5 Exercises NOT to do.

What exercise is simultaneously the most useless, the worst for your back, and the most popular (especially among women)?

Problem exercise 1: The sit up. 

Simple science, you must put a lot of strain on a muscle for it to adapt and grow. Most people are told to do countless sits ups in hopes of spot reducing their stomach fat and getting those "ripped abs, but in reality they are not training for ripped abs, they are training for endurance muscles which does NOT make your muscles grow. If you are doing anything more than 15 reps your muscles will not grow much at all. 

Solution: Skip those sit ups, spot reducing is a myth and while it may be cool to be able to do 100 sit ups in a minute, it is useless in real life. Instead try doing low rep, high resistance exercises shooting for 10-15 reps such as suspended leg raises and weighted decline crunches (hold just your shoulders off the bench for a few seconds and slowly release). 

Problem exercise 2: Behind the head shoulder press. 

Bad for your shoulders. Don't do it!

Solution: Military style in front of the head press. Much better on the shoulders. 

Problem exercise 3: Dumbbell upright row.

This exercise can cause nerves in your shoulders to pinch. Shoulders are the most easily injured part of the body when weight lifting so you should stay away from anything that might hurt it. 

Solution: Do other shoulder movements instead. Good shoulder movements include most types of pressing (both dumbbell and barbell) and bent over flies for the back of the deltoid. 

Problem Exercise 4: Strait arm flies. 

These are hard on the rotator cuff. 

Solution: Skip them! Do other shoulder exercises, these are useless anyway. 

Problem exercise 5: Squats.

Yes, I said squats, the best workout you can do. The problem arises when you use improper form. Improper form on the squat can be bad on knees, back, shoulders, and ever stunt your growth. 

Solution: Do bodyweight squats until you have the from nailed, and never use more weight than you can handle.