Brian White | Fitness

Personal trainers usually have an array of exercises in their arsenal, deploying specific ones for specific clients. There are thousands of movements and exercises that can be done to increase strength, flexibility and fat loss, and when deployed in a proper program can really increase the chances of success for a client.

There is no substitute for well-guided plan. If you watch an educated personal trainer work out on their own, you will definitely not see a few of the most common health-club exercises, and it’s for good reason.

They are either a waste of time or doing them can lead to injury. Let’s get into them.

1. Chest flys on a Pec Deck: If you are male, there is no doubt that you have used this machine in a health club. It feels so good and your chest gets such a good pump, so how can it be bad? Although it feels like a great way to effectively work the entire chest, it actually can overstretch the front of your shoulder and lead to a shoulder impingement.

My advice is to completely forget this machine and stick with dumbbell bench press, dumbbell inclines presses, and various push ups to build your chest and keep your shoulder joint healthy.

2. Seated hip abduction: If you are female, there is no doubt that you have used this machine in a health club. Because you are seated, it trains a movement with no functional use at all. I can’t think of anything that you will need to open your legs with as much force as a pro-wrestler, can you? Are you trying to have the world’s strongest jumping jack?

Most people mistakenly think this will shape their thighs and glutes, but there are way better alternatives. When you use this machine with a really heavy weight, you will also be tightening and strengthening your IT band, which can lead to outer knee pain too.

My advice stay far away from this exercise; don’t even look at it. Instead, do lateral lunges, hamstring ball rolls and resisted side steps.

3. Seated abdominal Rotation Machine: Everybody has love handles, so everybody has tried–admit it–this machine. This machine is all around bad news.

First, anyone who has sat on it has a goal of shrinking their love handles, yet no exercise on the planet will spot reduce body fat. Besides being a waste of time for the intended goal, the worst part is that it puts excessive twisting forces on your spine because your pelvis is locked in the seated position.

In fact, rotational exercises are extremely dangerous to the spine when done improperly. You need to keep your abs as tight as you can as you rotate or you risk too much force on your spine.

My advice would be to limit abdominal rotation exercises to one or two exercises a week and never with added weight. Oh, and stop thinking they will reduce your love handles.

4. The Smith Machine: You may have used this before as a regular part of your program, or maybe only because the squat rack next to it was already taken. Every health club has a Smith machine but there is no good reason to use it, unless you do not value your back or your knees.

A Smith machine seems to be a safe alternative to free weight squats, but in fact it’s the opposite. It puts undue stress on the knees because most people put their feet way out in front of the bar and it puts the back at risk because it doesn’t allow for the natural sway of a free-weight squat.

My advice is to leave this machine alone and stick with the squat rack. If you are not ready for full barbell squats, then stick to body weight squats or goblet squats until you are strong enough.

One more piece of advice: make sure you understand proper form and the biomechanics of any given exercise before trying it. The gym is supposed to build a stronger, more powerful and vibrant individual, it isn’t supposed to break your body down and weaken it.

—Brian White owns BWF, San Diego’s Premier Training Service located in Hillcrest. He runs boot camps in Balboa Park and trains clients in Diverge Gym. Go to youshouldbedoingit.com to read his blog, or take his seven-day video challenge to get back into healthy habits. Contact Brian at [email protected] or on his website.