Bad Exercise Selection

“There are no bad exercises”

There are in my opinion. If nothing else, there are at least better selections to choose from.

Burpees:

Burpees are probably one of the most over rated exercises out there. When you watch people throw themselves to the ground and stand back up; you cringe. Most people look like the are having convulsions more than being athletic. Their joints are getting abused. Even the ones that do look athletic, why this exercise? Most people can’t answer more than “because they suck.” That’s not a good reason. Is it...

Core, just plank.

Legs, just squat/deadlift

If it’s for heart rate..

Pair exercises that are standing & on the floor together in super sets. Getting on the ground & off the ground. Like squat to push up.

If it’s for power/conditioning...

KB swing, kB clean, kB snatch for reps, Battle rope, box jump, or squat jump.

You will get far more out of the exercise selection than just exhaustion.

Behind the neck exercises are unfriendly to your shoulders. Exercises like behind the neck lat pull down & b.t.n. bar Presses are two exercises I never program for clients. I don’t see the point of cranking the body into that position, especially with weight. There are far better options, like front pull downs and dumbbell presses.

Bosu Ball:

The BOSU can be a good tool for upper body training like a push up in order to greater challenge your core. There might even be a couple other uses for it if I think real hard. Like for a door stop or my kid likes using it like a trampoline (I kid, kind of.) However to stand on something to create instability when you can’t even stand on one leg without assistance seems not to be the brightest of ideas.

We should work on single leg training and progress to single leg with load. When you can train on one leg with a fair amount of weight than maybe if you wanted to play around on the BOSU Ball it could make sense. However, even then I think the ground you walk on daily is good enough. Unless you are training for the Circus, I don’t see the point. The risk to reward is way to great.

Don’t get me wrong, rewind 8 or so years and you would see me on the BOSU. However it’s called learning. Knowledge that makes you question what you have always done is powerful stuff. If we never challenged how we always did things, doctors would still not be washing their hands between surgeries and wondering why they had a high infection/death rate.

(I’m sure there will be lots of trainers Commenting on this and disagreeing with me. That’s ok. This is my opinion and my conclusion after being a trainer for over 2 decades.)

What should you do instead?

Progression...

One leg exercises assisted

One leg unassisted

One leg loaded

That's it, you don't have to do anything more than get really freaking strong on one leg.

High Box Jumps:

As for high box jumps, there are a number of important considerations when doing them.

Form & technique is huge. A bad landing can hurt more than your ego. Protect your knees and other joints by landing like a ninja and not like your trying to squish a Goomba on Mario.

If you can’t land athletic in the same position as you took off; you went too high. The goal isn’t how high but the power behind it. You never watched Michael Jordan jump in the air and pull his knees to his chest like he is about to take a dump in the woods. A slow or fatigued jump is counterproductive. Each rep should be an all-out effort.

Keep your reps low, 5 to at the most 10 jumps per set. Higher than that result in fatigue. Your form will start looking like shit and all out effort is gone. Once you tire and fatigue, you aren't training explosiveness anymore.

Last thing, gathering all the boxes in the gym and stacking them up to see if you can jump on it is stupid. It’s nothing more than a show off session that could (and probably will) result in injury. You’re also taking boxes away from people that want to do it correctly.

You can have a different opinion than mine. Just remember, don't read everything you believe but don't believe everything you read. Ask yourself "What if how I always did it was wrong?", "Why am I doing this exercise?" ("Because it sucks" or "it's tiresome" isn't a good answer), and "Is there a better way?"