There Are No Bad Exercises, Just Bad Application

Disclaimer:  This post is based off pure anecdotal evidence and observation.

It's not uncommon to see exercises being misused in most gyms.   In fact, at one point or another I have been guilty of using poor exercise selection, less than stellar form, and generally bad judgment when it comes to risk/reward of an exercise.  Fortunately, I have learned (a little) through trial, error, and research, without seriously injuring myself in the process.

When deciding on an exercise, the first things you should think about are:  "Will this help me reach my goals?" and "Is there a safer alternative?"

I'm not going to lecture anyone on safety.  There are few exercises and even fewer things in life that won't put you at risk of some kind of injury.  However, risk/reward should always be a consideration when planning your workouts.

Let me provide some common examples of poor exercise application:

Olympic-style lifts (Clean and jerk, snatch, hang clean, etc.)

The good: Olympic-style lifts allow you to develop an incredible amount of power do to their explosive nature.  This is why you will see track and field athletes, mixed martial artists, and American football players preforming this style of lifting.
The bad:  These lifts are very technical and potentially dangerous.  Olympic weight lifters spend years learning form, developing flexibility, and train in gyms properly equipped (bumper plates, platforms, etc.) for this style of lifting, and yet still run a high risk of injury.
The ugly:  There is a school of thought by some (cough Crossfit), that has clients preforming these lifts for high repetitions or while fatigued.  This is dangerous and stupid.  It is dangerous because when fatigued it is very difficult to perform these lifts with proper form.  It's stupid because the whole idea of these lifts is to maximize power and while the conditioning effect is great, there are plenty of equally effective alternatives.
If you are going to preform Olympic lifts, spend a little time with a coach and please don't do sets of 15.
The alternative:  If you're trying to develop power, try generally increasing your strength, throwing a medicine ball as hard as you can, and performing basic plyometrics (technique is important here too and there is a risk of injury, but at least you won't break your spine).  If you're trying to increase conditioning better options would include: Sprinting, calisthenics circuits, low impact plyometrics like box jumps for reps, and any number of other exercises that fatigues you quickly without having you perform a technically difficult exercise.
A notable exception:  I believe the dumbbell or kettlebell alternatives to these lifts to be much safer, as the overall load is lessened and it is much easier to maintain good form and balance.

Importance of Exercise

In the above video, Dr. Mike Evans talks about the benefit of exercise as medicine.  I don't deny the value of modern medicine, but there is no substitute for positive lifestyle changes.

An Incomplete List of Strength Training Rules

• Warm-up.  A good guideline is to do about 5-10 minutes of aerobic exercise and then a short calisthenic circuit (push-ups, body squats, lunges, bicycle crunches, ect.).  The more reps in a set the shorter the warm-up needs to be, the heavier and more intense the set, the longer the warm-up.
• Work the entire body.  I often see women doing endless crunches, and men doing nothing but bench press and curls.  If this is done for an extended period of time it may be worse than doing nothing.  Not working other muscle groups is not only ineffective, but will ultimately lead to injury.
• Your workout should focus on major compound exercises (exercises that use multiple muscle groups). Big muscles and big movements first.
• The five best exercise for strength development:  Variations of push-ups, pull-ups, dips, squats, and dead-lifts.
• There are no bad exercises, just bad application.
• Over time vary reps, weight, sets, exercises, and the order of exercises.
• If you can lift a weight for more than a minute straight you are not using enough weight.
• Push yourself.  You can't spell workout without work.  For the first six months of training you should be adding weight and/or reps almost every workout.
• Rest is an important part of working out.  Muscles repair themselves and grow at rest, not while you're working out.  Listen to your body and take time to rest your stressed muscles.
• Every exercise should have a purpose.
• Ladies:  Don't worry about bulking up into the incredible hulk.  Gaining muscle mass is influenced by several factors other than lifting, among them:  testosterone and diet.  Any given man will have at least 10 times the testosterone of any given woman.  Female body builders train a lot, diet specifically to gain mass, cut down to little body fat, and take as many, if not more steroids then the men.  Also, it takes time to gain significant muscle mass.  Logic states that if you thought you were gaining too much mass, all you would have to do is stop and so would the gains to mass.  Finally, muscle burns fat and chances are, if you weren't gaining muscle, you'd be gaining fat instead.
• Keep a log of exercises sets, weight, reps, how you're feeling, etc.
• Train your weaknesses.
• Don't over-complicate working out.  Just remember to work opposing muscle groups.
• Something is always better than nothing.
• Learn the exercises, check and re-check form, make sure you can feel the targeted muscle working.

Good luck and keep training.

Recovery

One of the most important but underrated aspects of physical fitness is recovery.  Recovery is when the physical adaptation to exercise and the neural "reprogramming" occur.  For the purposes of this post, I'm talking about recovering after a competitive event, peaking after a training cycle, or an exceptionally difficult workout. Before I get started, remember, the better condition you’re in, the shorter your recovery will be.

So you've completed your training-cycle/event/workout what’s next?

• ASAP: If you feel like you may have injured yourself or there is a spot that typically bothers you (example: Bum knee or chronic tendonitis), get ice on it.
• ASAP: Hydrate, especially if you are in warm conditions or completed a long endurance activity.
• <1 hour: Eat something to help replenish glycogen stores and prevent muscle catabolism.  Preferably something with carbs and complete (animal) proteins.  I've heard the magic ratio is 4:1 carbs to proteins.  Chocolate milk fits those criteria well, so do some sports drinks like Accelerade that mix sugars and protein.  Most importantly, just eat.  Eating anything is still better than nothing.
• 0-24 hours:  Stretch and massage.  This is dependent on personal preference, but I find doing light stretching and self massage with a foam roller to be useful.
• That day:  Sleep.
• In the days after: Active recovery and cross-training.  This can be as simple a walk and stretching.  The purpose is to get blood flowing to your muscles and connective tissue.

There are some more things to consider when it comes to injury.  First off, I'm not going to prescribe anything for a specific injury, leave that to a professional.  I will suggest some common ways to combat injuries.  It goes without saying if you think you're seriously injured, see a doctor.

The Really Long-Run Continued...

So, a while back I wrote about my experimentation with a long runs of 25 and 30 miles as opposed to the recommended long runs of most plans maxing out at 20 miles.  I promised to report results so here they are:  This year I ran the marathon in 3:58:59 unofficially (officially, they fucked up my time).  That is an improvement of four minutes and 29 seconds from last year.  Now on the surface this improvement is probably less than can be expected normally running your second marathon, however there were a number of other factors at play:

• The race was wet and windy this year.
• The race was bigger and I started further back contributing to a slower start.
• The base of running mileage was much less this year.  During the first week of April in 2010, I was able to run a 12-mile long run and about 22 miles for the week.  This year, I was only able to run about five miles at a time and a total of around 15 for the week.
• I wasn't any better running this race tactically than last year.  Last year, I picked up the pace in the middle of the race, this year I did the exact same thing.
• Because of injury and missed weeks of training, I aimed to run only slightly faster than last year.  If you don't intend on running significantly faster in a marathon it won't happen.

The Little Things

As much as I think everyone should exercise for hours on end everyday that's really not practical for many of us.  Additionally, there really isn't any reason why most sane people should do that much exercise.  There are however, little things that go a long way in maintaining health and fitness in normal people.

Let’s talk about the difference between health and fitness.  "Health" implies your bodies systems functioning normally, while "fitness" implies the ability to perform certain tasks.  You can be "healthy" in general while not being "fit" for a given task and visa versa.  A professional boxer is certainly fit, but there is nothing healthy about getting hit in the head for a living. 

Fitness is more specific and dependent on activity.  The fitness needs of a 25 year old NFL linebacker are different from that of a 50 year old marathon runner, a 35 year old playing pick up basketball, a 27 year old mother of a new born, or a 70 year old who just wants to bring groceries up their stairs.

What We Eat

Thank you Visual Economics for the great graphic (click here for the full size version).