For the gym rats trying to get shredded for summer, a fitness coach has revealed the exercises you may cut out of your routine.
Popular YouTuber and fitness guru Alain Gonzalez, who boasts greater than 800,000 subscribers, helps gym-goers maximize their movements.
“With the little bit of time we have now to coach, we would like to decide on the most effective movements to maximise our gains,” he said in a video posted to his channel.
Front raises, intended to reinforce the looks of the front deltoid muscles, could lead on to overdeveloped and unsightly muscles in that area and will even be “detrimental to your overall physique and your posture.”
In accordance with Gonzalez, isolating those front delts within the arms isn’t needed — we already activate them once we hunch over our keyboards or phones and have interaction them in other exercises that include pressing movements.
Dumbbell rotator cuff exercises are also “a waste of time,” he continued.
While strengthening the cuffs, positioned within the shoulders, is important to avoid injury, exercises that involve dumbbells specifically are inefficient.
That’s because, when holding dumbbells and standing upright, there’s resistance from gravity. Nevertheless, to strengthen the rotator cuff, resistance must be coming from the edges, not from below.
“The option to make this exercise effective with a dumbbell is to put in your side,” he said, adding that a cable machine or resistance bands can be a viable alternative.
Similarly, dumbbell kickbacks that isolate the triceps behind the arm are also ineffective.
“At the underside of the dumbbell kickback, there’s little resistance on the tricep,” he said, advising the usage of a cable machine. “Ultimately, only half of the range of motion places tension on the tricep, so half the time spent doing the exercises isn’t doing anything for the tricep.”
While machines and free weights are equally as effective at constructing muscle, from a “functional perspective,” Gonzalez argues that more control and balance are needed with free weights.
Smith machine squats, he said, are one example of that. While they’ve some advantages, performing squats with free weights is preferable.
“If there’s no reason so that you can not perform free weight barbell or dumbbell exercises, nearly all of your lifts must be performed with them,” he said, noting that machine exercises should wait until the tip of the workout.
Lastly, side bends with a heavy dumbbell in a single hand can add unwanted bulk to the abdomen, Gonzalez said, and have a brief range of motion.
As a substitute, he advises incorporating rotational movements to strengthen the spine, while also mimicking natural movements present in real life.
Side planks, he added, are another choice that protects the lower back from injury.
“The more we understand about muscle anatomy and biomechanics, the higher our exercise selection can be for training targeted muscles,” Gonzalez concluded his video. “Small adjustments revamped time will result in major improvements in the long term.”
