Dangerous Workouts
I was at the gym this morning and between sets I looked over at a man who seemed to be in his 50′s about 50 pounds overweight doing one legged lateral step up’s onto a bench and then into a balanced one leg dumbbell curl (while standing on the bench)
I thought for sure I was going to be a witness to a hip fracture. This guy had no business doing a step up by itself let alone trying to add in a dumbbell curl while balancing on one leg.
My guess is this is some ridiculous routine he learned from one of the gyms dim witted personal trainers (or he could have read it in an equally dim witted exercise magazine)…and I’ll bet he couldn’t care less about being a good step-up and curl guy, I’ll bet he just wanted to lose some weight.
Regardless of where he learned to do this, it’s not a good idea. For starters he could barely get up without some serious balance issues. Half of his reps he had to restart half way through as he lost his balance or couldn’t generate enough force to get up without ‘hopping’ into it.
This is a big problem I see with people trying to use their workouts to do ‘functional training’ and burn calories in the gym with multi-joint multi-planar movements.
It’s simply not necessary, it’s not going to accomplish much of anything and in reality it’ll probably give this guy joint problems because his form was a disaster and the exercise itself made zero sense from an exercise physiology and biomechanics standpoint.
There seems to be a trend to make workouts look more and more complex using elaborate looking combination movements that end up doing little for any of the muscle groups involved.
The more complex the movement the steeper the learning curve and the more base strength and coordination you need just to attempt them.
For most people there is never any need to do these complicated movements unless you’re well accomplished in the gym and just bored with what you’re doing.
And even then most of these weird looking exercises are pretty pointless.
The point is that there is a limited number of ways you can move your body, and there is even less ways to move your body that make any sense for building muscle and getting ‘in shape’.
There are two ways to keep a working interesting and effective:
1. Finding creative ways to move and build sets and reps
2. Finding an intelligent way to create those new sets and reps and movements that still accomplish the goal.
Unfortunately most trainers get the first part right and completely ignore the second.
John
P.S. If you’re just getting into exercising body weight training is a good place to start.
18 Responses to “Dangerous Workouts”
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March 26th, 2010 at 3:58 pm
Except for boredom, is it even necessary to vary your workout?
March 26th, 2010 at 4:33 pm
I’m thinking he might have seen it on the popular television reality show “the Biggest Loser”. Every week, season after season, I see morbidly obese people from the mid-200s to 500 lb range do the most incredibly difficult looking exercise…both cardio and strength-training, while being “coached” by two “personal trainers”, Bob and Jillian. I’d be interested to see any comments you might have about this matter.
March 26th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
Sounds like the “barbell squats on a swiss ball” crowd.
Another dangerous practice is using weights that you cannot control. I remember the guy using 120 lbs DBs to bench with that dropped them when he couldn’t do a second rep… they hit his water bottle, caused the cap to shoot off and it nearly hit me in the eye. I can’t recall the sheer number of times I’ve nearly lost a toe due to dropped DBs.
March 26th, 2010 at 5:57 pm
Andy,
There is some merit to varying angles and movement patterns to avoid developing repetitive strain injuries. So yes it makes good sense to change the specific movement patterns…but this could be as simple as doing flat vs incline bench press, and then dumbbell press, then alternate dumbbell press…and so on.
Even though each of these movements works the chest the constant varying of the style will help avoid injuries (and boredom)
JB
March 26th, 2010 at 5:59 pm
Phyllis,
Those shows purposely put those people through ridiculous looking workouts for the shock value on television. none of that garbage is necessary…people who are that heavy could burn lots of calories just going for a walk and doing some very basic and simple exercises.
John
March 26th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
John
How do you to make improvements when your always jumping from exercise to exercise? Just curious. I know that powerlifters can rotate exercises in order to keep training at maximum intensity. But its because their lifts are very taxing when lifted with the maximum effort method. Olympic weightlifters do not have this problem and can keep using the same exercises over and over again.
March 27th, 2010 at 4:16 am
Moronic trainers who insist everything must be done on a pilates ball. I see it all too often these days. It’s a sad sight. Alas such is the nature of the fitness industry. What’s novel must be effective.
March 27th, 2010 at 9:50 am
James,
What do you mean by ‘improvements’?
JB
March 27th, 2010 at 11:06 am
i think he means that how can you progress, when you do flat bench press, than next week dumbell press, than incline bench press.
I want to ask how often you recommend to change something?
March 27th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
i agree with you John, you have to find ways to make your workouts interesting, i usually switch between weight training and body weigh workouts….i just got a resistance band and will be experimenting with that in about 2-3 months and see how it works for me.
March 27th, 2010 at 1:06 pm
Wood,
It depends on what your goals are.
JB
March 27th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
Martin,
You said it. This industry 90% fluff, and 10% true substance…If that!
JB
March 27th, 2010 at 2:13 pm
A lot of the commercial gyms force trainers to be NASM certified, and they really drill this functional training thing into peoples heads. I don’t know who the people are behind NASM or why gyms like it so much. Maybe it’s cheap and easy. It doesn’t make sense to me when probably around 90% of people at the gym just want to lose fat.
March 27th, 2010 at 2:13 pm
what do you mean with goals. What goals can be set? I want only build muscle…
March 27th, 2010 at 2:17 pm
I totally agree Martin. I can’t help but shake my head when I see people doing that. Surely if you’re going to do weight training, it makes sense to lift heavy weights. Those pilates balls severely limit how much weight people can lift and at the same time, it’s brutally hard to perform the movement.
More effort, less benefit. Who thought of that great idea??
March 27th, 2010 at 2:26 pm
I’m posting a lot of comments here but this blog post just reminds me of the other day at the gym. I couldn’t get on the power rack to do squats because a personal trainer had two obese women swinging their legs over a barbell which was set quite high in the power rack.
I was tempted to tell the personal trainer he shouldn’t be taking the power rack out of commission for such an exercise. The only reason I didn’t was because I didn’t want to embarrass the two women. They probably already felt pretty stupid performing that movement in front of a group of steroid fuelled meatheads in the free-weights area!
March 27th, 2010 at 3:30 pm
John
Yes by improvements I just mean progress. I know there are programs that can rotate similar exercises to the benefit of the program.
But there are also programs that alternate exercises just to make the programs look good. But the actual rotating of the exercises however is pointless as it concerns getting stronger or increasing power etc.
Now I`m not suggesting that is what your doing. I just only know how to train by using the basic exercises squats, pulls, presses.
What I would like to know how you make progress in your training. You mentioned a 12 week program you finished making. How about sharing it with usÉ For me the way I see it, beginners only need a little bit of stress. For example 3 sets of 5 on a handful of exercises adding 5+ pounds to the bar every workout till they stall is a quick and simple approach to getting stronger. Any more complication then this would just be a waste. The more advanced you are, the more stress you need, and the longer it takes to make progress. Changing angles, exercises, and the like, I think, at least as it concerns the general population, may cause them to forget the purpose of training is to cause a stress that leads to an adaption. I`m not saying that it can`t be fun. But I think the most important aspect of training is progress. The enjoyment of the program is secondary. Sure training should be fun. But it should also do what it is meant to do, and that is to improve the body in whatever direction the trainee is training for.
That was a little long winded there. I hope I have made my point. Not sure that I have. I suppose what would get to the heart of what I`m concerned about is training theory. In particular do you use the single or 2 factor theory.
March 27th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
James,
The new program isn’t free, so you could purchase it.
As far as making ‘progress’ goes it still hinges on what your goal is. If it’s strength then yes a few of the same basic exercises done repeatedly will get the job done…but if you have any asymmetries or nagging injuries this type of training will most like exacerbate them and put you out of commission at some point. Also it’s just tough mentally to do the same stuff over and over again for most people.
There is some decent evidence that periodization has some merit to improving at least strength gains…so if you care about strength there probably needs to be some degree of periodization built into a program.
If you just want to look better (which is what the vast majority of people want to do) then as far as I’m concerned the primary goal because a 50/50 split of adaptation/interest.
In other words, I always try to build workouts that are going to maximize adaptation without getting boring.
In the end consistency is always the key. If you find your workout boring or tedious to the point that you avoid doing it, then it’s not an effective workout no matter how scientifically valid it’s theory might be.
JB