If you haven’t worked out with me before, you might not know that I’m a trainer who is dedicated to your results and to your safety, which means understanding your unique goals and physiology, as well as knowing how to progress and regress exercises on the spot to get you what we’re working for and meet you where you are in each training session. I know it’s hard enough to make time to work out, so I want to make sure everyone gets the most out of each workout with me! And that’s why you will never, ever, never* see these fives moves at my studio or in my online workouts. (Don’t worry, I tell you what to do instead!)
1. Dips
Most people who sit at desks, drive cars, or watch TV during their leisure time have poor shoulder alignment. This makes dips a poor choice for most of the population, as you won’t be working your triceps and chest – you’ll just be straining the delicate muscles of your rotator cuff.
Are you doing it wrong?
If you’re doing dips and you feel a pull in the front of your shoulder, your alignment is probably wrong! If you can’t bend your elbows to 90 degrees, you’re not working enough of a range of motion to make a difference in your strength or “tone”.
Instead of dips, try:
Diamond push-ups (on your knees or on the wall), tricep kickbacks, or skull crushers.
2. Crunches
Every time I think that everyone has heard that crunches are out, someone comes in and tells me that they have been doing crunches! To get that six pack! While in theory crunches can strengthen the rectus abdominis, the “six pack muscles”, in reality they’re mostly good for straining your neck and perhaps weakening your pelvic floor.
Are you doing it wrong?
Literally just don’t do them. There is no right way to do a crunch from the floor that will do anything for you that another exercise can’t do better.
Instead of crunches, try:
My free ab workout to shrink your waist after just 3 times through, and good nutrition to show off your ab definition.
3. Hip Thrusts
This instagram sweetheart always has me cringing – these really aren’t necessary to grow or strengthen your glutes, and most people I see are using too heavy of a weight with poor toe and knee alignment and powering the move with their necks. Joint pain is not just another part of working out, and your booty is not more important than your neck. (Seriously – if you end up in a motorized chair because you were copying an instagram workout, no one’s even going to be able to see your gainz.)
Are you doing it wrong?
Can you control the movement through a full range? Is your upper back supported by the bench? Have you checked that your toes and knees are pointing in the same direction, and that the full bottom of your foot is glued to the floor?
Instead of hip thrusts try:
Weighted bridges (check on those toes and knees first), kneeling squats, banded movements like squats or lateral steps (place the band across your feet to start, not on your legs), glute pull-throughs, and so many more.
4. Toe Push-Ups
We do “girl” push-ups – kneeling pushups – because my clients can all do them with a full range of motion and proper shoulder alignment. Amazingly, they all get better at doing push-ups, and many are able to progress to toe push-ups. But we never start there (unless someone chooses to do them as part of their assessment, and that’s on them!). Doing a 1/2″ toe push-up won’t get you strong enough to do a full push-up, but working from your knees, maintaining a super strong plank, and lowering all the way to the floor on each rep totally will. (I don’t totally disagree with this article that says never to do knee push-ups, but my clients know how closely I supervise their core engagement and shoulders/elbows. Poor form on any exercise will never make you stronger.)
Are you doing it wrong?
Can you control the movement through a full range – all the way to the floor – with your collarbones wide and your elbows pointing to the back? Is your plank strong with no sagging through your lower back?
Instead of toe push-ups try:
Wall or knee push-ups with excellent form, especially hand release knee push-ups. Those have gotten many of my clients to toe push-ups and full pull-ups, and quickly!
5. Russian Twists
I swear this has nothing to do with the current political climate – loaded twists are bad for your SI joint, and they can grow your waist, which no one has ever requested of me. Your lower back just isn’t designed to throw weight from side to side.
Are you doing it wrong?
If you’re doing it, yes – this is another one to banish to the eternal depths.
Instead of Russian twists try:
Side planks (there are a wide variety of form modifications to suit any strength level), TRX rotational ward and oblique rollout, and lying side lifts (not the kind where you rock dumbbells from side to side, as those ALSO grow your waist size).
Are you doing any of these? (Don’t feel bad if you are – I see them in nearly every Aaptiv program, every trainer’s expensive PDF of workout plans, and all over Pinterest.) Will you switch to one of my modifications? Do you think I’m wrong and want to fight? Let’s do it!
*I say never, but you never know…maybe I will host a bootcamp of don’ts, or maybe you will walk in on one of my clients who is already strong enough to do a full toe push-up. But crunches….
