The Top Five Dumbest Exercises

By Ian King

My motivation for writing this article is the continual damage to bodies and wasting of time and energy I witness on a daily basis. For the last thirty years I have worked in physical preparation to save people from damaging their bodies and wasting their time with inappropriate training methods and exercises. Perhaps naively I had expected the world to get smarter. Reluctantly I am concluding the world is getting dumber.

I am seeing a growth of literally dumb exercises. The only thing I am left to ponder is who is the dumbest – the people who promote these exercises or the people who do them? Because of my long service in this industry, I have an awareness of the origin and influences of many of these dumb movements. I have my theories as to why these exercises were promoted in the first instance in the manner they are. My theories are not always complimentary. I know the people who market them, and I have watched them throughout their career. I have formed my opinion as to their motivations, and it’s typically self-serving.

I have a number of concerns about what is going on here. When I see these authors promote these exercises, I call it marketing, not education. Their motive is to market themselves through perceived trends, not to truly educate you to fulfill your own greatness.

And tragically but of great significance, most of these marketer do not use these exercises themselves or with clients on a consistent or regular basis, and therefore have no idea what these exercises do.

I call this the first level of dumb.

What I am still struggling with is the dumbness of ‘professionals’ in this industry, those who read this crap and without using their god-given ability to discern, regurgitate this rubbish. Have we really lost that much of our thinking ability?

I call this the second level of dumb.

And then there are the end-users. Those who blindly do what ever else is doing. Why? Mainly, I suggest, because that is what everyone is doing. They ignore the pain. They ignore the lack of results. They accept the medical, drug and surgical solutions to the self-induced pain.

I call this the third level of dumb.

Now with all of what I do, I write with no intention of making friends. Popularity contests are for politicians, marketers and ego-attached individuals. I do write to serve your best interests. Will I succeed in saving people? Only at best in 5% of the cases, because the remaining 95% are doing the dumb things and will continue to do the dumb things whilst they see the majority doing the same. That probably won’t change.

Not only will I fail to make friends, I will make more enemies, as those who perceive a threat to their egos throw stones, and incite their ‘friends’ to do the same. Do I care? Not enough to remain silent like so many I know, afraid to speak out in the best-interests of others.

So here they are – my ‘Dumbest Exercises’ list!

These exercises are included because they are either extremely potentially damaging to the body, or because they are potentially an extreme waste of your time and energy. Or both.

The Walking Lunge

This exercise deserves its ranking. Let me clear this up first. It is in itself a legitimate strength exercise. And that’s where the problems lie. It’s being used as a warm up exercise. Wherever I turn – different sports, different levels of sport, different genders, different countries – the use of the walking lunge as part of the warm up has become epidemic, infiltrating geographical borders faster than an infectious disease. And as damaging!

The backward and forward lunge walks are exercises that stretch out the anterior hip while warming up all of the leg and hip extensors. The backward or forward lunge walk is one of the best dynamic warm-up drills but should not be included in the warm-up until athletes have done a week of single-leg strength work.

Firstly, it’s causing unnecessary wear and tear on the joints. This exercise used during the warm up goes through a range of movement at joint angles and with loads that are not appropriate from a joint health point of view. Relatively few strength athletes have the conditioning to do this exercise safely AFTER they are warmed. To see young kids do this is akin to knee genocide.

Secondly, it causes unnecessary metabolic fatigue. This is not appropriate during a warm up. Especially when, despite the claims, it is for most an irrelevant movement. It is not ‘specific’!

Thirdly, doing the lunge does not develop or maintain your flexibility! It robs it! Due to the demanding nature of the exercise, the ensuing muscle damage and recovery process causes short term shortening and tightening of the soft tissue, in my opinion. In the absence of appropriate recovery methods such as static stretching and massage to reverse this, and in the presence of repeated subsequent bouts of the same, a reduction in flexibly will result. Yes, I know the marketing for this exercise says differently. Trust me – those promoting the movement are unlikely to be doing it on a regular basis.

The Partial Co-Contraction Lunge

In 1998 I shared for the first time one of my many exercise innovations. I have named this exercise the co-contraction partial lunge. One of the most blatant and prolific copiers of my works republished this exercise with a switch of the order of the names, and a switch of the starting point of the exercise. The name switch is one thing, a technique I have seen this ‘author’ do with many of my concepts that involve two or more words. The reversal of the starting point of the exercise is where the greatest danger to the end user lies.

Let’s take a quite look at why I introduced the original version of this exercise. This movement was heavily influenced by chronic knee conditions, and specifically designed as either or both a pre-training preparatory movement aimed at raising joint temperature and lubrication, or a control drill to acutely and chronically reduce incidence and severity of knee joint pain through enhanced recruitment of the muscles of the hip and knee.

I recommended this movement be done before every leg workout along with other of my ‘control drills’.

So my original version starts at the top of the movement, as per this description from my 2000 book ‘How to Teach Strength Training Exercises’:

Stand with one foot forward, the other back.
Feet should be shoulder width apart.
Flat footed on front foot, rear foot on ball of toe.
Lower the hips about 6 inches (15 cm) or less depending upon what range you are able to perform the following : focus on recruiting the vastus medialis oblique (VMO) of the lead leg during both the eccentric and concentric phases.
Also focus on recruiting the gluteals of the lead leg. To facilitate this, place the fingers on the hand opposite of the lead leg on the VMO of the lead leg, with the intent of facilitating contraction. Place the fingers of the same side as lead leg hand on the gluteal of the lead leg for the same reason.
You may find that initially your ability to recruit through range is limited – so use only that range through which you can recruit to a satisfactory level.

The following pictures are from my 2000 How to Teach DVD:

Start position End position (approximately)

I first noted the copying of my exercise in a 2005 mainstream publication. After I got over the initial shock of seeing my exercise published by a former student who learnt the exercise directly from my teachings publish one of my innovations in the complete absence of ethical and professional referencing, I note with no surprise that I read the recommendation to:

Do a set of partial co-contraction lunges at the start of every workout.

Now for the ‘description’:

Start out in a lunge position–step forward with your right foot and lower your body until your front knee is bent 90 degrees and your lower leg is perpendicular to the floor. Place your left hand on the inside of your right thigh–the teardrop-shaped muscle (your vastus medialis)–and your right hand on your right glute. Now raise your back knee one inch off the floor. You’ll feel the vastus medialis and glute contract together-that’s the starting position [1]. From there, take three seconds to raise yourself up by extending both legs (as if you’re standing up from a lunge position), all the time feeling the tension in the two muscles [2]. The moment you lose the tension–in either muscle-pause where you are, then take three seconds to lower yourself back to the start position (one inch off the floor). That’s one rep.

Look familiar? But the outcome is not.

Let me make this very clear – the co-contraction partial lunge is an exercise and exercise name that I created specifically to assist prevention and rehabilitation of knee injuries. The imitation and reversal for the sake of reversal version, in my opinion, is damaging to the knee because it starts at the bottom.

In my opinion chronic use of this ‘reversal’ method in an asymptomatic knee would result in accelerated knee degeneration; and any symptomatic knee would likely experience pain in the short-term.

That’s really dumb.

The Single Leg Stiff-Legged Deadlift

In 1998 I shared for the first time another of my many exercise innovations I called ‘the single-leg stiff-legged deadlift’. This exercise was my uni-lateral answer to the conventional two legged or bilateral stiff-legged deadlift, another exercise outcome from my extensive personal and professional experience in rehabilitating knee injuries, and ensuring prevention of them and other such injuries.

This is how I described the exercise in my 1999 book Get Buffed!™

Stand on one leg – have the other foot off the ground, but kept roughly parallel with the leg doing the supporting. Bend the knee slightly, but that knee angle should not change during the exercise (get a partner to watch for this, as it will be tempting to do so!). Now bend at the waist, allowing the back to round and reach slowly towards the floor. If your range allows, touch the floor with the fingertips and return to the starting position. Use a speed of 3 seconds down, 1 sec pause at the ends, and 3 seconds up.

You may struggle with balance, but persist – you will be developing the muscles in the sole of the foot! The first time you do this you may find you are touching down with the non-supporting foot regularly to avoid falling over. This is ok, but in later workouts, try to minimize this. When you have mastered this exercise, and touching of the ground by the non-supporting leg means terminate the set – this is your challenge.

The following pictures are from my 2000 How to Teach DVD:

Start position End position (approximately)

Many years later I came upon this exercise, albeit with a slight name change to ‘one legged deadlift’ – published in a 2000 mainstream publication. One of the great disappointments for me was the realization that this ‘author’, at the time of the publishing, was in a student in our program and in regular email contact with me, seeking answers in email to many questions. It would have taken little effort to as much as ask for permission to re-publish my original innovation, or even advise the intent to do so. This absence of integrity I suggest indicates how high you, the end-users, needs will be placed in the scheme of this publishing.

Now because the 2000 version in the mainstream magazine contained a description that was not verbatim, some may question if it was a copy. Let me remove that doubt, with this description by the same author in 2003 and again 2005:

The first time you do this you may find you are touching done with the non-supporting foot regularly to avoid falling over. This is ok, but in later workouts, try to minimise this. When you have mastered this exercise, touching of the ground by the non-supporting leg means terminate the set – this is your challenge.

Look familiar? But the outcome is not.

It’s not an injury concern – but it is a time and energy concern and here’s why I say this. This ‘knock-off’ version is a significant misinterpretation of my intent, as I suggest it results in reduced load on the target muscle for two reasons:

The stretch on the working hamstring is reduced when the opposite pelvis is allowed to tilt up and back when the upper body is flexed forward: and
The weight of the leg that is moving acts as a counter load or ballast aiding to overcome the resistance or work being applied to the target leg.

Even if you aren’t perturbed by the values that an ‘author’ lives and publishes by, you might consider this – the knockoff version, even though worded verbatim in at least two subsequent publications by this other ‘author’, was demonstrated in the 2000 copy in a manner that was significantly technically different. You may note that the model in the 2000 Men’s Health photo shoot raised his back leg. Voila – a whole new exercise was developed! I have since seen this same ‘misinterpretation’ published by other ‘experts’. If only they really knew the origin – it’s a misinterpretation by a photographer and model in New York based on the abbreviated and edited down version of a copy of the original – what a mess! And people all around the world are doing this exercise….

The Prone Cobra

In the 1980s I quickly concluded that hyper-extending in a trunk extension can cause back discomfort, and as such I changed the use of the term from ‘hyper-extension’, as they were typically called, to ‘back extensions’, to expressly communicate that it was not an exercise involving hyperextension. Now I’m not one to jump on bandwagons of hyper-fear and reduce ranges of movement without substantiation. But it didn’t make sense to me, 30 years ago, and only a few years into my coaching career, to hyper-extend the lower back.

I was conducting a coaching course in our KSI Coach Program only a few years ago when a student coach shared his sample program. Amongst many ‘interesting’ exercises, was this one.

I asked the young coach how he found the exercise himself. He said he had never done it! I shouldn’t be too harsh on him – I suspect many of those promoting the movement either have never done it or haven’t done it too many times. If they had, I would expect even they would have realized the craziness of asking people to go into and hold positions of hyper extension!

Lie face down on a mat or carpeted floor and rest your arms at your sides, palms down. Contract the muscles in your glutes and lower back so that your upper torso and legs come off the floor. At the same time, rotate your arms externally so that your thumbs end up pointed toward the ceiling. Keep a neutral neck alignment. Hold this position for the desired time frame. If you cannot hold for the desired time, regress the exercise and hold for multiple reps with a 5-10 second hold. To progress the exercise, you can hold dumbbells in your hands, or perform it while balancing on a stability ball.

Now this exercise is not just hyper-extending the lower back – it also asks you to extend the thighs simultaneously – and hold that position! Now in my opinion that’s lower back suicide! In my opinion that’s dumb!

Sure there are people who can and even should do this – like circus contortionists…. Exposing the average person to this is anything but smart.

The Commando Crawl

When I first saw this exercise I wasn’t sure if the person was serious or taking the mickey out of their client. As a warm up exercise, this exercise suffers the same fate as the walking lunge, and the same infectious disease quality as it also – I am seeing it everywhere.

Like the walking lunge, it is an inappropriate exercise with regard to loading the shoulder joints early in the workout. It is also a demanding movement, and therefore has a questionable metabolic cost for a warm up – just like the walking lunge. And also, as per the walking lunge, all the rationale given for its inclusion makes no sense at all. It’s just another trend that dumb people recommend, and dumb people are willing to do.

Now if you were really a commando, preparing for warfare – fare enough. But in its current use – it is a really stupid exercise. Oh, if you wanted to practice looking for your car keys in the dark – that could be another role for it….

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First published – King, I., 2011, The Top Five Dumbest Exercises, coachking.net (Article)