Never Do These Exercises Again
By Sara Butler
Exercise is great for your health, but not every exercise is as effective or as safe as it should be. In fact, some exercises can do more harm than good and some of those exercises happen to be quite popular. Here's a list of a few exercises you may want to take out of your exercise routine for the good of your spine.
Crunches
Crunches are totally old school. You probably remember doing them in gym class or in military training and boot camps, but there's something you should know: Crunches are very effective in building up your core strength but they're not that good for you either.
Your core muscles consist of several muscle groups in your abdominal region and their sole purpose is to help support and stabilize your body, allowing you to twist and bend as needed. Crunches put your body into a bad position as you round your shoulders, stretch your neck forward, and flex your spine. This all puts a lot of strain on your lower back. Needless to say, if you're doing crunches, you should stop.
An alternative to crunches that actually is effective is planks. This exercise strengthens your core muscles and helps you maintain healthy posture as you do it.
The Superman
If you've ever done a group exercise class, then you've probably seen Superman exercises. This exercise is meant to strengthen your lower back muscles, but the real problem is that it hyper-extends the lower back and puts a huge load on the lower part of the spine.
Leave Superman off your list and go with exercises that strengthen your entire trunk, front, and back. Strengthening these core muscles help to make your posture better, ultimately helping to take some stress and strain off your lower back.
Upright Rows
You've probably seen or done this exercise at the gym that is meant to target the shoulder muscles. Too bad that this exercise impinges your shoulder joints by forcing you to rotate your shoulders as you pull up weights in a poor position. This can lead to pain and discomfort down the road.
If you want to strengthen your shoulders, then overhead dumbbell presses are what you should do. This exercise targets your upper body without placing unnecessary stress on the joints.
If you have questions about the safety of your exercise routine, talk to the chiropractors at The Joint today!
To learn more about your health, wellness, and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Shreveport, La.