Should You Be Doing These Exercises?

Every athlete I work with first goes through a unique battery of assessments that I am able to gather at least a small amount of information from. For those of you who read my blogs regularly probably think I sound like a broken record for mentioning this yet again. But the reason I do, is to hopefully give you an understanding of why  I take the time to assess anatomical function and structural integrity of every athlete before beating them down with an advanced strength training program. And also lay some groundwork for this post. It doesn’t just help decide where the athlete needs work, but more importantly helps me decide what I shouldn’t be doing with the athlete.

I understand I still have a lot to learn, not only about strength and conditioning, but also about gathering information from my assessments. What I think I have done well, however, is pick assessments that I understand for the time being. As much as I would like to get into more advanced diagnosis of functional movement and kinesiology, I don’t fully understand what to look for with some exams, what to use the information for, nor how to implement it just yet. So for now I’m going to stick with what I have. I like the assessments I have, and though I’d like them to evolve over time, they give me just the right amount of information about my athletes that I need in order to keep them healthy and strong.

I would like that to be the basis for this blog. Please understand that I am not saying you should absolutely not be doing any of these exercises. I understand that a big part of strength and conditioning is enjoyment. If you enjoy doing these particular exercises and have seen quality results, then you can tell me to piss off. However, if you are experiencing pain and forced regression because of some of these exercises, hopefully I can help to shine some light on as to why that may be happening and what you can do as an alternative.

Here is my list of exercises you may want to stop doing, at least until you pass the recommended criteria.

1.     Smith Machine Squats & Hip Sled Leg Press

This is an easy one to kick of the party with because I know they suck. I have for too long seen personal trainers and strength coaches alike throw clients underneath the smith machine because they aren’t able to squat properly. This is a really good way to say, “I suck at my job” or worse, “I’m too lazy to teach you how.” Squatting is about resisting force on the pelvis (our core) like gravitational pull (usually supplemented with weight), rotational forces, lateral flexion forces, and flexion or extension forces as we move through the pelvic range of motion. The ability to do so is absolutely imperative to healthy living and athletic performance alike. Let me say first that I do believe there can be some strength benefits derived from the hip sled, and it can be a great tool for rehabilitation, but there is big difference between our pelvis moving on the heads of our femurs (as in a squat) and our femurs moving on the pelvis. When your pelvis is fixed in a seat, you could be missing out on a lot of proprioceptive feedback that you can greatly benefit from. Besides not maximizing your effort, the smith machine actually takes it step further. A squat naturally occurs in more of an S curve, starting with an anteriorly tilted pelvis and as the athlete/client descends the torso stays erect but the pelvis moves into a more posteriorly tilted position. This is called the “butt wink.” Every good deep squat has one. Because the smith machine moves in a fixed plane instead of this “S curve” you can imagine that there will be some parts of the decent that the vertebral column is receiving some unwanted and certainly unneeded compressive force. No wonder you can’t get rid of that nagging back pain.

2.     Flexion Exercises

I’m really taking the path of least resistance here with these first two topics. You’ll have to stay tuned for the real controversial stuff. This is another easy one for me, because I can unequivocally say there is a better way to achieve anterior core strength. YES I’M TELLING YOU TO STOP DOING SIT UPS AND CRUNCHES. We’ve become a society that lives in lumbar flexion. So when you come into a gym with 30+ extra pounds on your midsection and tell me that you sit in a chair for 8 – 12 hours a day (God forbid you skip watching The Voice after already sitting for 8 hours at work) I think crushing more flexion exercises to feed into your poor core positioning goes against conventional wisdom. What the industry is starting to realize is that working on more flexion not only exasperates the poor positioning of your lumbar vertebrae and thoracic cavity alike, but resisting extension is much safer. And if performed properly is a much more functional method to develop big strong muscles in your anterior core. If you don’t believe me, next time you finish your workout with “abs” try one of these exercises instead. I’ll demonstrate them in order from novice to advanced and remember, the first few can be regressed by extending one leg at a time instead of two. The entire purpose is to resist lumbar extension. (That is the big valley in your lower back) 

3.     Olympic Lifting

Oh boy, now we’re getting into the thick of things. For starters, I think Olympic lifting is awesome. There is no better way to add explosiveness to an athlete in the sagittal plane and they can be extremely beneficial to the athlete who is trying to add some mass. There are also very few exercises out there that require the kind of kinesthetic awareness that cleans, clean and jerks and snatches require. That being said, I believe there is a criterion to meet with young athletes before we get them moving a barbell in an explosive pattern. I personally like the “ability to pull 1.5x your body weight from the floor” threshold. I’m not saying that if you can’t do so, you’ll never do a proper clean or snatch. I just think that until you can do so, there shouldn’t be a huge rush to learn a whole new complicated movement. If you can’t pull 1.5x your body weight you’re more than likely still getting a huge benefit from mastering the first pull. Make sure you master your core lifts before you get into anything too sexy. Eric Cressey, explains it best when he compares progressing too quickly to shooting a cannon out of a canoe. It’s just not feasible. If you can’t get to the barbell with a relaxed back and use the posterior chain of your lower extremity to achieve a good vertical first pull, you might not be ready to move the bar explosively. But let me reiterate, if you love to power clean, and have achieved desired results, keep on keepin’ on brother (or sister).

4.     Overhead Resistance Exercises

This is another group of exercises that I have learned over time also requires meeting a specific set of criteria. A lot of people are perfectly capable of overhead pressing and get huge strength benefits and mass gains from doing so. There are also a whole lot of people (myself included) who have no business handling a large amount of resistance over their head. This includes military presses, snatches, and push presses. The problem for a lot of people isn’t strength, but mobility. And the limitation can be because of a number of reasons. Short lattisimus dorsi, tight triceps or pectoralis musculature, glenoid capsule tightness or even bone spurs. The list goes on and on. The tough part is figuring out which one or which combination is the culprit. If we continue to feed into an extension pattern to achieve an overhead movement, we can do more harm than good for our athletes. The good news is, while you work on your mobility, there are alternatives to overhead pressing that, in my opinion, are equally as effective and a whole hell of a lot more friendly. Check out what a poor overhead pressing pattern looks like here:

Now look at what just getting into a half kneeling position can do for your lumbar region, quite a bit less extension here:

Landmine presses are still my favorite way to get some of the benefits of overhead work but still respect my inability to resist falling into an extensive pattern. Check out how much less lumbar extension we see here:

It’s easy to look cynical by writing material like this. That’s not my intention. The intention is that hopefully someone, somewhere, learns something from it. Sometimes the toughest thing to get past in this industry (especially with parents) is that if there is no pain, there is no gain. And if their athlete isn’t performing the newest, most advanced maneuvers, their money is being wasted. The fact of the matter is, though, it’s just the opposite. Steady progress in strength and conditioning is all about getting just past the edge of your comfort zone each and every day without doing more harm than good to your body. It’s about listening to your body, but not being a pansy at the same time. Training hard has its place, but never at the expense of training smart. I hope this article shines a little bit of light not only on how all coaches should understand the intelligent progression of exercise but also how the refusal to grow and change in this industry can render one obsolete. Like I said earlier, a good coach first seeks to understand what might cause a set back with an athlete before he decides how to progress the athlete. Without that train of thought, you may find yourself regressing much more often than need be. And regression sucks.

Caleb Heilman

“The only thing I know is I’ll never know everything.” – Jason Green