Worst exercise you've seen

[RearAdmiral]

Yesterday in the gym I was doing some lowbar squats with a new gym buddy. In the opposite rack some guy pulls up with one of those largish blue hemispherical balls with the flat black surface on the bottom. I use these for ankle strengthening exercises. He then proceeds to flip it over so the ball is on the bottom and he starts doing squats with just the bar while precariously balancing on this ball.

I thought this was silly albeit not too dangerous given only the bar weight. So I do another set, turn around and see this guy squatting with 45 plates on it now! That is still not a lot of weight but he is squatting and doing this balancing act at the same time. I think I felt my own knee ligaments shooting across the room. Isn't this a super bad idea? Isn't the whole point of squats to have a very strong, stable form/foundation to ya know, control the weight.

What bad stuff have you seen?

 

[darkxshade]

It's called a bosu ball. Not surprisingly, I have seen people do that too. I've seen them do it on balance boards as well. It's dangerous and stupid and I have no idea how they learned this or who's teaching it to them.

 

[RagingBITCH]

Bosu ball. It's great for working on stability, which most people really are quite poor on. I do body weight squats only on it as part of rehab, so it's not beyond comprehension to expect to do them weighted. How much weight is a different story though.

 

[purbeast0]

the odd part is i typically see the people doing these "bad" exercises who are new to the gym or out of shape. you never see the strong/big/cut guys doing these things. so where do they learn to do these things?

when i first started lifting, i basically watched what the strong/cut guys were doing and tried to do what they do. they obviously were doing something right to look like that.

 

[Saint Nick]

the odd part is i typically see the people doing these "bad" exercises who are new to the gym or out of shape. you never see the strong/big/cut guys doing these things. so where do they learn to do these things?

when i first started lifting, i basically watched what the strong/cut guys were doing and tried to do what they do. they obviously were doing something right to look like that.

Crossfitters

 

[blackdogdeek]

This is pretty crazy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fO1zuBCMQ0

This is also pretty crazy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwsEdKxYKeY

 

[Insomniator]

This is pretty crazy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fO1zuBCMQ0

There are so many ways to train every part of your body. I can't believe there are idiots that try to find the most dangerous possibly way of doing so.

It seems like the human body is too tough for its own good, we need people to break bones and tear ligaments easier so that they don't try this stupid crap and also actually work on form once in a while for normal lifts..

 

[Wyndru]

Mehdi posted an image of this in his StrongLifts pdf guide.

Fitocracy also just posted a picture of someone doing the same thing balancing on the edge of dumbbells. People do some strange stuff.

 

[Saint Nick]

Mehdi posted an image of this in his StrongLifts pdf guide.

Fitocracy also just posted a picture of someone doing the same thing balancing on the edge of dumbbells. People do some strange stuff.

I love this image. Looks like he is pushing up through his toes. That'll feel nice on the knees

 

[purbeast0]

This is pretty crazy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fO1zuBCMQ0

This is also pretty crazy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwsEdKxYKeY

lol @ 2nd video!

 

[tedrodai]

I feel like I'm getting off topic. This isn't the worst exercise I've seen, just:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=iSIcmKCZNQo&feature=endscreen

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Body weight squats (both double and single leg) on a Bosu ball are a great stabilizing exercise for the hip musculature and core. Doing it with weight is stupid, has no real added benefits, and exponentially increases risk of injury. The worst thing I've seen is using the chest fly machine - people letting their arms go back as far as possible, putting their shoulder in a terrible position, likely of subluxing. I can't stand that machine.

 

[classy]

It's called a bosu ball. Not surprisingly, I have seen people do that too. I've seen them do it on balance boards as well. It's dangerous and stupid and I have no idea how they learned this or who's teaching it to them.

I have never seen this before, but it sounds incredibly dumb.

 

[classy]

I still don't get not lowering the bar all the way down to your chest while benching. I shouldn't laugh but I do. I have seen guys loading up 275 and lowering the bar half way. I know the concept though, but most of the guys have like zero chest devevlopment that do that.

 

[TecHNooB]

before I knew it was called a 'good morning', i thought it was a terrible idea and a one way trip to backsnap city. doing good mornings with light weight is ok.. but some ppl go in excess of 300 lbs. my back hurts just thinking about it.

 

[iluvdeal]

This is pretty crazy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fO1zuBCMQ0

I was expecting a Darwin award there. I gotta believe most if not all commercial gyms would kick out anyone attempting to do barbell squats on a swiss ball, that's just nuts.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

I hate those people on the rowing machines who mangle the technique.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP6OR-G7AxM

I've seen pretty much all of these, and only about 2 people who have the technique even resembling alright.

 

[JackBurton]

I was going to mention the moronic ball squat exercise, but I see that was already covered. The next worse one was an instructor guiding a noob by turning a 20 lbs dumbbell (not sure exactly the weight, but it was a small dumbbell) on its side, and then having him stand and balance on it with one foot. I was like, you f@cking idiot, you should be fired. That's the stupidest crap I've seen.

 

[RearAdmiral]

I still don't get not lowering the bar all the way down to your chest while benching. I shouldn't laugh but I do. I have seen guys loading up 275 and lowering the bar half way. I know the concept though, but most of the guys have like zero chest devevlopment that do that.

Bro, I lift like 315. Off the rack then back on the rack. Half benching is silly.

 

[RearAdmiral]

the odd part is i typically see the people doing these "bad" exercises who are new to the gym or out of shape. you never see the strong/big/cut guys doing these things. so where do they learn to do these things?

when i first started lifting, i basically watched what the strong/cut guys were doing and tried to do what they do. they obviously were doing something right to look like that.

The thing was is that the guy was clearly in really good shape.

 

[classy]

Bro, I lift like 315. Off the rack then back on the rack. Half benching is silly.

I am 325 max, clean. I use perfect form and I don't bounce or raise my back off the bench much either. Kinda stuck there though. I think I can hit 335 by spring though, I hope. I don't take off the rack by myself though after 295, .

 

[RearAdmiral]

I am 325 max, clean. I use perfect form and I don't bounce or raise my back off the bench much either. Kinda stuck there though. I think I can hit 335 by spring though, I hope. I don't take off the rack by myself though after 295, .

I was joking there. I meant take the weight off the rack and just place it back.

I did 230 clean the other day, new best over 225!

 

[JackBurton]

I am 325 max, clean. I use perfect form and I don't bounce or raise my back off the bench much either. Kinda stuck there though. I think I can hit 335 by spring though, I hope. I don't take off the rack by myself though after 295, .

I'm also a big stickler on form. It's clean, or it's no good in my book. You see the same thing on the squat rack. I saw a little guy load up 405lbs on the bar, and I sat back and said, "I gotta see how this goes." Sure enough, he was barely able to unrack it, and when he did his "squats" he barely bent his knees and then came back up.

 

[Whisper]

I'm also a big stickler on form. It's clean, or it's no good in my book. You see the same thing on the squat rack. I saw a little guy load up 405lbs on the bar, and I sat back and said, "I gotta see how this goes." Sure enough, he was barely able to unrack it, and when he did his "squats" he barely bent his knees and then came back up.

Squats and bench press are the two worst offenders I've seen for this, probably because people are way more obsessed with the raw numbers than they are with being sure they're lifting it correctly. I see plenty of half-rep bench presses, but the ones who actively (and sometimes violently) bounce it off their chests are even worse...it hurts me just to watch. I also squirm a little inside when I see people deadlifting with a completely rounded back, but that's just me.

I'm trying to remember the worst I've ever seen, but I can't recall the specifics. I know it involved not just balancing on top of a fitness ball, but something even more extreme than that. Like balancing on top of something that was on top of the fitness ball.

That same guy also just liked doing every single one of his exercises on top of a fitness ball, though. Squats, curls, standing dumbbell military press; you name it, he did it on a fitness ball.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

This has got to be staged:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZUK1EIQ9r0