We asked certified personal trainer John Rowley, author of The Power of Positive Fitness, his thoughts on a handful of exercises people should consider omitting from their regular routines. And without hesitation, he had answers.
“Just watch what everyone else does in the gym. If you do the opposite, you’ll get in great shape,” he quipped. Some of his thoughts on certain staple lifts will likely surprise you. “There is a time and a place for all of the exercises I mention, but sometimes the risk just isn’t worth the reward, or the movement isn’t necessary.”
Check out the seven exercises on this list and see if you agree.
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Shoulder Press
It’s the pathway to boulder shoulders, right? According to Rowely, you can detour around them en route to a solid set of delts.
“I know plenty of guys who have built incredible shoulders only using laterals,” said Rowley. “With the shoulder press, all of the weight is being put on your vertebrae. Especially for the average person, the risk isn’t worth the reward. You’re better off doing exercises like front laterals, side laterals, and upright rows.”
Rowley continued, “Larry Scott was a close friend of mine and he was a stickler on shoulder exercises. He’d have you do all lateral movements, and if you were going to do shoulder presses they’d be done with a dumbbell in an almost lateral raise-type movement.”
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Deadlift
Ask someone who’s serious about training what the best exercise is and you’re all but guaranteed an answer of the squat or deadlift. Rowley believes the latter, however, is overrated for most lifters.
“Deadlifts are a great exercise … if you want to be a sumo wrestler, lineman, or powerlifter,” he explained. “Are they the best choices for physique development or superb body composition? Absolutely not. Someone who is only looking to build a pleasing physique can do without them.”
Rowley suggested focusing on bent-over rows, T-bar rows, shrugs, squats, and leg presses as individual movements instead of knocking them out with deads. However, if you’re a deadlifter for life, he recommends doing them inside of a power rack to reduce the chance of injury. “That’ll lessen the risk by about 80 percent.”
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Barbell Bench Press
Along with the deadlift and shoulder press, Rowley lumped the bench press in with “ego movements” that people rely on to impress others in an attempt to inflate their self-esteems.
“People like to load up the bar with as much weight as they can, and then they don’t concentrate on form or engaging the muscle; it becomes about moving weight,” he noted. “Your pectoral muscles aren’t a pressing muscle; they’re a pulling muscle. The dumbbell bench press is a better alternative because the arms aren’t locked in and the movement allows you to bring your arms across the body.”
Along with dumbbells, consider subbing Hammer Strength machine presses for barbell presses. “They simulate the movement more effectively than a flat bench press,” he added.
“The behind-the-neck lat pulldowns are one of the dumbest exercises around,” he said. “They’re dangerous for your neck and shoulders, and the result you get from doing them is … none.”
He continued, “When you do a lat pulldown, basically, you’re using your body as a lever to pull the weight toward your body and your body toward the bar. You arch your back and push your chest toward the bar to engage your lats. Going behind your neck does the opposite of that.”
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Dumbbell Side Bend
The issue isn’t the exercise, Rowley claimed; it’s the usage of heavy weight and a lack of efficiency that make these omittable.
“Using 60 or 80-lb. dumbbells to work your obliques will give you a thicker waist, not a nice V-taper,” he says. “When performed with lightweight, it’s a decent exercise — but it’s far from efficient. Leg raises and crunches will do the job for 99 percent of the people in the gym. The twists are a finishing movement guys do three or four weeks out from a show.”
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Rolling Shrug
Shrugs train the trapezius muscle, what you commonly refer to as your traps. As for rolling shrugs, Rowley says pass. “Here is another dumb exercise. I don’t know who made it up, but rolling shrugs are dangerous to your shoulder girdle because they push everything around.”
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Leg Extension Machine
The main issue Rowley has with leg extension machines — and leg curl, lower back and abs machines, as well — is that the people using them are uninformed when it comes to proper usage.
“Most people don’t know enough about physiology to understand if their body fits into a machine appropriately, or if the machine is adjusted properly,” he said. “So between the machine not being adjusted correctly and using too much weight, you can end up getting injured.”
