It is no news flash that I believe the best exercises for rapid fat loss and muscle gain feature a host of multi-joint, compound movements for your upper body (e.g. push-ups, pull-ups, rows, dips, etc.), lower body (squats, deadlifts, lunges, etc.), and core (front/side planks and rotational core exercises). These “multi- muscle” exercises provide the biggest bang for your buck during your workouts to generate maximum results in minimal time. Even better are total body exercises that incorporate upper and lower body movements together like a lunge curl and press or a squat and row. These types of exercises take the meaning of a whole body workout to a whole new level.
But, I think I’ll switch it up a bit today and focus on the WORST exercises you can add to your training routine. The following list features movements that I wouldn’t be caught dead doing, movements that deliver minimal results and flat out hurt people, these movements have far greater risk than reward:
The 7 Worst Exercises of All Time
1.) Ab Machine
Crunches and sit-ups only promote excessive flexion of the lumbar spine and tend to cause neck and back pain. Scientific studies done by Dr. Stuart McGill have proven ab crunches and bent knee sit-ups are some of the most effective ways of destroying your lower back. “The traditional sit-up imposes approximately 3300 N or about 730 pounds of compression on the spine.” (McGill, 88) This means that every time you do a sit-up, knees bent with feet locked under something, sitting up from the ground to vertical, that amount of pressure is crushing your intervertebral discs. Since most people seem to think that 300-500 crunches a day is necessary for six-pack abs that is 990,000 N or 219,00lbs of pressure on your spine and discs at a minimum. Lastly, “The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health has set the action limit for low back compression at 3300 N. Repetitive loading about this level is linked with higher injury rates in workers, yet this is imposed on the spine with EACH repetition of the sit-up!” (McGill, 88) What’s worse than crunches or sit-ups? Doing a similar movement with added weight in a machine that only trains your body in an unnatural front to back motion in a seated position!
Yes, ab machines, like crunches and sit-ups, do make you feel your abdominal muscles, but there are far better ways to accomplish this without the high risk of short and long-term injury to your spine.
Remember, the true function of your core is stabilization, both static and dynamic- to be able to maintain a neutral, straight-line, perfect posture position from your hips to your shoulders in all 3 planes of movement (front to back, side to side, and rotational) no matter what the external stimulus may be.
21st Century Training Upgrade: For rock hard, athletic abs focus on plank stabilization exercises like front, side, and back planks and ground based rotational core work like chop variations and upper body twists.
2.) Back Machine
Well, if I HATE the ab machine, how do you think I’m going to feel about the back machine? I mean this is such a stupid exercise for so many reasons.
First of all, people already use too much “back” on most movements because of tight hips and inactive/weak glutes (gluteal amnesia). Your lumbar spine should be a point of stability, not mobility. The tendency to be over-mobile through the lumbar spine leads to back pain. Thus, I prefer to focus more on hip extension movements that strengthen your butt rather than continually overloading the spinal erectors. Plus, adding in corrective stretching for the hip flexor complex, the hip rotators, and the hamstring complex, which opens up your hips and alleviates excessive spinal flexion and compressions is literally “what the doctor ordered”.
Second of all, just like the ab machine, this exercise trains your body in one plane of movement in a fixed path. And as a result doesn’t work your key stabilizer muscles. This is the general downfall with most machines. They only train one plane of motion and require little to no stabilization. How “real world” is that? Real world, functional strength requires you to stabilize your body and lift in multiple planes of directions (front/back, side to side and rotational).
Lastly, the speed at which most people perform this exercise makes me cringe. They throw their body backwards, and forwards flopping around like a patient on Grey’s Anatomy on a heart defibrillator. Not to mention the seatbelt that comes with the machine. What type of exercise requires you to buckle up like your going out of the atmosphere? Is this the type of movement that we want to get really good at? Wait, don’t answer that 
21st Century Training Upgrade: For a strong, stable back focus on deadlift, good morning, and hip extensions variations (reverse hypers, cook’s hip lift, bridges) while simultaneously focusing on the corrective stretching and self-massage of the Lumbo-Pelvic-Hip (LPH) complex. A prone cobra, or “YTWL” performed on a fit ball are also great exercises to improve spinal erector endurance while simultaneously improving scapular strength and stability.
3.) Leg Extension Machine
This exercise is a personal one for me. When I first started lifting weights in high school I was exceptionally strong at leg extensions. I would load up the machine with near maximum levels. The machine, which was a dinosaur even in those days, would shake like an episode of soul train. And of course because I felt strong in this exercise I performed it often. By the time I finished my high school career my right knee had undergone 2 knee surgeries. Now I don’t blame this machine entirely for poor knees, but it did add to the wear and tear.
Here’s the bottom line with this exercise- it will wreak havoc on your knees! The excessive compressions on your patella will without a doubt results in the break down of articular cartilage which will in turn result in a bunch of arthroscopic knee surgeries to remove loose bodies and eventually full blown crippling arthritis. Avoid this machine like cancer!
21st Century Training Upgrade: For strong, stable knees; focus on both knee-dominant (lunge, step-up, and single-leg squat variations) AND hip-dominant single-leg exercises (single-leg hip extension, deadlift, and good morning variations). These exercises also prevent strength imbalances between limbs AND prevent strength imbalances between your front and back thighs and your inner and outer thighs.
4.) Fly Machine
If your goal is tear your pecs and destroy your rotator cuff, then I highly recommend that you add this exercise to your routine. I think the chest fly machine actually gets even more play then the bench press, which is considered to be the most popular exercise for guys. When I trained at a local big-chain gym there was always a line for this “holy grail” of chest exercises. I look back at those days and smile. People would watch the exercises I performed with my clients and within a few weeks multiple members (that were not clients of mine) would be doing some bastardized form of “my” exercise. I always took it at as a compliment and usually offered some assistance to clean up their form. I figured if they were going to do my exercise they should at least do it correctly. It’s funny they never picked up on the fact that I never used the pec fly machine.
Again, the use of a machine versus doing a dumbbell fly alternative eliminates the use of the key stabilizer muscles surrounding your shoulders. Furthermore, the common male desire to use maximum weight to build a chest he can be proud of typically results in overuse injuries like shoulder impingement or biceps tendonitis. If you show me someone that does a lot of heavy pec flyes, I will show you someone with shoulder and or elbow pain.
21st Century Training Upgrade: The best pushing exercise you can do is any push-up variation. It not only safely trains the entire front side of your body including your core, but also strengthens your upper back musculature (posture muscles) in a way that bench press can’t. Another option would be dumbbell chest press variations including flyes. For more stability dependent exercises perform these variations on a fit ball, or alternating arms or even single arm. The real secret to strong, stable shoulders is performing more “pulling” exercises than “pushing exercises. In fact, I recommend a 2:1 ratio of pulling to pushing exercises, especially if you find yourself heavily internally rotated (forward rounded shoulders) and hunchbacked from years of focusing on your beach muscles (chest, abs, and biceps) or sitting/standing with poor posture. Correct this ugly posture syndrome with corrective self-massage, stretching and emphasizing your rear shoulders and upper/mid back muscles.
5.) Elliptical Machine
Look- if you are really, really overweight and haven’t exercised in over a decade, then I think an elliptical has some use. But, other than that, I think it’s relatively useless.
Yes, it is a low-impact alternative to running on a treadmill, but there is very little range of motion during the movement and it does not burn nearly as many calories as the machine claims. Because of the shorter stride, it promotes tight hip flexors and weak glutes. This is a major issue for most new clients who come in complaining of hip or low back pain. Performing this exercise just imprints this incorrect motor pattern further.
Furthermore, the elliptical is not a good machine to do intervals on because it promotes excessive hyperextension (locking out) of the knee. This can easily result in injury at high levels of speed and resistance.
Think about it- what’s the first machine people who are new to cardio exercise jump on? The elliptical! Why? Because it’s so friggin’ easy!
To most “elliptical” junkies that can’t run or perform other cardio exercises I have to say, “Wake up! You’re not losing any weight on that machine. It’s a waste of time. Get off the elliptical; focus on your nutrition and metabolically charged strength training. Perform some corrective self-massage and stretching. Work on ankle and hip mobility. Strengthen your core and you will eventually be able to run pain-free or be able to perform other more effective cardio options. Just get off the elliptical and start making some progress!”
At the end of the day, you can read a darn magazine while on an elliptical, so how much benefit do you really think you will get from this overpriced waste of space?
21st Century Training Upgrade: For optimal results during your cardio training, you must focus on intervals. They burn 9 times more body fat than aerobics and also result in greater improvements in overall conditioning than long, slow, boring, steady state cardio. If you are overweight/de-conditioned and/or have joint issues, the best place to start an interval-training program is on a spin bike, or better yet, an Airdyne Bike, which has both upper and lower body attachments to make it more of a total body conditioning experience. If you need to rock your cardio equipment-free and/or at home or on the road, use body weight based exercises like jumping jacks, stationary running, split jumps, burpees etc. and watch the avoirdupois disappear.
6.) The Thigh Master 2000- Abductor/Adductor Combo
I used to get a kick out of the women that would refuse to do lunges because they didn’t want their thighs to get BIG, and then I would see them later in their workout on the “Thigh Master 2000” going to town. Their logic didn’t make sense. They didn’t want their thighs to get big from exercising them, but they wanted the inside and outside of their hips and thighs to get “toned” by doing this exercise…am I missing something here?
Women all over the world seem convinced that this “naughty” exercise can some how help them rid themselves of the thunder thigh/cellulite situation.
How many times have I heard: “What exercises can I do to get rid of this flab on the inside of my legs?” Too many times!
Come on; by now you know that spot reduction is a myth, right? Seriously, no amount of direct inner or other hip-thigh work will burn that ugly fat covering the sexy toned musculature everyone wants to see. So let it go baby.
The first thing you need to do is clean up all of the junky carbs in your diet and starting consuming lean proteins, healthy fats, and fruits and veggies every 2-4 hours while plugging water like a fish.
Then you need to get off the “birthing machine” and get real with a total body workout!
21st Century Training Upgrade: The best exercises for your inner and outer-hip thigh will come from band-resisted hip walk variations, side pillar variations, and any and all single-leg exercises, especially lateral lunges. My favorite lateral lunge is the slide board lateral lunge that simultaneously stretches and strengthens your hip musculature. Isn’t that ironic? The exercise that the aforementioned gym rats wanted to avoid to prevent bigger thighs is actually the one that would shape the muscle on the inside and outside of their thighs the best…strange;)
7.) Leg Press Machine
It never ceases to amaze me how we all look for the easy way out when it comes to working out. It’s clear why people prefer to do leg press- they get to lay or sit on their butt depending on the type of leg press machine being used.
If you want both nice legs and a flat midsection then you need to squat! And yes, you can’t squat lying down, sorry!
But squats are tough because they require a whole body effort, an effort most people aren’t willing to put in. This explains why they prefer the leg press and why they get crap results form their workouts.
The leg press could very well be a major contributing cause for the rapidly increasing number of bulging and/or herniated discs among exercise enthusiasts. People always use way too much weight and use poor form resulting in brutally compressive forces on the spine.
Seriously, if you are opting to leg press over squatting, then you don’t know squat, pun intended
21st Century Training Upgrade: The best (and safest) exercises for your lower body are a healthy combination of double-leg and single-leg exercises using free weights and body weight based exercises. Be sure to perform an equal amount of knee-dominant lower body exercises (e.g. squats, lunges, slide board or fit ball leg curls) and hip-dominant lower body exercises (e.g. deadlifts and single-leg hip extensions) to make your knees, hips, and back bulletproof. In fact, most people are very knee-dominant and could benefit by performing a greater number of hip-dominant movements to balance out their lower body musculature.
You’ll notice once common trend among all of these crap exercises: they all involve MACHINES!
Get off those flippin’ machines and focus on functional movements using free weights, bands, stability balls, etc. Not only will you ramp up your fat-burning and muscle-building pursuits, but more importantly you won’t end up hunchbacked in a wheel chair by the time you turn 50
Stay Fit,
Mat “the trainer”
To book Mat to speak at your Utah Valley company, club, or organizations please contact him by email at matgover@mac.com or by phone at (801) 836.7185. For a free one-week trial to his Orem boot camp to experience the best personal training in Utah Valley please call Mat or drop by the gym (1623 N State St, Orem right next to Costa Vida).
PS- What other exercises do you see people doing in the gym that make you cringe? What other exercises do you absolutely hate? What exercises have gotten you (or your clients) hurt in the past? Please share your personal experiences by posting a comment to this blog post, thanks!
PSS- as always feel free to share this blog post with anyone looking to shed some fat, get stronger and feel more energy.
PSS- Word of the Day: avoirdupois (av-uhr-duh-POIZ; AV-uhr-duh-poiz) n. weight; heaviness; a person of much avoirdupois.
[...] and elliptical trainers, exercises a lot of people thought were great exercises (read the post here and learn which others made the list and why). After posting the article I had numerous people ask [...]
Great list and nice webpage.
I don’t like pec decks, often they lead to some really nasty shoulder injuries. Although there are people who use different machines without any problems, sometimes I wonder, why complicate simple things like with abs machine.
-Chris D