You’re about to be very surprised at the types of exercises that women should avoid. The reason is that they are far more common than you might think, and the odds are that you’ve done them before and may even include them as a part of your current workout. Naturally, every person is different. Your workout should reflect your own fitness level and goals. That said, on the whole, there are certain movements that risk more harm than good.
Learning the Top Exercises That Women Should Avoid
For the most part, women exercise with two things in mind: one is losing weight, and the other is muscle tone. Naturally, there are far more reasons than this. Health and wellness, overall strength, and the sheer enjoyment of setting and pursuing a goal are also common reasons. However, gym surveys have identified those two appearance-based reasons as top motivators.
Female bone mass is thinner than guys’ bone mass, and women have a different fat distribution. Male and female muscle mass also differ. There are a lot of things to consider before a woman engages in any workout activity, and here we will discuss the 5 exercises that women should avoid. But have no fear, you can still get an awesome workout in the interim. You will just avoid injury and counterproductive exercises that would actually sabotage your workout efforts.
Here Are 5 Exercises That Women Should Avoid
Whether you see other women, or you see men adding these to their workout, think twice before you decide to participate. Talk to your doctor or a personal trainer experienced in women’s workouts and you’ll likely discover that none of these options are included in their recommended routines. Instead, they’ll typically either tell you that these are exercises that women should avoid or that they simply don’t recommend them when there are so many better options available.
Pull Downs
The behind-the-neck variety of pull downs will cause you to shift your alignment. This is the way we generally tend to do things like tear rotator cuffs and split ligaments, which are significant injuries. Beware as well that you are not hitting your neck with the neck bar and injuring a vertebra. With so many different types of injury easily possible with this type of movement, it’s no wonder why this is one of the exercises that women should avoid. For the limited benefits it can provide, it’s not worth the type of pain and lengthy recovery time – and associated setbacks – that it could cause.
Shoulder Presses
For similar reasons, behind-the-neck shoulder presses are another of the exercises that women should avoid. This will injure shoulder blades and lateral muscles as well as the smaller muscles that can tear around the shoulder blades. This is more a man’s exercise because typical male strength and muscle mass are very different than for women, and the greater density of muscle in men helps them compensate better.
Standing Row
This is the exercise in which you stand and pull the bar up to your chin. This is something that is detrimental to your back on so many different levels. For one, it will strain the shoulder blades, causing them to pull on your spine. This causes pinched nerves. If you’ve ever experienced the type of injury associated with pinching a nerve from a standing row, you’ll quickly realize that this is one of the exercises that women should avoid, and you’ll never look back at it again.
Leg Presses
These are meant to help the quads and hamstrings. However, there are floor exercises and free weights you can use for this instead; they are online everywhere. This exercise is so bad for the discs of the back. If you insist on doing this exercise, then consult a trainer about how deep your knees should be bent, because this makes all the difference.
Sit Ups
Oh no! Not sit ups! Yes, the tried and true. This is such a misunderstood exercise. People think they’re harmless but sit ups have resulted in injury to the lumbar spine and can rupture discs. The good news is that most people don’t like doing sit ups in the first place. Consider this your opportunity to be off the hook from ever doing them again. There are lots of other types of movements that can engage your core without placing such strain on your spine.
Replacing the Exercises That Women Should Avoid
These exercises that women should avoid in general nonetheless offer plenty of possible modifications to suit you–so women, too, can have an optimal workout! If you’re looking for alternatives, speak with a personal trainer. Even if you start with a single session just to get the guidance you need, you’ll find that it is well worth the expert recommendations.
