Three Exercises You Should NEVER Do!

Do you ever try a new exercise after seeing some jacked dude performing it in the gym? CAREFUL!! We are super happy for Mr. Swole, but his size does not qualify him as a biomechanist. There are a lot of exercises out there that look fine on the surface and feel great for your muscles. They may even give you a killer pump, lead to gains and create some great short term benefits.

But consider this: everything has a cost. You rarely feel the damage you are doing to your joints in the short term unless you suffer an acute injury. You can be doing serious long term damage that you don't feel until it finally keeps you from lifting at all.

The point of training is to make your life better, and to get you to your goals. Who cares if you gain three inches on your chest and 100lbs on your bench if in a year you are no longer able to lift the bar.

Here is what it boils down to: cost/benefit ratio. Just because there aren’t immediate complications, doesn't mean it is beneficial! So before I get into movements you should never do, here are two rules to live by in the gym: 1. listen to your body (Am I feeling joint pain AT ALL?!) 2. Ask yourself: Can I keep doing this exercise long term with no consequences, or is there a better exercise for this muscle group?

So here we go! Again, if you are getting away with doing these, more power to you, but I do not do them…ever.

Upright Rows

Jealous of all those guys with shoulder issues? Bored with all those healthy tendons, then upright rows are just the thing! Seriously, you need to break up with this exercise forever. The shoulder joint is extremely complicated and there are certain movement combinations that should never be done with a heavy load (or any load for that matter). If a physical therapist wants to check for shoulder impingement, he abducts (side raises) the shoulder while it is internally

rotated….which is exactly what you are doing in an upright row!

Wanna geek out for a second? Here’s why thats bad:

In the upright row, you raise the elbow up while you shoulder is in internal rotation. That puts the greater tuberosity of the humerus into a position that will pinch and put a bind on several tendons as well as the bursa. Its hard to see in the picture, but the red arrow I added points to the location of the greater tuberosity which is putting pressure on the bursa (blue arrow).

So if you want to hit upper back, try one of my favorites: W-Raises for rear deltoids.

Behind the Neck Presses

Wow, look at Mr. Swole here! This guy MUST know what he’s talking about! Look at his muscles! Sorry, but Mr. Swole is WRONG!

Want to talk more anatomy? To achieve the amount of external rotation you need to perform behind the neck presses, you have to put your shoulder in an unnatural position, even before you initiate the movement. Again, this might be fine for a time. It might even feel like an effective exercise, but is it worth the risk on your shoulder?

Warning: Lets geek out again and find out why this is so bad.

Look at the anatomy of the shoulder joint from the side.

The glenoid fossa, which is the socket your humerus sits in, isn’t pointing at you and poised for a press in the frontal plane like it is in the being the neck press. It’s angled forward in the scapular plane.

So in the same way that upright rows cause vital components of the shoulder to be compressed and bunched up, when you press in the frontal plane, you are working against your shoulder anatomy to perform the behind the neck press.

For a safer and more effective alternative to this exercise, try pressing overhead in the scapular plane with your elbows in front of your body by doing strict overhead press in front of your face or, even better, dumbbell overhead press in the scapular plane.

Dips

Dang Mr. Swole, what big pecs and triceps you have!

Ok so this one its highly controversial and not quite as black and white as the other two exercises we have discussed. I would tell people that the upright rows and behind the neck press should NEVER be done….EVER. With dips though, it depends on the person performing them. If someone has very healthy shoulders (no current, or even better has never had shoulder issues) then you can approach dips with caution as long as you are performing them properly. For a lot of people it can put a ton of pressure on the anterior part of the shoulder and can pose more risk to the shoulder than the gains are worth.

There are two questions you should ask yourself before doing a risky exercise. Why am I doing it? If its only because it hasn't hurt you yet, that is a super weak argument that even smokers can use. If the answer is that it has helped your chest and triceps, then you have to ask yourself the second question. Is there a safer option that is just as effective? I would argue that there absolutely are better options and recommend going for dumbbell bench press for your chest, and dumbbell tricep extensions for your triceps instead.

Im pretty happy with my chest and triceps, and I have never done more than 5 sets of dips in my entire life.

And if done properly, plain old bench press is great for building up the chest and triceps!

Wrapping Up

Does this mean you have to put a hard stop to all these exercises, because they are bad for every single person in the world? Maybe not. Maybe I took a liberty with this title. But please do your own cost/benefit ratio and decide if these exercises are good for you. If you have questions, please post them in the comment section or email me 512trainer@gmail.com. Thank you!