 years and never had an injury doing them exercises it’s about controlling the weight with proper form. I use to compete years ago the Smith machine and leg press help my legs out a lot.
The old-fashioned powerlifting exercises (squat, deadlift, overhead press and bench press) are a really solid foundation for building functional strength. I supplement those four with pull-ups and bent-over barbell rows, and I feel like I get a complete workout–and only I only do three of them in a single workout.
Great video! Super helpful and spot on. I agree 100% with everything you said here. Having been working out for 27 years now I have avoided 90% of those exercises subconsciously. So it definitely helps to listen to your body.
I’m not sure about leg curls not having any functional use. Lying leg curls sure, but ever since I started doing seated leg curls, I’ve found I can really slam shut the recliner leg rest with more strength than before
i’m so happy that i’ve found your channel. watched many of your videos in the last months. they helped me a lot. especially this one. always when I did exercises at the machines you mentioned in the video, i had the feeling that something is wrong and doesn’t really fit/makes sense. i stopped using them and changed to better alternatives. everything is now much better. progress in gaining muscles and overall health without risking stupid avoidable injuries. i just train to be fit and always prefer lower weights and correct technique instead doing something heavy weights and doing the wrong thing just because others are doing it. thank you.