The 7 Worst Exercises of All Time

Top exercises for rapid fat loss and muscle gain include a host of multi-joint, compound movements for your upper body (push-ups, pull-ups, rows, dips, etc.), lower body (squats, deadlifts, lunges, etc.), and core (pillar holds and rotational core exercises). These exercises provide the biggest bang for your buck during your workouts to generate maximum results in minimal time. Even better are total body exercises like a curl to squat to press or a squat thrust variation that takes the meaning of a total body workout to a whole new level.

But, I think we’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 shoddy results and flat out hurt people – movements that have far greater risk than reward:

The 7 Worst Exercises of All Time

1.) Abs Machine

Crunches and sit-ups only promote excessive flexion of the lumbar spine and tend to cause neck and back pain. What’s worse than crunches or sit-ups? Doing a similar movement with added weight on a machine that only trains your body in an unnatural front to back motion in a seated position!

Yes, abs machines, like crunches and sit-ups, do make your 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 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.

Training Upgrade: For rock hard, athletic abs focus on pillar stabilization exercises like front, side, and back pillars and ground based rotational core work like chops variations and upper body twists.

 

2.) Back Machine

Well, if I HATE the abs machine, how do you think I’m going to feel about the back machine? I mean this is just 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. 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 that opens up your hips and alleviates excessive spinal flexion and compressions is literally exactly what the doctor ordered.

Second of all, just like the abs 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.

Training Upgrade: For a strong, stable back focus on deadlift, good morning, and hip extensions variations while simultaneously focusing on corrective stretching. A prone cobra, or airplane as it is sometimes called, is also a great exercise to improve spinal erector endurance while simultaneously improving scapular strength and stability. 

 

3.) Leg Extension Machine

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 breakdown 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!

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) to prevent strength imbalances between limbs AND to prevent strength imbalances between your front and back thighs and your inner and outer thighs. 

 

4.) Fly Machine

If your goal is to 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.

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.

Training Upgrade: For strong, stable shoulders focus on performing an equal amount of pushing and pulling exercises. In fact, more pulling exercises initially may be a good idea if you find yourself heavily internally rotated and hunchbacked from years of focusing on your beach muscles (chest, abs, and biceps) while neglecting your rear shoulders and upper/mid muscles. The best pushing exercise you can do is any push-up variation, as it not only safely trains the entire front side of your body but also engages your upper back musculature in a way that the bench press does not. Furthermore, every year people die from bench pressing, but there has never been a reported death from performing a push-up!

 

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 does not burn nearly as many calories as the machine claims it does.

Furthermore, the elliptical is not a good machine to do intervals on because it promotes excessive hyperextension 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!  At the end of the day, you can read a dam magazine while on an elliptical, so how much benefit do you really think you will get from this overpriced waste of space?

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 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 are cardio equipment-free and/or at home or on the road, use body weight based exercises like jumping jacks, stationary running, split jumps, etc.

 

6.) The Sex Machine- Abductor/Adductor Combo

Ah, the sex machine… this one just makes me smile. 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 inside my leg?” Too many times!

Come on now, you know that spot reduction is a myth by now, right? Seriously, no amount of direct inner or other hip-thigh work will burn that ugly fat covering that sexy toned musculature everyone wants to see so let it go.

So the first thing you need to do is clean up all of the junk 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 this sexy machine and get real with a total body workout!

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 Valslide Lateral Lunge that simultaneously stretches and strengthens your hip musculature.

 

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 leg press – they get to lay or sit on their ass depending on the exact 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, explaining 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!

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 and lunges) 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 to start 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 damn 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.

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!

3 Obstacles to Intuitive Weight Loss

Who am I to know how to lose weight and keep it off?

If you’ve ever asked yourself this question, you need not worry, you are not alone.  In fact, this is the most common question asked by those who want to lose weight, as very few people are truly clear about the best way to eat for long term, enjoyable, and sustainable weight loss.

But not being clear isn’t the real problem.  Doubting yourself and your intuitive voice is.

Your intuition, or inner guidance system, has been perfected over thousands of years of evolution, and it knows exactly how to guide you to lose weight and keep it off forever.  But the silent – often unconscious – “Who am I…?” personal query plants a seed of apprehension that causes us to doubt that guidance, and become uncertain about our own abilities.

It’s a shame, really.  The majority of dieters have successfully convinced themselves that they are not their own expert when it comes to something as simple as shedding some unwanted pounds.  This can feel quite debilitating.

Well, friends, the time has come to clear the clutter once and for all.  Get ready to free yourself from the handcuffs of doubt, and decide right here and now that you are going to empower yourself to take back control of your weight, your health and your body forever more.

The 3 Intuitive Weight Loss Culprits

Named must your fear be before banish it you can.  - Yoda

As the little green Jedi Master said, we need to get crystal clear about what causes us to feel so powerless when it comes to confidently controlling our weight.

We all have a deep-seeded fear that we are not enough.  Most people believe that, at some level, everyone else has it all figured out.  The reality is that we’re all in the same boat, but because of our “we’re not enough” fear, we tend to give too much credit to others, while severely underestimating ourselves.

There are three catalysts that light the spark of this fear and doubt about our ability to intuitively lose weight effectively.  These rascals are so common and so impactful that most of us take them for granted, thus underestimating their power.  However, once they are brought into the light we can recognize them whenever they rear their ugly heads, disarm them, and leave them powerless while empowering ourselves – and our own weight loss – in the end.

1.  We live in the Information Age.

We are trained to look elsewhere for answers.  In an age where we can do a Google search on the word, “diet”, and get over 130,000,000 results in less than a second, we expect that someone else knows how to do this, so we’d better ask them first.  We are conditioned to look for an expert, however they are defined, but we rarely consult with our own intuitive voice before seeking counsel from others.

Learning from others isn’t the problem, it’s doubting ourselves so much that we go outside of ourselves for answers first that weakens our confidence and intuitive muscles.

2.  Too many diet options, most of which contradict each other.

With the sheer number of diets available today, marketers must find a way to position themselves to stick out in the industry.

To accomplish this ever-more daunting task, proponents of the latest secret diet strategy will either niche themselves as a diet for one gender, socioeconomic class, or age group, or they will spin the truth to get some attention.  Typically, they emphasize approaches that either contradict commonly-accepted truths, or challenge the premise upon which the current diet du jour is based upon, thus attracting media buzz by way of being sensationalistic or shocking.  “Lose weight without changing anything you do” is a perfect example.

The reality is that statements like these encourage us to doubt our own intuition and natural instincts about weight loss even more.  (No, it’s not possible to lose weight without changing anything you do.  Unless of course you are currently losing weight.)

3.  We see the staggering number of people who fail at weight loss.

The coup de grace of this doubt-inducing triad is the stark reality that over 90% of dieters end up gaining back the weight they lost within one to five years.

None of us want to fall into this category (at least not again), and as a fear-based reactionary result, we start analyzing, picking apart and scrutinizing every agonizing detail of the most popular diets in hopes of spotting the fatal flaws of the diets we decide to avoid.  Welcome to the fast lane for paralysis by analysis.  This leads to either a lifelong search for the perfect diet (while continuing to gain 1-3 lbs per year during our investigation), or we just say, “Screw it – it’s easier to be fat than to try to figure this out.”

All three of these buggers exacerbate the FEAR (False Evidence Appearing Real) that we can’t lose weight on our own.

The truth is that each one of us has everything we need.

The Antidote

1.  Listen to your intuition.

What would you do to easily and effortlessly start losing weight today if you were able to temporarily set aside all of the doubt, misconceptions, and fear you’ve collected over the years about controlling your weight?  What would you do intuitively to drop the extra pounds?

Still stuck?  Maybe this will help.  Pretend you are living in the year 1700.  You find yourself with 20 pounds to lose.  You have no internet, no weight loss programs, no “experts” to consult, and no books.  What would you do to drop the extra 20?

You would eat less, move more, or do a combination.

We all know intuitively that our body weight, and the changes in our weight over time, will always tell us what kind of calorie balance we’ve been in.  Gained weight?  You ate more than you burned over the time period during which your weight increased.  Lost weight?  You burned more than you ate.  Did your weight stay the same?  You get the picture.

This feedback system – your weight changes and your intuitive ability to decide how to adjust based on it – has always been there, and will continue to be there for you for the rest of your life.

2.  Don’t get lost in the woods.

Have you ever heard the expression, “You can’t see the forest for the trees”?  Focusing too much on the details, at the expense of failing to see the big picture, will only get you lost, confused and frustrated.

The “forest” is the big picture – your calorie balance.  If you don’t get the calorie balance right, none of the other details like carbs, protein, fat, sugar, water, and best time of day to eat, will matter.  Case in point:  The person who “eats healthy” but never loses any weight.  Compare this person to the other extreme example: Someone who found a way to manage a calorie deficit for the past 2 years, lost over 30 lbs., but never ate a single vegetable and drank regular soda and ate Cheetos every step of the way.

Some people spend so much time arguing over the little nuances of weight loss, such as the Glycemic Index and whether you can eat meals with carbs past 6pm or 7pm.  These same people either never lose any weight, or if they do, they start to gain it all back when they eventually realize they can’t live with the highly-specialized, time-consuming and inconvenient diet strategies they chose to follow.

Remember this:  It doesn’t matter how “perfect” you are with your nutrition; if you don’t manage your calories, your weight will never change.

And it doesn’t matter how “perfect” your diet strategy is on paper; if you can’t live with it, you will start to gain the weight back as soon as you stop following it.

Get your calorie balance right first by making simple, intuitive adjustments to the way you eat and move which you can live with over the long haul, then work on eating as healthy as you wish while maintaining that balance.

3.  Never fight for your limitations.

If you don’t want your history to repeat itself, then promise yourself that you will give up on trying to prove that you are right about what you couldn’t do in the past.

Every day, your body burns calories.  Every day, you consume calories.  At the end of every 7-14 days, any changes to your body weight will be a direct result of the average daily balance between the number of calories you burned and the number you consumed.  This will repeat itself for as long as you are alive, which means you can always begin anew if taking control of your weight is important enough to you.

It also means that this calorie balance thing never ends.  So, if you want to lose weight and keep it off, stop doubting yourself.  Begin listening to your built-in intuition, trust yourself, use the feedback your body gives you, and relax in the knowledge that you have been inherently given everything you need to be successful, and you – only you – are responsible for the way you look and feel.

If you find yourself stuck at a certain weight, promise yourself that you will ask one question before looking elsewhere for answers:

“If there was no one else to ask, and I fully trusted my own instincts, what advice would I give myself now?”

You are smarter, and more powerful than you know.  It’s time to unleash it.

Why Mindless Eating Can Pack On Pounds

Below is a great article on mindless eating I found. Most of this concept comes from the groundbreaking research of Brian Wansink. I highly recommend his book.

It seems when Americans sit down to eat, our minds are out to lunch. Whether it’s the newspaper on the kitchen table, the morning news on TV, your co-workers you’re dining with, or simply the world passing you by, food is the only thing we’re not thinking about when we eat. The problem is, our absent-minded way of eating is starting to make a difference when we step on the scale — and not in a good way.

“Regardless of how tuned in we believe we are to what we eat and how much we eat, we are really a nation of mindless eaters,” says Brian Wansink, PhD, professor and director of Cornell Food and Brand Lab.

So if we’re not focused on our food, what is it we’re thinking about when we sit down for a meal? Do we give any thought at all to what’s on our forks, or do we just open up and consume?

Experts give WebMD tips on how we can stop our absent-minded way of eating and start thinking before we open our mouths for a mindless feast.

Mindless Eating

“The average person during the course of an average day makes over 200 food-related decisions,” says Wansink, author of Mindless Eating. “But if you ask someone what that number is, they say around 30.”

That could mean that many of the choices we should be making regarding the food we eat are made for us when we’re seduced by our environment.

“If we simply give people a larger plate size, in some cases, they’ll end up eating 25%-50% more food just because the dish they’re eating from is bigger,” says Wansink. “Whether it’s the time of day, who we are with, the lighting, the size of dish, the variety of food- — all of these things end up influencing us as we make food choices.”

While the brain that’s between our ears doesn’t seem to have a huge role on the food we put between our lips, that doesn’t mean it’s not having an impact on our waistlines.

“If you look at all the factors that influence your food choices over the course of a day, if you eat 20% more calories than you need because of those factors, then at the end of the year, that’s about 40 pounds of extra weight,” says Wansink. “So it makes a huge difference at the end of the year, and that’s what we call the ‘mindless margin’ — we lose and gain weight by a few calories a day.”

So if we’re not paying attention to our food, what is it we’re pondering?

Life vs. Food

“Even when you’re eating with others, say at a lunch meeting, it’s easy for people to get caught up in the conversation and forget to pay attention to their food,” says Linda Spangle, RN, MA, author of Life is Hard, Food is Easy. “Suddenly, they look down and realize their plate is empty, but didn’t really notice what they ate.”

Life, it seems, gets in the way of food.

“It’s very common for people to be so preoccupied with life concerns that they eat without paying much attention to their food,” says Spangle.

Instead of food, everything else is on their minds, from kids to relationships to work.

“Many workers multitask by eating at their desks and continuing to do computer work, answer emails, or do other tasks,” says Spangle.

They’re so focused on their work that the food in front of them magically disappears without a second thought.

“In the evening, many people no longer eat at a table as a family,” says Spangle. “Instead, each person grabs their own food, then they head to another room or they plunk down in front of the TV to relax from their day. In this case, TV holds their attention as they mindlessly shove food in their mouths.”

And in many cases, Spangle explains, the power of habit goes into overdrive when the mind shifts to neutral.

“Many times it’s habit,” says Spangle, who also authored 100 Days of Weight Loss. “We’re used to eating a certain amount of food at our meals, such as a large sandwich, and we finish it off even when we know we’re overeating or becoming too full.”

What happened to the joy of eating? Of enjoying a simple meal and relishing every last bite? Have those days gone the way of the family dinner?

“It’s not that people don’t want to notice and appreciate what they’re eating,” Spangle tells WebMD. “It’s that we’ve forgotten how to separate eating from all the other activities or demands in our lives.”

Focusing on Food

So how do we get our minds back on track and start focusing on food?

“The bad news is that the environment can lead us to mindlessly overeat,” says Wansink. “The good news is we can change our environment to eat what we want and eat the quantities we want.”

• Slow down. “The faster you eat, the less likely you’re paying attention to your food,” says Spangle. “Consider setting a timer or your watch alarm for 20 minutes, then make sure that your meal lasts that long. For those who tend to quickly wolf down their food without noticing it, the 20-minute timer will completely change the way they eat.”
• Savor the food. “Build the habit of starting your meal by taking very small bites and paying attention to all the details of the food, including the temperature, texture, seasoning,” says Spangle. “By really noticing these things, you’ll totally change your awareness of your eating. You’ll also find you can get a lot of satisfaction from a very small amount of food.”
• Watch for the “eating pause.” “This subtle cue is related to the body indicating that it’s had enough food,” says Spangle.

During a meal, most people unknowingly take a break, put their fork and knife down, and stop eating for a few minutes. This is the “eating pause.” What usually happens next is mindless eating.

“After a minute or two, they will look down at their plate, notice the food that’s left, and start eating again to finish their meal,” says Spangle. “Interestingly, when people do this ‘eating pause’ they are usually at the point of being satisfied by their food — not too full, not still hungry, but totally satisfied.”

So the trick is, when you run into the eating pause, don’t just take a break from eating — stop altogether instead. Using this technique helps you keep your mind on your food and prevents you from overeating.

• Don’t be seduced by labels. “When food is advertised as healthy or low fat, people fall for that,” says Wansink. “We find that when people think they are eating healthy food they overeat by 40%, or they compensate by putting cheese or mayo on the food or ordering cookies or dessert because they think they deserve it, and that has a huge impact on our calorie intake.”
• Don’t eat by the clock. “When people eat by the clock, they might eat even when they’re not hungry because the clock strikes noon,” says Susan Moores, RD, spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. “It’s more important to pay attention to hunger and eat when your body tells you to instead of your watch. When people are a slave to a clock it can backfire.”
• Separate food from technology. “Don’t watch TV, surf the Internet, or read the paper when you eat because it’s too easy to become distracted and forget about the food you’re eating,” says Moores. “Or if reality has it that you are going to read a paper or watch a football game and eat, put a finite food in front of you so you’re not sitting there with a big box of snacks and an endless amount of food that you eat without a second thought.”
• Be satisfied with your food. “What we hope people will get is satisfaction from food or from the occasion of eating,” says Moores. “If people get better at listening to their body and eating when they’re hungry and eating food they enjoy, they’ll be satisfied by it and eat it mindfully. It becomes what we call ‘intuitive eating,’ or the act of listening to your body and eating what your body is calling for and then by and large, you’ll be satisfied by it.”

Metabolic Workout

We have been testing out a new metabolic workout that has been fun, and a killer workout, but done in under 30 minutes. After you warm up and stretch out, give it a try and let us know what you think.  We will be filming this and putting it on our YouTube channel, so stay tuned.  Let us know how it goes!

 30 seconds/15 recovery 2 rounds rest 2-3 mins same for second round

 Round 1

• KB Swings
• Mountain Climbers
• Renegade row
• Kb High Pulls
• Ropes

Round 2

• Heavy jump Rope
• T-Pushups
• Asst. Chin ups
• Power Step ups
• Get ups

Do You Have the Right Mindset?

When it comes to losing fat or performing at your peak, most of the attention always turns to your workouts and what you eat. Obviously, this is crucial to your success, but in my experience if you don’t have the right mindset, none of that will matter.

There is a difference between thinking you should workout because “it’s good for you” vs. working out because you are tired of the way you look and feel and will not stand for that anymore. Which one has more juice behind it?
Saying “I have to work out” vs. “I am working out so I can look and feel great” is the difference between not only doing it but doing it well or not just going through the motions. That simple mindset sometimes makes all the difference to your health and fitness success.

“Cease negative mental chattering. – If you think a thing is impossible, you’ll make it impossible. Pessimism blunts the tools you need to succeed.”

The above quote speaks to the countless clients I have had realize that it was not their nutrition and workouts that were to blame for their lack of success but their negative or limited thought process. Most people are working out but not believing for a second that they can lose weight because “they have always been fat.” Believe it or not, we are like the genie from Aladdin.  When we have a thought, our wish is our command. We get what we believe in, good or bad, right or wrong.

The mind is a powerful tool that, when nourished with positive and supportive thoughts, allows us to accomplish anything we put our mind to. The problem is most people simply do not believe this and continue to fail because of it.

There is a simple saying: “get your mind right and you get things done.” Apply this to your health and fitness and you will be amazed at what you can accomplish!

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