8 Craziest "Exercises" I See In My Gym!

Today I’m going to share with you 8 of the dumbest exercises I see when I go to the gym. If you missed the first article on another of the 10 craziest exercises I have seen in the gym, you can check that out HERE. And let’s just say there are some pretty…’amazing’…exercises in that one!

For some of these exercises, the exercise itself might not be the worst possible thing you can do, but when you’re in a gym with so many other options, it starts to be a little ridiculous.

Exercise #1: Goblet Curl With A Dumbbell

Basically the way you do this exercise is you hold a dumbbell with your hands flat (supinated) and you start to curl with it up and down. The problem with this exercise is number one, it puts a ton of strain on your wrists and number two, you only feel anything in your biceps through a small portion of the overall movement. For a lot of the movement, you will just feel a strain on your wrists and shoulders as you go up and down. Then you can also have the dumbbell start to bounce off your chest a little bit, but the main point is if you’re in a gym and have access to, I don’t know, maybe TWO dumbbells or a barbell to do curls with, those are going to allow you to work through a bigger range of motion (ROM), lift much heavier weight and above all else, lift safely!

Exercise #2: Shoulder Press On Row Machine

There may be some instances where this will work, but on this machine it is very clear that as soon as your arm goes from the bottom of the movement to about 90 degrees, the weight kind of counter balances itself and goes back. The weight goes so high that if you lose control of it, that could come down and KILL SOMEBODY, or, you could simply hit yourself with the handle. I actually see this a lot and any time I do see someone doing this exercise, I immediately tell them to stop and let them know there is an easier way to do the same movement, if they just use dumbbells!

Exercise #3: Standing Oblique Crunch

This is actually one of my favorite exercises to do for obliques which you can do while holding a plate or a dumbbell. The only way you SHOULDN’T do it is by holding two plates or two dumbbells. If you’re going back and forth while holding the exact same weight in both hands, you’re basically counter balancing the weight and not having to work through the ROM. The whole point of this exercise is to go down really deep to focus on a stretch and a contraction as you come up and flex your core as hard as you can. You’re taking the core stability of out the equation if you’re using two plates or two dumbbells at the same time, so PLEASE, if you must do this exercise with two plates, put them both in ONE hand…or just use one heavy dumbbell!

Exercise #4: Smith Machine Leg Press

This exercise gained a lot of traction because a lot of people go on Instagram and their newest female IG crush says I got my booty from doing this BS exercise and other BS exercises that barely put any resistance on the glutes whatsoever because they’re weird movements like this. Aside from being EXTREMELY dangerous, you’re putting the barbell either towards the top of your foot or in the middle of your foot, which is not a mechanically advantageous position to be in. You want to be pushing through your heels in order to maximize the amount of weight you can lift on this, as pushing through the ball of your foot is doing nothing for you. I guess the bar isn’t going to go all the way down to the point where it might crush your face or your stomach, but if you do lose your footing and the bar slams all the way down, you’re going to look even dumber than how you were doing the actual exercise.

Exercise #5: Chest Fly To Curl

This is an exercise that you see dudes do who don’t understand that a chest fly is not an exercise where you’re supposed to be able to do the entire stack. The chest fly is a movement where you’re supposed to be really able to FEEL the contraction in your chest. The only way you’re going to be able to do that is if you’re flying with weight you can actually handle. When you start to lift too heavy, you do a chest fly for about half of the movement, then when you get about halfway, it turns into a biceps curl. So if you’re currently doing this, all you’ve got to do is lower the weight and your chest gains are going to go through the roof.

Exercise #6: Hip Thrust On Leg Curl Machine

When you do the hip thrust, whether you’re doing a hip thrust or a glute bridge (that I recently made an article about, which you can read HERE), you have got to have hip HYPER-EXTENSION with the bar on your thighs, basically pressing into your femurs and you have to be able to load it with weight that you can handle. The ROM on a leg curl or a leg extension machine is not going to put you in an advantageous position to where you can lift as much weight as possible and get that hip hyper-extension. So don’t do this, you’re better off going on the floor and doing this exercise with your bodyweight. By the way, I really didn't want to lose any subscribers in my gym by showing this "exercise" myself, so I had my friend Cassidy demonstrate this one for me!

Exercise #7: Dumbbell Seated Calf Raise

This is an exercise where it’s not necessarily the worst thing you could do, but if you kind of apply a little common sense to the movement, you start to realize how ridiculous it is. The reason why I say it’s a bit ridiculous is because most people when they do this, they grab light dumbbells like 30lbs, 40lbs or 50lbs. But think about how much you weigh – I weigh 178lbs which means all day long my legs are used to carrying around 178lbs. Now, maybe doing a standing calf raise with both feet at the same time might not feel like it’s working the calves as much as I want it to, it’s still probably better than sitting down and putting a 50lb dumbbell on my knee. You’re better off standing and doing calf raises on a single leg. So put the dumbbell away (just because you’re in a gym doesn’t mean you have to use them) and just do them standing with both feet, just one foot, or standing holding that dumbbell in your hand.

Exercise #8: Chest Fly To Leg Press

This one was saved for last for a reason, because it REALLY puts the cherry on top of the cake! One thing I want to say about this is, you’re not next level functional training here. You’re next level about to kill yourself. First of all, you’re not in the correct position to be doing a chest fly, because the seat position on a leg press is way too high to be doing anything like that. Also, there’s no way you’re going to be able to press enough weight with your legs while also trying to focus on opening and closing your arms at the same time, you’re just going to be all over the place mentally. When you’re doing a leg press, you’re focusing ONLY on the leg press, getting full ROM and lifting as much weight as possible. Not to mention the co-ordination that goes into this exercise, it took me a few tries to actually get the co-ordination right! And while the exercise felt OK while I was doing it and a few people were watching me thinking they might try it, I immediately went and told them NOT to do it when I was finished!

Conclusion

There you have it, those are my 8 dumbest exercises I see in the gym! And if I ever catch you doing any of these exercises, or any of the exercises from my article on 10 other crazy exercises I’ve seen, you better watch out!