Five Exercises You Must Avoid If You Want To Stay Injury-Free
All the exercises are not equal. Some exercises are good, some exercises are great, and some exercises are an injury just waiting to happen. Knowing which exercises to avoid, you're saving for many months if not years of pain and disappointment.
1. Upright Rows
The Upright Row Exercise is done to develop the shoulders and traps. Holding a barbell or dumbbells in front of your with a close, overhand grip, pull the weight to chest she holds close to your body, what with the elbows.
The Upright Row is one of the most dangerous exercises you can expose your shoulders. The problem with the exercise lies in the position, your arms need to to perform the movement. This position is called "internal rotation." To show the internal rotation, hold your arms straight at the sides with palms down. Now rotate your hands forward as if you were poured himself a glass of water in each. To do the upright row, the arms are bent at the elbow, then turned inward.
Internal rotation itself is not necessarily bad for your shoulders. The problem arises when you raise your arms and add resistance in that position. Every time you increase the weight, a small tendon gets caught in the shoulder (known as impingement) by the bone at the shoulder. This may not hurt immediately, it can not for long, long time injured. The problem is that the tendon will become damaged and worn down, and after. You may not even know that you have a problem, until one day tore the tendon!
Instead of upright rows, stick to exercises such as dumbell presses, military presses and various raises. They are much better for the shoulders.
2. Behind-The-Neck Pulldowns
This exercise is done in order to work the muscles of the back. During the exercise itself is not really effective for working your back, because the problem lies with the exercise in what they can do to your shoulders.
In the previous exercise, I talked about the internal rotation of the shoulders. The problem with the behind-the-head pull lies in "external rotation." Let's go back into the arms out to the side, for example, instead of pouring water forward, rotate your arms backward so that your palms facing above are. It is basically the opposite movement to internal rotation.
To do that, behind the neck pulldown as normally instructed, you must rotate your shoulders to the outside as much as possible. This is a very delicate situation on your shoulders. The supporting muscles of the shoulders (as the rotator cuff) are known to stabilize not in a good position on the joint and injury to supporting muscles can result, leading to further damage the connective tissue of the joint.
Moreover, because most people lack flexibility of the shoulder to draw a straight line, got behind the neck, they must bend their neck forward, do the movement. This can lead to strain neck strain on the shoulder.
This information also applies to the behind-the-head pull-up exercise. The mechanics of the movement are exactly the same, the only difference is, you pull yourself up takes place after the weight down.
Stick to exercises that conclude before the body, such as front pulldowns, you-grip pulldowns and pull-ups to the front.
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 have to turn up to the shoulders. This also makes the shoulders in a very difficult situation, which can easily become a liability in the muscles of the rotator cuff.
Also, as with the pulldowns, most people simply lack the necessary flexibility to maintain the shoulder in a straight line on the movement - they must tilt your head forward to get the bar behind him, by heavily on the ability the injury.
Adhere to the military press and the barbell press for your shoulder pressing movements.
4. Stiff-Legged Deadlift on a bench
The Stiff-Legged Deadlift, properly done, is actually a very good exercise for the thighs, buttocks and lower back. The problem arises when in an attempt to increase the stretch on the posterior thigh muscles, the exercise is standing on a block or a bench.
To obtain the strain of the hamstrings and protect the lower back from injury, an arch in your lower back should be maintained during the movement. It is extremely difficult to maintain an arch in your lower back if you cover as much as possible against the floor with a barbell pulling you down.
Without the bow, as a natural consequence of the spine flex and relax the muscles supporting the spine. This represents a large part of the tension of the exercise directly on the connective tissue and bones of the spine does not support the muscles that stabilize the spine. In an effort to more stretching of the hamstrings, you instead get a compromise, the structures supporting the lower back.
5. The Sit-Up
If you enjoy a pain free lower back, the regular floor sit-up is a good exercise to avoid. If you have a sit-up, the mechanics of movement and position of the body to throw a lot of movement of the torque on your lower back. Your hip flexors pull directly on your spine to lift your torso off the floor when you exercise, what is in the lower back strain.
To complete the whole of the abdominal muscles (the real goal of the exercise) are only worked isometrically. This means that they do not actually contract and move, they only work with the body keep it stable while the hip flexors, not the pulling. This is not a very effective abdominal exercise.
They are much better performing direct abdominal-training movements such as crunches, ball crunches, cable crunches, etc. These exercises directly take on the abs, without excessive pressure on the lower back.
The exercises that you have a profound effect on your education and your health. Be sure to choose exercises that will help you move towards your goals and not set back by injuries.
Nick Nilsson is Vice-President of BetterU, Inc. and has been inventing new training techniques and exercises for 17+ years. Nick has written many training books including "Muscle Explosion! 28 Days To Maximum Mass" & "Metabolic Surge - Rapid Fat Loss" - http://www.fitness-ebooks.com
