• Keep up to date with Ausbb via Twitter and Facebook. Please add us!
  • Join the Ausbb - Australian BodyBuilding forum

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact contact us.

    The Ausbb - Australian BodyBuilding forum is dedicated to no nonsense muscle and strength building. If you need advice that works, you have come to the right place. This forum focuses on building strength and muscle using the basics. You will also find that the Ausbb- Australian Bodybuilding Forum stresses encouragement and respect. Trolls and name calling are not allowed here. No matter what your personal goals are, you will be given effective advice that produces results.

    Please consider registering. It takes 30 seconds, and will allow you to get the most out of the forum.
Wide grip bench: kills my shoulders

Squats: fucks my knees

Bent over rows: ends up just being some weird hump the bar half row.

Close grip chins: elbow tendonitis.

GHR: never got anything out of it.

Basically still the same.

I'm back doing squats without pain.

Never do calves

Upright rows. Just don't feel worthwhile.
 
Worst exercises for me.. i don't think i have done one that's been bad, maybe except push ups, i fucking hate them.
 
I find that any arm isolation machines a waste of time (excluding cables). May as well do body weight stuff and have the benefit of working other muscle groups as well.
 
Two exercises that are problematic for me are:

Barbell Rows
Pull-Ups or Assisted Pull-Ups

I've tried a few different variations and still get bad pain in my wrist extensors and flexors.
No point doing either when I can get similar results from other rows and pulldowns.

In terms of worst exercises overall in my opinion.

Side Bends, thicken the waist depending on where you mind muscle contract, you lose taper.
DB Rotacuff Sides, absolutely stupid, people don't understand physics with this one. Cables are valuable however.

The main exercise that I question:

Standing DB Curls, inferior to seated exercises where you remain prone. Might be worth doing if done right.
 
Steve's naive comment makes me think about this...A lot of talk over the years as to which method of exercise is best;
dumbells
barbell
KBells
bodywieght
cables pin loaded
machine pin loaded
machine (leverage) plate loaded

the truth is that muscle cannot distinguish between the modes of exercise.

that being said finding the exercise where the biomechanics fit is critical, especially for the long haul.
on the topic of the long haul, I reckon one can reach their genetic potential in two years all things going well.

the consistency, the work and the exercise are critical for this to happen.
 
Burpees. The single most pertinent reason why I took up powerlifting and not crossfit. Well, that and its so phaggoty.
 
Nahs burpees are really good for the body, i like doing them because i hate them

7eb7d22b9ed77946ea057e993a307d8f.jpg
 
I find seated hamstring curls do nothing for me compared with lying or standing hamstring curls.

Any kind of shoulder presses seems to work my front delts more than side delts.

Free weight preacher curls don't do much for me but the machine preacher curls provides tension throughout the whole range of motion.
 
I find seated hamstring curls do nothing for me compared with lying or standing hamstring curls.

Any kind of shoulder presses seems to work my front delts more than side delts.

Free weight preacher curls don't do much for me but the machine preacher curls provides tension throughout the whole range of motion.

I'm the opposite with all but the middle one.
I get a better connection doing them seated, usually sitting on my hands so I can feel the hamstring itself....but I try to think of them as a wire pulling the leg around, seems to get the best contraction.

And my arms are generally too short for any machine preacher. Always find them uncomfortable. The compromise is moving a bench over to the cables and doing them that way but usually CBF.
 
Two exercises that are problematic for me are:

Barbell Rows
Pull-Ups or Assisted Pull-Ups

I've tried a few different variations and still get bad pain in my wrist extensors and flexors.
No point doing either when I can get similar results from other rows and pulldowns.

In terms of worst exercises overall in my opinion.

Side Bends, thicken the waist depending on where you mind muscle contract, you lose taper.
DB Rotacuff Sides, absolutely stupid, people don't understand physics with this one. Cables are valuable however.

The main exercise that I question:

Standing DB Curls, inferior to seated exercises where you remain prone. Might be worth doing if done right.
good call on this, it makes my brain explode whenever I see someone doing these
 
I don't find that preachers work, either machine or barbell. I feel them in my elbows and front delts, and nothing in between. Like whitey said, I think it's to do with arm lever length.

I went from using a lying hamstring curl at my old gym for 3 years to using a seated at my new gym, and it felt horrible. I've played around with the adjustment settings and made it sort of ok, but it just doesn't feel right. You're contracting your hamstrings, yet you're sitting on them, getting squished into the seat. It's just a bad design.
 
Lighten the load ;)

I find a lot of people go too heavy (same with leg extensions) and are wriggling all over the seat trying to move the weight.
Also try doing one leg at a time.
Have you tried using the leg extension machine standing up? Or cables with the ghey ankle strap? Or a db between your feet, lying the wrong way on a decline bench....lots of ways to improvise

I really like the Nordic/GHR movement at the moment for hamstrings though. No GHR at my gym so I usually wedge my feet under a machine (standing calf raise seems best to me) and have to use a band for assistance. Killer stretch though!
 
Yep, I currently do most of that. Single leg seated curl, lighter load with a a double drop set, and glute ham raises (using the leg extension machine and a bosu ball). The seated curl is ok, and will work, I just don't find it as comfortable as the lying curl. And you certainly don't feel it isolate the hamstrings as much.
 
Oooh damn, I don't mind the seated ham curl. Gotta lock your legs down super tight and control the weight. Killer.
 
I don't find that preachers work, either machine or barbell. I feel them in my elbows and front delts, and nothing in between. Like whitey said, I think it's to do with arm lever length.

I went from using a lying hamstring curl at my old gym for 3 years to using a seated at my new gym, and it felt horrible. I've played around with the adjustment settings and made it sort of ok, but it just doesn't feel right. You're contracting your hamstrings, yet you're sitting on them, getting squished into the seat. It's just a bad design.

I've also always thought the preacher was a bad idea, it prohibits any arm movement which was the aim but the biceps are only under tension for roughly 200mm, using the ezy curl bar just roots up the elbow, I've got a nautilus gen 1 multi bicep with an imfirmetric bar that hits the bicep like no ther exercise.

im with yo on the hamstring curl, doesn't really make sense to sit on them, some machines shortened the seat, and although this helped, full contraction is still not possible, but it does allow a pregnant women to exercise the ham's and minimize any low back irritation.
 
I'd actually credit the size of my biceps to a lot of preacher curling when I first started.
But I'd also credit them for the injuring my elbow as well, but they added some size for sure.
I always went light for up to 15 reps.
 
The dip can be a troublesome exercise for some.

i think three mistakes are made;

1. the bar width around 700mm seems to be the best for most, unless you are extremely wide or narrow shouldered
2. Going too low and bouncing out of the "hole" so to speak
3. Like the bench press, No scapula movement
treat it like a bent over pull, as you pull the bar to your torso squeeze the scapular together
 
Top