Overrated and Underrated Exercises: Part III

Installment # 3 in this series is here.  Just as I did in the previous overrated/underrated posts, I’ll start off by explaining what I mean by “overrated” and “underrated,” when it comes to exercise selection…  I think Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time.  BUT, if the general public was to make this statement; “You give me Michael Jordan with 4 guys off the street, and I’d take Jordan’s team in 6 games over the ‘86 Celtics.”  Well, IF that was the thinking of the majority of people, then I’d have to say that even Michael Jordan is overrated!  So, if one of your favorite exercises gets tossed in the overrated category, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should never perform that exercise again, and/or call me mean names.  It just means that in my opinion, this particular exercise is way overused by the majority of  trainees, often times at the expense of  an exercise that could be a much better option.

Bulgarian Split Squats

Out of the hundreds of clients that I have trained over the years, I believe I’ve had 2, maybe 3 of them say; “We have bulgarian split squats today?  Yes!”  This is an exercise that is generally NOT a crowd pleaser.  Why?  Because they are hard.  Yeah, but they are very effective.  Most of us don’t spend enough time performing unilateral (one leg at a time) exercises.  And bulgarian split squats are a must, if you are looking for big-bang-for-your-buck exercises.  To perform them, keep your chest high, abs tight, and the weight on the heel of the down (working) leg.  Do not add weight until you are able to get nice and deep (hip down to knee height) on each rep.  The glutes come more into play the deeper you get.  If you want a nice round, firm booty, work on getting low!  Perform all reps on one leg, before switching legs.  It will look something like this…

 

Again, not enough people are using this movement in their training, and it is as very effective exercise.  Soooo …

Underrated!

Tricep Kickbacks

The tricep kickback – an exercise that I see people performing in the gym all the time.  And usually, it is a female using the 3-pound pink dumbbells.  To top if off, if I was to ask her; “what are your goals?”  She would probably respond; “to lose fat.”  Well, with such a little movement, and with such light weight, the tricep kickback is NOT going to burn a whole lot of calories.  Would I ever be ok with someone using this exercise?  Acutally, yes.  If you have put at least a couple of years into training and have gotten a lot bigger and stronger, then go ahead and throw in some kickbacks every once in awhile.  But if you are fairly new to training, and/or have a main goal of fat loss, do yourself a favor and ditch the tricep kickback. 

Definitely goes in the overrated category.

Going forward, make sure to include bulgarian split squats in your training!  And ask yourself; “with my experience and my goals, are tricep kickbacks a good choice for me?”  Only you can answer that, but make sure to keep my above comments in mind when making your decision.  Best of luck in accomplishing your goals!