If you read The Bro's Guide to 5 Gym Mistakes, hopefully you won't be making those mistakes anymore.  It is my goal to help you understand not only which exercises are BAD for you, but to help you learn which ones give you a better result.  Here are 5 MORE exercises that you should not be doing.  They are ineffective, a waste of time and sometimes downright injurious.  

"Hey Bro, I'm gonna rip up my Pecs".  Well, unlikely.  But you could very well being ripping up your shoulder joint, one of the most unstable joints in the body.  

The Pec Deck, also known as the Machine Fly, puts a ton of stress on the front of the shoulder while also shortening and tightening the muscles on the back of the shoulder.  The result can be shoulder impingement syndrome.
Not so great.  

"But I get more out of this than anything - it really hits the Pecs super-hard".

Wrong again.  A peer-reviewed study out of Truman State University has shown that the Pectoralis muscles contract 23% less of the time when doing this exercise than when test subjects did flat bench presses.  So, stop wasting your time and putting your shoulder joint at risk!!!

Hey, bro, if you're doing this exercise, I feel very, very sorry for you.  It not only LOOKS ridiculous, it IS ridiculous.  I'm not making any judgments here (well, maybe just a little), but this machine is completely useless.  Save that contraption for your next appointment with the gynecologist.  

Whether you are pressing your legs out (Hip Abduction) or in (Hip Adduction), you are wasting your time. 

There is nothing even remotely like this motion in real life.  If works primarily the stabilizers of the hip that work all day long anyway, anytime you are standing up.  It misses all of the other muscles that we actually use to move, like the Glutes, Hamstrings and Quads.  

Plus, being locked in a seated posture may cause a pulling on the spine which could result in back spasms, or worse, bulging or herniated disks.  Not good, dude.  

To work your Abductors and Adductors effectively, do these motions in standing, with a band or cable attached to your ankle.  Or even better, do lateral and cross-over lunges for a really effective workout of these muscles and the prime movers of the body and a MUCH higher metabolic effect.

I hope you have found this information helpful and that if you were doing any of these ineffective or risky exercises, this will help you to make some better choices.  I always have my eyes open at the gym and some of the dudes just insist on doing stupid things.  I'll write more about them in a future post.  

We've all seen him in the gym.  The bro-dude who walks into to the gym and right to the dumbbell stack, picks up 60s and does "biceps curls" like he's having a seizure.  He's actually targeting just about everything EXCEPT for his biceps, especially his lower back which is about to throw a disc across the gym.  

In an effort to keep more people from being THAT guy, here are 5 really, really, really stupid exercises that the bro-dude does all the time, but shouldn't.  And neither should you.  

The point of doing a strength training exercise is to strengthen and grow the muscles that you are targeting, and to do so in the most effective and safe way possible.  The following exercises fail on all counts - they do very little to actually add strength or size to the muscles and possibly put the exerciser at risk for injury, derailing any progress they might make with time off for surgery, physical therapy or just a need for rest, ice and Advil.  

BRO MISTAKE #1

The Smith Machine is one of the worst pieces of equipment ever invented.  Nonetheless, we see it all the time - there is one in just about every gym - with a line of guys ready to throw 405 pounds on and do squats that shut down the hamstrings and glutes, and put a ton of stress through the knee joint.  

Because this machine does not allow the body to move the way it naturally should, it puts a tremendous amount of shearing force through the knee which can lead to damage to the discs that work as cushions between the upper and lower bones of the leg.  In addition to stressing the knee joint, this machine does not allow the lower back to move in a natural and supportive way and can also cause back pain and disc problems. This machine moves through the same motion whether the exerciser is 5'3" or 6'4" - how could that possibly provide for a natural movement?  

SMART FIX 

Instead of this arcane device, do squats and lunges with dumbbells or a barbell.  These movements have a list of advantages over the Smith Machine.  They target all of the lower body muscles more effectively, not just the quadriceps, and strengthen supporting muscles including the abdominals.  

BRO MISTAKE #2 

"Hey bro, let me work in on that Preacher Bench.  I'm gonna rip up my biceps".  

Well, no, but you will probably rip up your shoulder joint and rotator cuff.  

The Preacher Curl is another popular exercise that you shouldn't be doing. The position of the arms with a protracted shoulder stretches the long head of the biceps (which goes into shoulder joint), so that when it quickly shortens, when you contract your biceps, it pulls on the shoulder capsule.  It is also this capsule that all of the rotator cuff muscles attach into and so it can injure these muscles as well.  Also, as the weight pulls you down and your arm pits get forced into the pad, you can impinge your Brachial Plexus, which contains all the nerves going into your arm and hand.  You'll know what I'm talking about if you've ever done this exercise and then felt tingling or lack of feeling down your arm.  

SMART FIX

Instead, do Dumbbell Biceps Curls, starting with your hands facing each other at your sides and curl up while turning the weights so they are parallel to the floor at the top of the movement.  The Biceps Brachii is not just an elbow flexor; it also supinates (turns forward) the forearms.  If you neglect this secondary role of the biceps, you are missing out on half of what the exercise can do for your biceps.  Just make sure you tighten your abdominals so your body doesn't sway, move with control and keep your elbows at your sides (they should not come forward during this motion)

SMART FIX 

Instead of wasting your time on these laughable contraptions, do exercises that work your lower body by balancing the quadriceps, glutes and hamstrings - exercises like squats, lunges, jump squats, one-legged squats, dead lifts, Romanian split squats, etc.

BRO MISTAKE # 4

Doesn't this one look great for your neck and spine?  Nonetheless, I see people doing this "old-school" exercise in the gym every single day.  

Very few people have the range of motion in the rotator cuff required to complete this exercise without risking injury.  It forces the shoulder into an unnatural alignment, allowing for impingement, tendonitis, bursitis, you name it.  

And then there is the forcing of the neck forward which can cause bulges or herniations in the cervical spine.  And when you load up too much weight, and yank the thing down without control and it bangs into one of your vertebrae, well, ouch.  Serious damage requiring surgery can occur.  

This exercise should just never be done this way.  Never.  

BRO MISTAKE # 5

The basic crunch performed on the floor is just a really bad exercise.  It doesn't work the ab muscles through the strongest part of their range of motion and it puts a lot of stress on the spine.  About the only way to make it worse is to get into a weird torture device that forces your neck into an uncomfortable position and requires you to do the crunch against a weight stack.  Stupid and ineffective.  

I hope that these tips help to make you just a little more efficient and safer in the gym.  There are a host of other popular gym exercises that you should not be doing, and I'll write about 5 more of them next week.  Stay tuned.


Time to hit the gym, bro.  

From a nutritional standpoint, we want to employ a trick called carbohydrate manipulation. I call this “protein days”, and for most people I recommend doing two to three of these each week during this phase of the program. We will continue to eat small, frequent meals as recommended in my general nutrition plan – if you don't have a copy, you can find it on my web site's download page – the password is: metabolism (no caps). But on protein days, we will eliminate starchy carbohydrates, added sugars, fruits and alcohol. Because you are eating less (roughly one-third of our calories generally come from starchy carbs), we will want to eat more proteins, vegetables and lean dairy products. Fats are okay, too, but try to choose from the list of the best fats on page two of my nutrition guide.

Sugars (and the refined starchy carbs and processed foods that your body treats as sugars) are your body's preferred source of fuel. And the arch-enemy of fat loss. When we remove these from our diet, the body must turn to it's second choice for fuel – fat.   Now, this is a two-part process: the body must first be in a place hormonally where it is releasing fat from the fat cells, which is the case when the blood-sugar is stabilized because we have been eating small, frequent and balanced meals as suggested. When this is the case, and we remove the sugars, this trick works amazingly well for burning stored fat as fuel.

So, we're creating an environment in the body where maximal fat burning is possible. Now, we need to do the right kind of exercise to burn the fat. The focus of our exercise now shifts away from building muscle by lifting progressively heavy weights and turns to the kind of exercise that gets the heart rate up, often called High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT.  

At Empower Fitness during this phase, I have my clients do several types of exercise over the weeks (four to six) during which fat-loss is the primary focus. We do circuits of six to ten exercises interspersed with short intervals of cardio done on a treadmill or elliptical. We also do bodyweight exercises that incorporate functional movements and plyometrics, hitting various muscle group with three to five different movements in a row.  If you don't know any good workouts of this type, I suggest using a search engine and entering “HIIT”. You will find many options. Choose a few that work for you and start doing them, varying the workout each week. 

 This is also the best time in the program to increase your cardio, but lets be clear about what that means.  

This does not mean jogging for an hour on a treadmill or using an elliptical or exercise bike at a steady pace for a long period of time.  If this is how you do your cardio, it's time to put an end to that now - it will only  set into place a mechanism by which you actually ADD fat to your body.  

A great example of this mechanism taking place can be found in the many, many, many “over-aerobicizers” that I meet.  They tell me that they do an hour of cardio most days.  They tell me that they actually weigh about what they should.  And then they tell me that they are terrified of wearing a tank top or a swimming suit. 

Why is this?

It is because they are what I call “skinny fat”.  They spend so much time doing ineffective cardio that the energy they are burning is coming mainly from their muscle tissue, not the fat stored in adipose cells.  What this means is that they have blobs of blubbery soft fat hanging off their arms, thighs and midsections. 

The answer for them, of course, is that they need to add some muscle (as was discussed in the last newsletter) to their body if they want to start moving toward the leaner, more cut look that they desire.  And they need to be doing cardio in a more efficient way. 

Long, steady-state cardio is not effective if the goal is a leaner, tighter body.  It is not effective if you strive for something more like a “swimmer’s build” or a “gymnast’s body”. It just will not work. 

The third part of the strategy that will start you toward getting you body working FOR you is doing the RIGHT kind of cardio.

When done correctly, in the Interval Training style, you will be doing MUCH LESS cardio and getting much better results in terms of fat loss at the same time.

How is this possible?

Easy.  When you do steady-state cardio, you burn calories.  When you step off the treadmill or elliptical, you immediately STOP burning calories.  Also, a lot of the calories you burn do not come from your fat cells.

When you do Interval Training, you do it for a shorter time but you burn more calories, and when you finish doing it you continue to burn calories for hours, sometimes even up to twenty-four hours.  In fact, done correctly, a fifteen-minute HIIT workout will burn more calories than a one-hour, steady state workout. 

PLEASE NOTE:  If you have not been exercising recently or regularly, you may not be able to work that hard at first.  If that I the case, it’s okay.  You will work up to it as you get into better and better shape.  And, as always, consult your physician before you begin a new exercise program.  

On days when you are not doing the HIIT workouts, you can add fifteen to thirty minutes of cardio. It doesn't matter whether you use a treadmill, and elliptical or run outdoors, as long as it is done as interval training. If you need to review the specifics, you can find the “cardio” sheet on my web site's downloads page. Password, again, is: metabolism (no caps). The amount of cardio you will want to do will depend on how much fat you want to lose. Some people at this point are close to their goals and just changing the nutrition will have a big enough impact. For others, there is still a lot of desired fat loss and doing cardio on as many off-days as possible may be the best choice.
My clients, on average, lose 1-3 pounds per week during a fat-loss phase.  

As you close in on another summer and hopefully a new beach-ready “you”, remember to be thankful for what you have in your life and make a real and conscious effort to make improvements in those areas in which you feel you need it. So many things in life are about finding the right balance and I’m looking forward to helping you learn how to do that with your fitness goals this year.

Greg Rothman, MS PT, is a fitness professional, writer and the owner of Empower Fitness in NYC.  He received his Masters Degree in Physical Therapy from Columbia University and has twenty years of experience in the fitness and rehabilitation fields.  He believes that absolutely anyone can have the body of their dreams once they understand how to eat and exercise in a way that supports their goals.  It is his mission to Empower as many people as possible to do just that.  His “Recession-Proof” Fitness Programs are an affordable way to find dramatic physical change over the course of 10 weeks.  Greg is happy to hear from you if you have questions about any topic related to fitness or nutrition, and can be found at www.GetEmpoweredFitness.com.

Spring Is Here!   With a full three months of 2014 and the official beginning of Spring behind us, fitness is on everyone’s mind. Those who didn’t give up their New Year’s resolutions have redoubled their efforts, spending more time in the gym.


If you’re one of them, you have seen the number of people in your gym dwindle by a staggering 78%. That is the number given by many psychologists for the percentage of people who have given up or failed on their resolutions by the end of March. So, if you are one of them, I guess you could say that you are in good company. If you are one of the 22% who have stuck with your plans and are moving forward toward your goals, be proud of yourselves and carry on.

Achieving your fitness goals is not easy, but it is simple. Following the right nutrition program is an essential starting point. If you missed my last article,  which addressed nutrition, please go back and read it.

For most people, a leaner, more toned body is what is desired, the coveted swimmer’s build or gymnast’s body. So, many people want to know the best toning exercises. I want to be very clear and dispel a major myth in the fitness industry here: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A TONING EXERCISE. None.  Not low weights, high reps;  not "the three best exercises to tone the arms" article that was on the cover of whatever monthly magazine you read.  None.  Muscles can only grow or not grow when they are exposed to forces, like lifting weights.  They do not have a "tone" setting.  Done correctly, strength exercises will make muscles grow. In order for the body to appear leaner, more cut, we need to burn the fat that lies all around the muscle tissue. Bodies with muscle, in the absence of fat, are what we think of as “toned”.

Whether your goal is muscle building, fat loss or both, the first step should always be adding muscle by doing a strength and growth phase. Muscle is metabolically active and adding just a few pounds of muscle to your body will increase your metabolism so that more fat is burned from your body around the clock, even while you sleep. Once we add some strength and muscle to the body, the next step toward that sculpted swimmer’s or gymnast’s build is fat burning, coming up in the article that I will send out next week.  

In order to add muscle to the body in the most efficient way, there are only a few things that we have to do, but we have to do them very well. Muscle will grow only when subjected to a force (weight) at which the muscle reaches fatigue, also called Momentary Muscle Failure (MMF). So, if we are doing 12 repetitions of an exercise we should choose a weight at which we can complete 12 repetitions with good form but not 13 (or as close to that as possible).  

When a muscle reaches MMF, a process called Adaptation begins which causes the muscle to grow stronger and larger. This is similar to what happens when we go out into the sun which is at a certain strength for a certain length of time. The Melanin will cause our skin to grow darker in order to protect it from burning. It is much like this with muscle - there are signals which strengthen the muscle so that it is capable of lifting the weight to which it has been subjected.

What happens next? During the time we spend outside the gym between workouts, say 48 hours, the muscles adapt to the last workout by growing stronger and larger. If we were to come back to the gym for our next workout and lift the same weights for the same number of repetitions, no further growth would take place; the muscles are already capable of lifting at that intensity so no further adaptation would occur.  To go back to sun tan analogy, if we go outside the next day for the same amount of time, and the sun is at the same strength, our skin need not darken further.  This is where the next concept comes into play. In order to continue to grow stronger and add muscle to the body, the muscles must be subjected to a greater force (weight) each time we work out - This is called Progressive Resistance (PR).

From a conceptual standpoint, this is all we really need to know about how to gain strength and size. We just need the nuts and bolts of an exercise program to start the process. It is important to choose some of the best exercises for each part of the body, for each muscle or muscle group. This is the most efficient way to add muscle without spending hours and hours in the gym.  Choose big exercises that target multiple muscle groups like Squats, Lunges, Dead Lifts, Chest Presses, Lat Pulldowns, Rows, Overhead Presses, etc.  

The body can add muscle aggressively for 4-6 weeks for most people. We want to optimize muscle growth in this first phase of the exercise program so adding muscle is our only goal. Fat loss comes later for the reasons discussed above. If you try to add muscle and lose fat at the same time, you will not get very good results for either. The Chinese Proverb applies: ‘He who chases two rabbits catches none”.

There is one other important tool that a lot of people forget.   As we did with our nutrition, we want to track our exercise program as well. If we do not, we will never know exactly the right weights, sets and repetitions we should be doing to get the best results. So, create a simple workout sheet, bring it to the gym with you and track your numbers so that you will be able to progress from workout to workout and from week to week.  I cannot stress how important this is - not doing this is part of why so many people fail to get results in the gym.  Simple, but very true.  

If you are an experienced exerciser who gets great results in the gym, following the above tips will only improve your progress in the gym.  If you are newer to strength training or feel like you are fumbling and guessing in the gym, get in touch to learn about training with me or joining one of my 10-Week, Small-Group Programs. While getting dramatic results and moving quickly toward your fitness goals is NOT easy, I do make is very simple and doable for absolutely anybody.