The Five Most Exaggerated Exercises of All Time

Getting physically active is an important task that everyone should commit to themselves. It can prevent any serious diseases and will get you into tip top shape. After all, who does not want a healthy body?

While different exercises can really boost your metabolism that helps solve your weight gain miseries, there are exercise routines that can be so common and boring, making your workout less challenging and ineffective.

Below are five of the most exaggerated exercises that you are probably applying on your workout program. These workouts are based on Internet reports such as YouTube, Daily Health Post and LiveStrong, which supports all the information below.

Before we go directly to these exercises, I would like to reiterate that the information that you are about to read, doesn’t intend to discourage you in trying any of the routines below. Any exercises are good for your health, it is just a matter of right application and consistency.

So technically, overrated or exaggerated doesn’t necessarily mean that these exercises are ineffective and bad for your fitness program. Lets get back at the topic shall we…

Traditional crunches tops my list because of obvious reasons. People perceptions about crunches are so high, thinking that doing 100 crunches a day would instantly result in a six-pack abs. This isn’t the exact scenario people.

When you do ab crunches, it only targets one ab muscle group, not the whole middle core. Plus, incorrect crunches makes you more prone to injuries and stress. To support your back, ball exercises are much more ideal to achieve hard-core abs.

The ab and side plank is a perfect routine for both beginners and experts. It is even used in many other activities such as yoga and tai chi and aerobics. Planks are done by positioning your body to align in a straight alignment, basically similar to a push-up position.

Why ab and side plan one of the most exaggerated exercises? Well, doing planks doesn’t offer beginners the opportunity to challenge themselves as planks routines are commonly static, meaning that if you want to progress on your work, you need to challenge yourself more. At least, you need to ask your trainer how to improve your plank routines to see some positive results.

Hanging knee raise has become a popular exercise for beginners even though it is intended for seasoned lifters. Why? Because this exercise is extremely hard to do. You just don’t lift your legs in the air at will and expect great ab muscle result.

Hanging knee raise works your hips via different range of motion. You need to tilt your pelvis upward while lifting your legs high, high enough to workout your core. If you are a beginner and this routine is just like a walk in the park, then you will have all the advantages of this exercise. Otherwise, you can try other exercises using other tools such as a decline bench to workout your abs.

A fitness center wouldn’t be called a gym if there are no bench and leg press equipments. These two are the most common exercises that you probably see in any gym. However, these two are also the most overrated.

First, a bench press can indeed workout your chest perfectly to attain a good muscular front. But most people are too stagnant on the same bench press routines over and over again, making their workout so predictable while limiting your movements.

What you should do is to vary your workout position by using angles. You can also try using dumbbells instead of those ultra heavy barbells. Experts suggests that when you workout, avoid performing similar pressing exercises from a prone position as it makes harder for your muscles to develop.

What about the leg press? Experts suggests that leg press is not the best choice for a leg workout as most people thought. In fact, it is considered as the worst choice in most situations. How?

Leg press basically puts you in the middle, a wrong position for a lifters point of view. When lifting weight in a normal position, you avoid to lift with a rounded back because this gives you higher risk of injury.

The same goes when you are at leg press where you create more hip flexion when you start to position your feet higher. When this occurs, you quickly lose the natural lordotic curve of your lower back, making you prone to injuries. This is the reason why this exercise is completely not ideal for beginners.

A comparable workout to leg press, the seated knee extension exercise is designed to workout your lower body, particularly the quadriceps. However, the motion that this exercise offer, doesn’t jive well with the critics.

One shortcomings is that, it doesn’t influence any other body parts such as your core and other important muscles, so if you are looking for an exercise that can help build muscles to the entire body, then seated knee extension is not the best exercise to bet on. Truly a hyped and a much overrated routine that you can do if you are in a gym.

These exercises are considered exaggerated in different ways. But like I said, these are good workout routines that can help you lose weight and get in shape. If you think you need more challenges with regards to exercise, then you can consult a fitness professional to help you on that endeavor. For now, these simple but famous routines, are enough to get your weight loss program running.