FFS, There Is No Exercise That Should Never Be Done
Whatever your goals, there will be some exercises that work for you (as part of a well-designed, properly loaded exercise program) and others that may not work. But there is no exercise you “never” should do.
Unfortunately, trainers and fitness writers love making lists of exercises that are supposed to be harmful to you. What struck me this morning was the headline ” Never Do These Abdominal Exercises When You’re Over 40,” says the trainer . This is from Eat This Not That, a website and diet book empire that seems to draw energy from the collective sighs of people who suddenly realize they’ve been doing something wrong all the time! (Spoiler alert: you’re probably okay.) The premise doesn’t even make sense: A 39-year-old shouldn’t be doing abs any other way than a 40-year-old.
According to this article, no one over 40 should do side bends, squats, or Russian crunches. According to another Good Housekeeping publication , no one should use a hip adductor or leg extension machine, or do crunches, upright pulls, high neck extensions, side bends, back extensions, hanging leg raises, push-ups triceps, flies chest. , or spend time on an elliptical trainer. This article from Shape talks about the leg extension and neck extension machine and adds that we should never do sit-ups on the Smith machine, do any abdominals, adductors or abductors, or even lie face down on the machine. land and make supermen. Lest you think that a solution – is to throw Planet Fitness and join CrossFit or gym, there are also people who will tell you to never cower , never not do the deadlift , and that there are 11 ways that CrossFit “will destroy your body” …
If you tried to stick to all of these lists, there would be almost nothing you could do. (Except bird dogs. Everyone loves bird dogs .)
The fact that the trainer does not like the exercise does not make it dangerous.
I’ve also been around the fitness world long enough to know that exercise only gets in and out of popularity because of the group, trendy nature of the field. And I’ve done and seen enough weird climbs to know that any exercise that one person swear will ruin you is exactly what the other person has been doing for ten years without any problem.
So how can coaches and authors of these “never” articles confirm their findings? Well, for the most part, they don’t. The reason for abandoning these exercises boils down to one of the following:
- Some do it imperfectly, as in this complaint about the Russian twist .
- This exercise works on one more muscle in addition to or instead of the one you think is working, as in the standing chest exercise.
- The exercise is “unnatural” as walking or running is not exactly imitated on the elliptical trainer.
- This exercise creates “stress” or “strength” on a part of the body, such as the back, as in this squat complaint .
- A certain position is inherently dangerous for a particular joint, often the shoulder, as in this triceps failure complaint .
None of these reasons alone are good reasons to stop exercising. It certainly makes sense for a coach to say, “I don’t like giving my clients Russian twists because they usually do them wrong, so I prefer to recommend this other exercise,” or “standing chest flies are more of a shoulder exercise than a breasts, so I like to program something else if we’re trying to work on breasts. ” But from here follows a long leap without support to never do the exercises.
Complaining that some exercises are not “natural” are, frankly, amusing. Nothing about going to the gym and using specially designed equipment to reshape or reshape your body is natural. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth it. Our bodies adapt and we can teach them how to do a lot of fun things, from climbing trees to skating to forklift trucks.
The last two points – about stress and about trauma – deserve closer attention. Anyone who uses their body a lot is at risk of injury (as is anyone who doesn’t move their body, since a sedentary lifestyle is also bad for us).
It is important to know that these injury risks are almost entirely theoretical. There is no research to prove that triceps push-ups can cause injury; these warnings are based on the coach’s intuition. The research we do on injury tends to teach us that runners get far more injuries in 1,000 hours of training than people who compete in strength sports , suggesting that our inner senses are not well calibrated.
What does this mean in the real world
If I’ve learned anything over the years it’s that almost everything works for someone . Exercise doesn’t exist in a vacuum: how you load an exercise and how it fits into your program probably matters more than what it actually is.
I remember a trainer teaching me that physical therapists hate leg extension machines because they ruin people’s knees. Years after anterior cruciate ligament surgery, I received physical therapy, and a physical therapist made sure that I extended my legs many times to build muscles that would protect my knee. It worked: my knee is repaired and my leg is strong.
I have dozens of similar stories. I used to think the deadlift was exacerbating an old back injury, but the more I pulled, the less my back hurt. I used to “know” that the press for the neck was dangerous, but sometimes my coach gives me the press for the neck, and I do them, and my shoulders have not collapsed yet; in fact, I think they are stronger for that.
So, instead of jumping the lift out of your workout plan because someone said you should “never” do it, perhaps all you have to do is ask yourself if it makes sense to you. Does it really work out the muscles you need? Are you doing the exercise in a reasonably safe and effective form? Has it been programmed for you by someone who knows what they are doing? Is it good when you do it? If you can answer yes to these questions, don’t let a writer or teacher you’ve never met talk you out of doing it.