3 Exercises That Will Wreck You

Drop These Exercises

Few exercises are inherently dangerous, but if your posture sucks, then there are some that will be dangerous for YOU.

And it doesn't matter if you're not sedentary. Even athletes and committed lifters can learn the hard way that their posture isn't great. Luckily there are simple modifications you can make in order to train hard while protecting your orthopedic health.

Here are the three movements that can put your shoulders and spine at risk. I no longer program these for the majority of my athletes. The modifications they now use actually give them a greater training effect while minimizing joint stress.

1 – The Barbell Overhead Press

Straight bar overhead pressing is one hell of a diagnostic tool. It'll tell you a lot about your spinal stability, scapular mobility, shoulder strength and function. But it's rarely a good fit for those struggling to achieve good positions.

First off, the symmetrical stance (feet parallel on the floor) has the potential to create instability and hyperextension at the lumbar-pelvic junction. It's this lack of trunk and pillar support that becomes the weakest link in the functional chain. It limits top-end loads and places unwanted stress on the spine.

Since the body is a functional unit, this hyperextension can become more notable when you lack the ability to achieve a neutral, or possibly even slightly extended, thoracic spine position. A rounded mid-back will be tough on the lower back and also on the shoulder, reducing space in the shoulder girdle for structures to properly function.

Between the lack of lumbar spine stability, thoracic spine mobility, and the ability to display functional range of motion and stability through the shoulder girdle, the overhead barbell press is risky.

2 – The Bent-Over Barbell Row

Most lifters need to be doing horizontal pulls. These help ameliorate the affects of daily slumping and sitting. But the bent-over row isn't your best bet. There are better ways to develop a muscular posterior chain.

What makes it suck? The barbell bent-over row combines a high amount of requisite stability through the lower body, pelvis, and spine while simultaneously creating dynamic tension through the musculature of the back. So again it doesn't inherently suck for everyone but it might for YOU.

Even the more elite lifters and athletes that I evaluate can't hip hinge properly with their own bodyweight (the majority at least). So telling them to try and maintain a hip hinge isometrically, while powerfully lifting and lowering a heavy bar, is absurd.

If you lack the ability to do a proper hip hinge (a bow not a squat), this should automatically exclude you from the barbell bent-over row. It's a red flag that you shouldn't be getting in any bent-over position that also involves dynamic movement from the upper extremities.

You need the ability to maintain a neutral spine and pelvis in the hinge. The addition of an anteriorly loaded bar will create heavy compensation patterns. And when you're tasked with moving it up and down, your spine will move back and forth into flexion and extension, dumping the pelvis anteriorly and posteriorly during every rep. This is bad.

With a majority of the movement generated from joints and non-contractile structures, the poorly positioned bent-over row not only steals the muscular emphasis we're targeting, but places the body in a potentially injurious position, especially when training extended rep ranges and sets which involve cumulative postural fatigue.

3 – The Barbell Upright Row

There's no exercise more notorious for messing up the shoulders than the upright row. And everybody knows it, which is why there are a dozen modifications in hand placement, bar path, and setup. They're all invented to make this exercise easier on the shoulder girdle. But why play with fire when there are safer alternatives that'll get you the same benefits?

The traditional upright row creates increased anteriorly-directed joint stress to the shoulder girdle, especially when shoulder mobility and thoracic spine positioning are less than perfect.

The lack of respectable posturing through the upper quadrant can create more of an internally rotated movement at the gleno-humeral joint, reducing the area of structures to freely slide and glide through. An imperfect posture can also keep the shoulder blades from functioning smoothly and synergistically against the thoracic cage.

This movement has a tendency to shift tension from the medial delts (which most lifters are attempting to target with this) to the upper traps. And that defeats the purpose because you can develop your upper traps in a gazillion more effective and less dangerous ways.

If your posture is dysfunctional don't even try to program modified versions of the upright row. The cost to benefit ratio is too small, even for athletes and lifters with great posture and healthy shoulders.