Exercises You Should NEVER Do

15 Common Exercises You Should NEVER Do Today we’re going to talk about 15 common exercises you should never do. All right we’re gonna make sure that you never do them because we’re gonna explain to you why you shouldn’t. Let’s talk about the first exercise Brad, all right, it’s a real common exercise.

So the windmills what you’re doing here, is what’s really hard on the back and the discs of the back is flexion and twisting at the same time.

So what are you doing windmills you’re like I’ve seen and twist at the same time if you want to hurt your back this is what you should do do. Windmills without a doubt are very bad for you, particularly as you get a little older, you’re even more prone to it.

You also shouldn’t be doing full sit-ups like this because it puts a tremendous amount of stress on the discs of the back right particularly right right in the low back, particularly ones where you reach for your toes.

They’ve done Studies on this they’ve actually stuck a needle in the disc of the back and they measured the amount of pressure and this puts tremendous amount of pressure I’m sure so and probably I don’t know if it’d be worse but it’s certainly not better if you did supported sit-ups.

There’s those devices those benches you can just slide your feet underneath or you have somebody else hold and you’re doing these. Then you see some people take a weight and even make it worse.

It certainly works with stomach muscles as well but it it’s also working the leg muscles by the way when someone supports it you’re actually working your your hip flexors.

Also v sits like this are really hard on the back and if you want to make them even worse do these sits with a twist. It’s the same principle, again you’re bending the back and you’re twisting it at the same time right there’s a lot of pressure in the middle. If you want to get your core, your stomach strengthened, there are much better options.

The next one is tricep dips off a bench so you’re going off the end of a bench like this. If you’re doing dips like this it really puts a tremendous amount of stress on the shoulder. There’s better ways to strengthen the triceps. So so when the shoulder is coming to end range extension here which anytime to put a joint at and range it’s more susceptible to injury and you can get some impingement with that even just the way you’re putting your shoulder into place like that.

Anybody who runs a lot I want to make sure you’re running you don’t run on the same side of the street all the time. There’s always a little bit of a camber in the road, a little bit of tilt, so the water runs off the road and doesn’t stay in the middle. So, if I run down the right side of the road and come down on the other side I’m always on the same tilt.

You’re putting the same stresses on your ankle and your knees and your feet and more if you’re susceptible to like plantar fasciitis. Use a different route or something but I try to pick roads that have really wide shoulders and so that we don’t have to worry about it.

I had a patient and she was on a walking program, walking to the same side of the road and I said well switch sides and with a couple days you know it went away.
You don’t want to go around the track the same time they graduate the same driver you want to reverse that so it’s just a little helpful hint that really makes a big difference.

Look what has happened here his shoulder is actually internally rotating and when we’re testing a shoulder for impingement we actually internally rotate the shoulder and bring it around. That usually is what causes the impingement, so this is gonna make the impingement worse so yeah actually like you said it’s a test to provoke it and why would you do an exercise that provokes it? So obviously you’re not gonna do this.

Usually you might with a bar but you know people put weights on you know a barbell which even puts more makes it worse so we want to save the joints. There’s other ways to work those muscles.

All right, this one is just kind of a stupid one, I see people doing this sometimes. I’ve seen an occupational therapist do this. Doing chest strengthening we’re working these muscles.

Gravity goes down so I’m working the shoulder right now I’m not working the chest. To work the chest you have to go against gravity which means you have to be in this direction.

When working the chest the resistance is coming from behind and so it’s a big thing about the weights they only give one direction of resistance that’s down well that’s why it’s really hard to do.

This is again really hard on the back it’s just putting a unilateral stress on the back so the ones I don’t do them either but I’ll see people do it like this. Definitely works some some core muscles but you put a lot of stress on the spine and there’s better ways.

The next one it is behind the neck press ups. The ones behind the neck yeah this doesn’t stress your shoulder joints but you have to get your head forward to get out of the way because if you have an iron barbell there it kind of hurts. You’re in a bad position for your spine. We’re not big fans of these anyway because you got a small shoulder muscle pushing up a large lever. I’ve just seen so many injuries with this.

If you got an impingement it’s gonna be huge and if you don’t have an impingement it puts you at risk for that so you may have problems. A lot of people like doing these they love to do the military press and they don’t have any problems but there’s gonna be a certain percentage of people that will. We have to go with the odds and the odds are are against you if you do those you’re gonna get hurt eventually, in our opinion.

The next one is actually wide based push-ups. You get way out here like out to the side here and then I’m going like this and it actually your shoulder is internally rotating and again we can get that impingement going on. I like to put them you know back here more like this and it works the lower part of the chest.
If you’re doing some type of jumping exercises certainly avoid concrete but the other thing is we want to make sure you’re jumping right.

A lot of times people land, especially women tend to want to land like this with their knees a little bit in, and you definitely want to make sure that your knees are lined up with your feet when you land. We want to keep the knee in there as opposed to out which puts a lot of stress on the ACL on the knee joint. Even when you’re doing squats and stuff like that you want to make sure these are all lined up.

Brad and I are not big fans of the quad extension machine, you know the one where you get your your heels hooked and your ankles hooked in.
You’re putting on real heavy a high amount of stress under the patella and even on the joint itself and it’s not functional I mean when in life do you you know right maybe if you’re a kicker. I like full chain functional activities for strengthening.

Some people take a medicine ball or they’ll take a kettlebell like this and they’re doing these right it’s the same thing again you’re flexing the back and you’re twisting the back at the same time. I know what feels like you’re really working hard and you are but it really is causing a lot of pain, a lot of possible stress on your back, and possible injuries.

I know a lot of people may not agree with some of these but this is based upon our years of experience of working with patients so yeah we like to keep you safe for the long run.