Yesterday we had the first four of Mr. America and 2019 Drug-Free Mr. Universe Doug Brignole’s “Exercises that Cause the Most Injuries.”
If you missed it, they are preacher curls, overhead presses, deadlifts, and bench presses. I’ve done all of those over the years and sustained my share of injuries; however, I was never unlucky enough to have to go under the knife for joint repair. I still have recurring pain, however.
Here are the remaining four:
#5: Squat. Another powerlift with high cost, low benefit. Spine compression is high with heavy squats, plus, your torso pitches forward, putting more resistance on your glutes than your quads. My butt got great mass from trying to go heavy, quads not so much. One last point: Because you’re involving the glutes, which is a hip flexor muscle, you shut off one of the quad group, the rectus femoris, a hip extensor. So you’re essentially not training 20 percent of the quadriceps group with barbell squats. That’s due to reciprocal innervation. Brignole goes into more detail in his book, if you’re interested.
#6: T-bar row. This puts your lower spine in danger if you start trying to heave mega poundages. While I’ve said that this can provide good stretch overload to the middle traps for unique development, it’s much safer to use chest-supported exercises, like incline dumbbell rows, featured in the Old Man, Young Muscle back workouts as an add-on move to the ideal exercise.
#7. Dips. Both parallel bar dips and bench dips (pictured below) overstretch the shoulder joint as your upper arms travel back behind your torso. Also, both of those exercises are front-deltoid-head dominant, not doing all that much for chest or triceps as most believe.
#8. Behind-the-neck pulldowns. This one is a big ouch. Not only are you getting the upward pull on your shoulder joint, which can damage the tendons and connective tissue, your torquing your shoulder joint to the rear so the bar doesn’t hit your head. This, along with behind-the-neck overhead presses, helped me almost need shoulder surgery.
If you’re younger, you may want to consider dropping all or at least some of these for more ideal exercises shown in the new ebook. If not and you choose to go heavy or get a little sloppy, have a good orthopedist on retainer.
New: Get the ideal exercise for each muscle, the best add-on moves for ultimate mass, complete 35-minute workouts, exercise start/finish photos, and details on building muscle fast and efficiently in Old Man, Young Muscle.
And you still get The Muscle-On, Belly-Gone “Diet” ebook FREE for a limited time when you add Old Man, Young Muscle to your mass-building library. Go HERE.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
Steve Holman
Former Editor in Chief, Iron Man Magazine
X-Rep.com
Highly Recommended…
This is Doug Brignole’s incredible 400-page, large-format text on the biomechanics of exercise. It’s a guide to get you training correctly and building maximum muscle safely and efficiently.
Doug’s analysis and explanations on the science and logic behind muscular movement will show you why many of the so-called fundamental mass-building moves are inefficient time-wasters. Plus, he’ll show you the best alternatives.
Whether you’re a hobby bodybuilder, competitive athlete or personal trainer, this book is a must read, one you will refer to again and again throughout your training career.