Workout Tips

Exercises that Injure = counterproductive *utilize the right exercises in the right way/form provided by: Men's Health Don't Do These Exercises

They're ineffective, injury-causing, and time-wasting. It's time to excise these exercises from your workouts. Lose it: triceps kickbacks. The angle of your arm doesn't let you overload your tricep, and puts stress on your shoulder and bicep instead. Replace it with close-grip bench presses. You'll be able to put more weight on the triceps, meaning you'll build more, faster. Lose it: wrist curls. You've got limited time in the gym, and you're expending 3 sets on a muscle you can build with whole-body exercises? Any pulling exercise will build your grip just as effectively while training your back. Rows, pull-ups, chinups—your choice. Lose it: Floor crunch. The angle can hurt your spine. Do reverse crunches or curl on a stability ball—or do planks to engage your whole core and stabilize your entire body. Lose it: Smith machine squats. When squats are performed correctly, the barbell shouldn't travel in a straight-line vertical motion as it does on this machine. If you're not comfortable using a barbell on its own, free yourself from the fixed range of motion with goblet squats, braced squats, or bodyweight squats. Lose it: weighted dips. Adding weight and leaning forward is recommended for targeting your chest, but the weight will make you shift too far forward. The result: shoulder injuries. Stick to bodyweight dips, and try new exercises for your chest.