Overrated and Underrated Exercises: Part II

In the first installment of overrated/underrated exercises, I covered bicep curls, and rows.  Just as I did in that article, 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, 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

Upright Rows

First, let me clarify.  I’m speaking about barbellupright rows in particular.  If you perform dumbell upright rows, you can adjust the plane of motion and grip, making this movement less risky.  Ok, back to barbell upright rows.

When you perform a barbell upright row, you are doing so with your humerus maximally interally rotated.  (palms facing towards your body, like the lady’s hands in the picture above)  This is especially problematic when you are abducting/flexing the humerus with this hand position, (pronated grip) which is exactly what is happening when you raise the bar towards your sternum.  Can upright rows contribute to better looking shoulders and traps?  Yes.  Does a snickers bar have protein in it?  Yes.  Do you see where I am going with this?  Just because there is some good that comes along with upright rows, (and snickers) there is also a whole lot of bad that could come your way.  So, my advice is to pick exercises for your shoulders like push presses, shoulder presses, and lateral raises.  Don’t forget, ANY exercise has the potential to be harmful.  But when looking at the risk:reward ratio of the barbell upright row, it just doesn’t make much sense to me to include these in my programming.

Conclusion: Barbell Upright Rows = Overrated

Single Leg RDL

The single RDL (Romanian Deadlift) is an exercise with many benefits.  It works the often neglected “posterior chain.” (back side of your body)  This single leg version obviously has you working one leg at a time.  This is important because single leg exercises work your stabilizers way more than a bilateral lower body exercise does.  Plus, the majority of sports are spent with one leg on the ground at once.  Even if sports aren’t your thing, RDLs do wonders for your butt and hamstrings, from an appearance perspective.  So, if you want to look better, perform better, and keep yourself healthy, I highly suggest incorporating the single leg RDL.  On the occassions that I go to a commercial gym to train, I rarely if ever, see people performing this exercise.  So, the single leg RDL gets a BIG, fat…Underrated.

In conculsion, if have been using the barbell upright row, please give this exercise a second thought.  And it’s time to add the single leg RDL into your toolbox.  You can’t, or shouldn’t, only perform exercises that work the “mirror muscles.”  You do have a backside of your body you know!