5 Stupid Exercises you should stop doing
Written by Kirk, Sunday, October 28th, 2012 in Culture, Fitness
There are a lot of stupid exercises you can do in the gym — such exercises end up wasting your time more than building muscle or burning fat. Here are five examples.Cable Fly
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There are absolutely no excuses for doing a standing or sitting cable fly. Despite what companies like Bowflex may tell you, the inherent instability of cables makes them imperfect for targeting muscles in a precise way, and the fact that you must stabilize yourself inhibits your ability to lift heavily and efficiently. Cable fly machines tend to force athletes to burn more calories simply stabilizing the cables than they do actually performing the exercise, a ridiculous trade-off that deserves no place in a decent exercise plan. Just use a barbell like everyone else.
Tags: barbell, cable fly, exercises, smith machine, squat, stupid, tricep extension, waste of time, weight lifting
Well written. I would have to agree. I try to not do exercises that will put me in a crazy position. I hate to see people doing some of this shit. Another that comes to mind is the behind the head lat pull down. I still see it done and sure don’t know why. I am in the mode of protecting my joints. I have a slap tear that has been a huge problem because of a crazy ROM I chose one day. Thanks for the article.
I agree with most of the exercises included in this list, especially the Smith machine. The more research I do, the more I realize that there’s really no good use for this machine. I don’t know how some of these exercises survive and make it into workouts this day in time.