Most Dangerous or Unsafe Exercises
1. Crunches
Abdominal crunches are often what pops into
the mind of anyone looking for six-pack abs, but in
reality they can be downright dangerous. While
crunches seem like a simple exercise movement, that
spinal flexion, rounding your lower back so you can
bend at the waist, pushes disc back toward your spinal
cord and often leads to herniated disc in the lower
back.
2. Upright Rows
While performing upright rows, you may
notice that your shoulders are rotating inward
(internal rotation) but also elevating. You may not
realize the stress you’re putting on your rotator cuff
that can eventually lead to injury. Another common
injury that can occur through lifting your arms while
they’re in an internal rotation position is known as
shoulder impingement syndrome, which can result in
difficulty reaching upward or pain when arms are
extended above the head.
3. Leg Extension Machine
Seated leg extension machines require a
resistance point that is placed by the ankles. This
placement can put a lot of stress on the knees in the
form of ACL tension. The heavier the weight, the more
likely you are to suffer a knee injury.
4. Smith Machine
When supplementing squats for leg
extensions, make sure they are not being performed
on a Smith machine. Although the Smith machine was
designed to limit injury by providing barbell support
via built-in bar guides, these guides are often what
leads to injury. Since the barbell is locked into a
straight up and down motion, that’s the only way your
body can move. This motion, which our bodies are not
meant to go in without going backward puts added
stress on the knees and lower back.
5. Behind the Head Lat Pulldowns
People often think that adding a little
variation to their lat pulldown by pulling the bar down
to the back of their neck will help build upper back
strength. They tend to neglect the stress they’re
putting on their shoulders by bending them in a way
they were not meant to backward. Performing the
motion that is required to complete behind the head
lat pulldowns, especially with a lot of weight, can quickly lead to a rotator cuff injury. When
performing lat pulldowns, bring the bar down in front of your head to
around the collarbone are while squeezing your shoulder blades in to meet each other.
6. Leg Press
Bringing the sled down so far that it raises your
pelvis off the machine takes the normal curve in your
lower back out and increases the risk of a herniated
disc dramatically.
7. Preacher Bench Barbell Curls
Rounding your shoulders forward and flexing
your neck puts excessive stress on the cervical discs
and can potentially herniate a disc.
8. Standing Barbell Shoulder Press
Many people, trying to lift more weight, lean
back a lot when pressing the bar overhead, but this
loads the facet joints in the lower back, potentially
causing you back pain
9. Dumbbell Flys
A common exercise modification is lowering
the dumbbells to get an extra stretch in the pecs, but
this can also stretch the pec muscles too much and
potentially cause a pec fear.
10. Barbell Bench Press to the Neck
This is an exercise that puts tremendous stress
through the pecs and shoulder capsule and, if
performed, must be done with low weight and high
reps.
11. Squats
Many bodybuilders do high bar squats with a
heavy weight, and this can put excessive stress on the
lower neck, potentially injuring the joint.
12. Dumbbell Bench Press
This is an excellent exercise that can cause an
injury when you finish the exercise by lowering the
dumbbells by your sides onto the floor. This puts
extreme unnecessary stress through the shoulder
capsule.
13. Stiff-legged Deadlifts
This exercise is often performed by standing
on a bench to get an extra stretch, but the hamstrings
stop being used once the bar passes below the knee,
so the extra stretch really doesn’t build the hamstrings
more and only loads the lower back excessively.
14. Deadlifts
When pulling from the floor, many people
straighten their legs while the bar is still on the floor,
creating excessive stress on the lower back discs.