4 Exercises You Shouldn't Be Doing
Some exercises cause more harm that good. Here's 4 that you should remove from your routine immediately.
Exercise to Avoid // The Hips
3. Curtsy Lunges
In this movement the knee travels across the body vs. the tradition forward and backward motion.
Why it sucks:
This exercise may be a good “burn” for the muscles of the thigh, but it negates one foundational rule of biomechanics. To encourage proper movement pattern, function, and strength, the knee joint, hip joint, and shoulder joint should be kept in alignment with one another the entire time while baring load. For the grand majority, this will produce unwanted stress since the hip socket doesn’t align with this movement angle or pattern. Consequently, the IT band and TFL will take a loaded stretch.
Do this instead:
Keep things in line with forward and reverse lunges. If you want to make things a bit more challenging, add a deficit to your lunges – forwards or backwards off a low box.
Exercises to Avoid // Knees
4. Leg Extension
Why it sucks:
The leg extension is a classic example of an open chain exercise. Open chain exercises allow the foot to move freely and usually are single joint isolation movements in nature. Leg extensions fit the bill. The result of this is shearing force. Because the quads are contracting on their own, their shortening through tension will have an impact on the knee.
Do this instead:
Rather than stressing the ligaments in this fashion, a better alternative would be to incorporate compound movements like squatting, deadlifting and even the leg press, in order to encourage a co-contraction from surrounding muscles so a balance is promoted and knee strain and counterstrain is kept to a minimum. This way the joint pressure from lifting weights is “spread out evenly” around the joint.
