These exercises are commonly seen yet, if you do them, you stand a good chance of hurting yourself. Find out what they are and why they can injure you.
All exercises are not created equal. Some exercises are
good, some exercises are great, and some exercises are an
injury just waiting to happen. Knowing which exercises to
avoid can save you many months if not years of pain and
frustration.
1. Upright Rows
The Upright Row exercise is done to develop the shoulders
and traps. Holding a barbell or dumbells in front of your
with a close, overhand grip, you pull the weight up to your
chest, keeping it close to your body, leading with your
elbows.
Upright Barbell Row
The Upright Row is one of the most harmful exercises you can
expose your shoulders to. The problem with the exercise
lies in the position your arms must be in in order to
perform the movement. This position is called "internal
rotation."
To demonstrate internal rotation, hold your
arms straight out to the sides with your palms down. Now
rotate your hands forward as if you were pouring out a
glass of water in each. To do the upright row, the arms
are bent at the elbow then internally rotated.
Internal rotation itself is not necessarily bad for your
shoulders. The problem comes when you raise the arms up
and add resistance in that position. Every time you raise
the weight, a small tendon in your shoulder gets pinched
(known as impingement) by the bones in the shoulder.
This
may not hurt immediately; it may not even hurt for a long,
long time. The problem is the tendon will gradually become
worn down and damaged. You may not even know you have a
problem until one day the tendon snaps!
2. Behind-The-Neck Pulldowns
This exercise is done to work the muscles of the back.
While the exercise itself is actually effective for working
the back, the problem with the exercise lies in what it can
do to your shoulders.
Behind-The-Neck Pulldowns
In the previous exercise, I talked about internal rotation
of the shoulders. The problem with the behind-the-neck
pulldown lies in "external rotation." Going back to the
arms out to the side example, instead of pouring water
forward, rotate your arms backward so that your palms are
facing up. It's basically the opposite movement to internal
rotation.
To do the behind-the-neck pulldown as normally instructed,
you must externally rotate your shoulders as much as possible.
This is a very delicate position for your shoulders.
The supporting muscles of the shoulders (known as the rotator
cuff) are not in a good position to stabilize the joint and
injury to those supporting muscles can result, which can
lead to further injury in the connective tissue of the
joint.
On top of that, since most people do not have enough shoulder
flexibility to get a straight line of pull behind the neck,
they must bend their neck forward to even do the movement.
This can result in neck strain on top of shoulder strain.
This information also applies to the behind-the-neck pull-up
exercise. The mechanics of the movement are exactly the
same, the only difference being you're pulling yourself up
instead of pulling the weight down.
3. Behind-The-Neck Shoulder Presses
The Behind-The-Neck Press gives us the same shoulder issues
associated with the Behind-The-Neck Pulldown. To do the
movement, you must maximally externally rotate the shoulders.
Behind-The-Neck Shoulder Presses
Again, this places the shoulders in a very vulnerable
position, which can easily result in strain in the Rotator
Cuff muscles.
Also, as with the pulldowns, most people simply don't have
the necessary shoulder flexibility to get a straight line on
the movement - they must tilt their head forward to get the
bar behind it, adding greatly to the possibility of injury.
Stick to the military press and the dumbell press for your
shoulder pressing movements.
4. Stiff-Legged Deadlifts On A Bench
The Stiff-Legged Deadlift, properly done, is actually a very
good movement for the hamstrings, glutes and lower back.
The problem comes when, in an attempt to increase the stretch
on the hamstrings, the exercise is done standing on a block
or bench.
To get the most stretch on the hamstrings and to protect the
lower back from injury, an arch should be maintained in the
lower back during the movement. It's extremely difficult
to maintain an arch in the lower back when you are stretching
down as far as you can towards the floor with a barbell
pulling you down.
Without the arch, as a natural result, the spine will flex
and the supporting muscles of the spine will relax. This
places much of the tension of the exercise directly on the
connective tissue and bones of the spinal column rather than
the supporting muscles, which are stabilizing the spine.
Stiff-Legged Deadlifts Without A Bench
In
an effort to get more stretch on the hamstrings, you instead
compromise the support structures of your lower back.
5. The Sit-Up
If you enjoy having a pain-free lower back, the regular floor
sit-up is a good exercise to avoid. When you do a sit-up,
the mechanics of the movement and position of your body throw
much of the torque of the movement onto your lower back.
Your hip flexors pull directly on your spine in order to
raise your torso off the floor when you do the exercise,
leading to strain in the lower back area.
The Sit-Up
To top it off, the abdominal muscles (the real target of the
exercise) are only worked isometrically. This means they
don't actually contract and move, they just work to hold the
torso steady while the hip flexors do the pulling. This is
not a very effective abdominal exercise.
You will be far better off performing direct abdominal-
training movements such as crunches, ball crunches, cable
crunches, etc. These exercises directly target the abs
without throwing excessive tension on the lower back.
An excellent exercise for the abdominals that is similar in
look to the regular sit-up but focuses on the abs is the
Abdominal Sit-Up.
Conclusion
The exercises you do have a profound effect on your training
and your health. Be sure to choose exercises that will help
you move forward towards your goals and not set you back
through injury.
Good Luck,
BetterU@fitstep.com
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