Avoid These Fitness Time-Wasters - 8 Exercises and Gym Machines That Aren’t Worth the Effort

Putting a lot of time into your exercise routine without getting the results you want? Maybe you’ve been doing the wrong exercises. Some popular moves won’t give you the benefits you expect, while others actually increase your risk of injury. Read on to learn about the eight moves and gym machines you should skip – along with replacements that will get you fitter faster… It’s tough enough to fit exercise into your busy schedule – why waste time at the gym once you get there? While some exercises and gym machines give you good returns on your investment of time and energy, others just aren’t worth the trouble. To maximize your fitness routine, you’ll need to get rid of moves that don’t provide the benefits you want – whether it’s calorie-burning, strengthening or toning – and replace them with ones that do. “There are few ‘bad’ exercises, but some moves are simply better than others,” says women’s fitness expert Brad Schoenfeld, CSCS, author of Sculpting Her Body Perfect (Human Kinetics Publications). As a general rule, exercises that promise to burn excess fat in a particular part of the body don’t work, says exercise physiologist Alice Burron, a spokesperson for the American Council on Exercise (ACE). “Women like the idea of targeting a specific area, but you can’t spot reduce. Besides, just focusing on one area can create muscle imbalances that put you at risk for injury,” Burron says. So before you lift that weight or pull that cable, find out what top fitness pros say about the moves and gym machines that are a waste of your time (some may surprise you) – and learn what you should do instead. Fitness time-waster #1: Seated inner/outer thigh machine (abductor/adductor machine) Why: “Most women use these gym machines thinking they’ll lose fat on their thighs and hips, but it won’t happen,” says Mark Nutting, CSCS, the National Sports and Conditioning Association’s 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year. “They don’t work these stabilizer muscles in the way we [actually] use them.” What to do instead: Reducing the fat on your thighs requires overall fat loss – which you achieve through a general program of diet and exercise, says Nutting. For toning, “target these muscles with lunges, especially side lunges,” Nutting says. How to do side lunges: Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, hands on hips. Contract your core and abdominal muscles. Step out sideways with your right leg as if lunging to catch a fly ball; land with your right knee bent, toes pointing to 2 o’clock. Keep your left leg straight, eyes facing forward. Push off from your right foot to return to starting position. Repeat up to 15 times and switch sides. Fitness time-waster #2: Twisting and rotating with a stick behind your head Why: You may feel as if you’re whittling away your waist, but this actually accomplishes very little. “You can do a million of these, but there’s no resistance, no effort required and no slimming of the waist,” Nutting says. In order to improve core muscles, you need to work against gravity or some kind of resistance, he says. What to do instead: A more functional choice would be standing wood chops with a medicine ball (hold it down to the side and move it up, diagonally, across your body, then back again), Nutting says. Or else try side planks. How to do side planks: Lying on your side, prop yourself up on your elbow, keeping legs straight and feet stacked on top of each other. Contract your abdominal muscles and raise your hips off the ground until your body forms a straight line. Hold for 20-30 seconds, gradually increasing time as you gain strength. Switch sides and repeat. Fitness time-waster #3: Triceps kickbacks Why: Women believe this exercise, in which you hold a dumbbell and extend your arm back behind you, gets rid of dangling skin of the upper arm. But it doesn’t, says Juan Carlos “JC” Santana CSCS, director of the Institute of Human Performance, a training facility in Boca Raton, Fla. It’s difficult to perform this move with enough weight and with proper form, says Santana. “Kickbacks won’t contribute to the two things you need: muscle growth and fat reduction,” he says. What to do instead: For fat-burning and arm strength, do more efficient triceps exercises such as dips. How to do dips: Sit in front of a step (or bench). Place hands behind you on the step, palms facing backward. Keep feet flat on the ground, knees at a 45-degree angle. Lift your upper body by straightening your arms. Lower your body until upper arms are parallel to the step; push back up to repeat. Fitness time-waster #4: Dumbbell “chest flyes” performed in group classes Why: A popular move in aerobics classes, this consists of holding dumbbells up and out to the side and bringing them in toward your chest. It works the shoulders, but you’d have to be lying on your back for it to do anything for your chest, says Schoenfeld. “Gravity isn’t horizontal,” he says. “This move goes against the laws of physics.” What to do instead: Lie back on a bench or a stability ball and do a real flye: Hold dumbbells out to your sides, palms up, and lift them, with arms just slightly bent, until they come together over your chest. You can do this on the floor if necessary, but that puts some restrictions on your range of motion, Schoenfeld says. Fitness time-waster #5: Calf-raise machine Why: These popular gym machines place weight on your shoulders as you rise up and down on the balls of your feet. While this can help develop shapely calves, “the weight on your shoulders causes spinal compression,” Burron says. “This can be dangerous, especially for women with osteopenia or osteoporosis.” What to do instead: Doing calf raises against a wall, and using gravity for resistance, will bring results without weight pressing down on your spine. How to do standing calf raises: Stand facing a wall approximately 2 feet away. Place your hands against the wall in a push-up position. Keeping your body straight and your heels on the ground, lean in toward the wall. You should feel a stretch throughout your calves. Now, raise yourself up on the balls of your feet. Pause, then slowly lower back down. Repeat 15 times. Fitness time-waster #6: Leg-extension machine Why: In this quadriceps-strengthening machine, you sit with legs bent, then lift a weighted bar with ankles as you straighten the legs in front of you. Unfortunately, that puts a lot of stress on knees, Burron says. And you’d be highly unlikely to move this way in real life. “For that reason, it’s not a functional move,” Burron says. What to do instead: Squats and lunges strengthen quadriceps, glutes and hamstrings, and they mimic moves you’d actually perform throughout your day (such as when lifting a child off the floor). How to do a simple squat: Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and place hands behind your head, lightly touching fingertips together. Keep eyes focused straight ahead and abdominal muscles tightened. Keeping heels on the ground, bend at the hips and knees and lower yourself into a squat position (with knees at about a 90°angle over your ankles). Pause and slowly rise back up. Fitness time-waster #7: Alternating “Superman” maneuver Why: In this popular back-strengthening exercise, you kneel on all fours and raise opposite-side arms and legs alternately. “The problem is your legs are much heavier than your arms, so raising an arm and leg makes it likely you’ll twist your torso, which puts stress on the spine.” Schoenfeld says. What to do instead: Here’s how to perform a regular Superman: Lie face down on the floor, legs together and straight, arms straight and extended over your head – as if you were flying like Superman. Keeping torso stationary, simultaneously lift your arms and legs up toward the ceiling to form a gentle curve in your body. Hold for a slow 20-30 count. Fitness time-waster #8: Seated ab curl machine Why: It’s easy to load up the weight on these gym machines, so you feel as if you’re really strengthening your abs. But that’s misleading. “Generally, any machine you have to climb into makes it less likely people will do it properly,” Burron says. “You have to adjust it perfectly for your anatomy, and most people don’t have the time or knowledge to do it.” That makes it more likely that you won’t see results or, worse, that you’ll be injured. What to do instead: Planks, side planks, ab curls and other machine-free core exercises will eliminate the issue of proper fit, making it more likely you’ll be successful, Burron says. What’s Your Fitness Style? There are specific aspects of your personality that determine what kind of exerciser you are, so if you're in a fitness rut, it's time to put your unique interests back into the equation.