In the first of a new high intensity training video series on my YouTube channel I explain what makes an exercise good or bad, why some good exercises are often wrongly considered bad, and how some bad exercises can be altered to make them good.
Video: Good Versus Bad Exercises
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Hi Drew,
Thanks for that very informative video. Your explanation on what makes a good exercise and how to determine when MMF has been achieved is another “A-ha!” moment amongst the many since I have been following your blog for about a year and a bit now.
It has been such a paradigm shift that it has totally changed my whole outlook on what exercise really is and how everything else you find in commercial gyms, boot camps, etc are recreational activities.
When I talk to family, friends and co workers about true High Intensity Training, I speak so passionately about it that I find myself in a position where quite a few of these people have asked me to train them. There is nothing more I would like to do than help people achieve the best genetic expression of themselves and pass this knowledge on. I have started to help some close family and friends with the understanding that I am not certified or necessarily qualified and therefore I do so with extreme caution. My education so far is through your blog as well as your videos and e-books which I use as manuals to develop programs. I also have been reading, watching and trying to apply the principles from Dr McGuff, Bill DeSimone and most recently videos from RenEX.
I live in Vancouver, British Columbia, and I would like to seriously pursue teaching HIT as a career and business. Would you know of anyone on the west coast of Canada that you would consider a qualified HIT instructor that would consider personal mentoring?
Thanks for all your help,
Kyle.
Hey Kyle,
Unfortunately I don’t know anyone in that area I would recommend and I don’t recommend any of the current certification programs claiming to teach HIT, but if you’re learning from this web site and other experts like Bill and Doug you’re on the right track. If you ever come to Orlando, FL in the summer I offer high intensity training instructor workshops, and I teach a lot of personal trainers and studio owners through video consulting as well.
1 Thanks for the video….as always very educational especially the biceps curl demo. I have been following the HIT for many years….what amazes me the most is that people working out around me never ask about my workout, they just stare and are very surprised when I leave the gym after less than 30mins. Some of them have not even finished their warmup!
2 A Pilates teacher showed me this exercise where the chest lies on a FitBall and you hold a dumbell in each hand close to the floor and then raise them up sideways (at a slight backwards angle) …sort of rotational ‘fly movement for the back. What’s your view on this exercise (replacing the horizontal pull exercise)?
Hey Markus,
Most people in the gym use their time very poorly, so this isn’t a surprise. This is partly because most of them don’t know what they’re doing, and partly because many of them go to the gym for social and mental reasons along with physical.
The exercise you are describing is a dumbbell simple row, also known as a rear delt fly, and when performed correctly can be an effective exercise for the rear delts, rhomboids, traps, and other muscles in the mid-upper back. These are included in some of the workouts in High Intensity Workouts.
Hello Drew,
Great content that reinforces HIT philosophies. Joint movement and path of movement very helpful. , it tweaks how I look at some exercises. I’ve noticed the lower back soreness after deadlifts and given my kyphosis i think Ill back off deads and move toward exercises that don’t load my spinal column. In your discussion I took away that working with a barbell can restrict the correct path for movements in certain exercises so I think I might focus on dumbells more too. My arms and legs are 36″ so I don’t need tons of weight but makes gymnastic type exercises difficult. i still follow Kratos and sub in isometrics, TSH and TSC according to how my muscles and joints feel.
As a side note I finally got my carbs under control and since Nov. 9th I’ve not eaten bread, spaghetti, cereal ( I used to eat raisin bran like crazy every day) pretzels, etc or anything with sugar or salt. I mostly eat salmon, tuna,chuck hamburg, cheap steak, bacon, spinach, lettuce, broccilli, apples, bananas,some citrus here and there, almonds and lot’s of peanuts (for busy food to stave off boredom). Sometimes I take a shot of honey if i’m going mental. i eat all I want but it’s not as much cuz I’m not as hungry.
Any way at about 20-25 days my carb cravings went away ( like you stated they would) and I started feeling better.
This was A MAJOR MILESTONE for me and recommend to anyone to white knuckle it to this point and get rid of the bad carbs
At 6′ 1″ I’ve gone from 229 lbs’ on 11/9/15 to whatever 4 oz. per day loss is at 1/30/16.
My target is to get rid of all the fat I don’t need.then increase intake till I balance out. Who knows maybe I’ll be ripped at 62 yrs.
My motivation is to be able to grab my horses mane and swing up on him with ease (about 62″) Used to go higher.
Thanks Drew for your Kratos, blogs, the phone consult last year, and your never ending battle against bad workout science and information.
Hey Bruce,
Thanks for your feedback, and you’re welcome for Project Kratos, the blog, and your phone consult. I’m glad you’ve found them helpful!
Great source of information! Really pleased with how you explained in the end the MMF in the squat and when to stop.
Great video. Thanks for posting. Cleared up some things on a few things I’ve been thinking of asking.
And a squat Q as to whether you’ve written anything specifically on back squat form for short limbed long legged people. Getting to parallel is hard without a backbend. I did get EOF so maybe this will get addressed there.
Hey Eric,
Getting to parallel in the squat while keeping your back straight and avoiding excessive posterior pelvic tilting depends largely on proper foot positioning and the resulting thigh angle, and hamstring flexibility. These are all things I will be covering in EoF and should have it out before Summer. Being back in college full time for physical therapy in addition to full time training and consulting has been kicking my ass so writing is progressing a bit more slowly. The bonus ebook and videos will be out in March and April, though.
Okay thanks, I’ll focus on another lift. And await the book. The squat has always been hard for me, not like the deadlift which I’m more suited for.
I did experiment with many foot spacings but the only one that had me stay pretty straight was an extremely wide one that began to hurt my knees so I abandoned that form. Been stretching hams but it’s only helped a bit.
Hey Eric,
The wider the stance the more the feet also need to be angled out (pointing the same direction as your thighs) or your legs will be internally rotated which can aggravate your knees.
Lots of useful info, thanks for answering my request re training after an inguinal hernia. Trying to increase my walking at the moment, hope to start light training in about 6 weeks.
Thanks again
Hey John,
You’re welcome. When you resume training, be conservative with the weight and stay focused on breathing properly.
Drew,
Your visual demonstration of the impact of body positioning when doing arm curls is valuable. It seemed wrong when I heard you describe it, but seeing you do it, made clear your message.
Try it with a weighted ribbon on each end of your “bar” to remind the viewer of the direction of the force being resisted. You could even attach an arrow on these “force illustration ribbons” to strengthen the message.
Hey Carl,
I love this idea and will create something like this to use in future videos. Thanks.
Drew,
As usual a very thorough and informative video. Thanks so much and keep them coming!
Drew,
Fantastic video. The fact that you would take 30 minutes out of your schedule (not including the setup/upload time) for your readers says a lot about you. I think I speak for many others in saying we appreciate all you do.
It was great to hear you mention skater squats in the video. Flexibility issues are currently keeping me from doing a full range pistol, and I find skater squats to be an excellent alternative. I’m current working on my flexibility using the stretching info you provided in the TSC book.
In a future video, it would love to see a demonstration of proper skater squat form using the different leveling progressions.
Hey Ops,
Once I complete my current writing projects I will be starting the Project Kratos phase III bodyweight book and a companion video series which will contain instructions and demonstrations for all of the bodyweight exercises in the book. My goal for completing this is mid to late Summer. In the meanwhile I’m available for consultations via Skype for people who want detailed instruction and demonstration of these and other bodyweight exercises.
Thank you for the reply and I’m looking forward to the book Drew!
Hi Drew
There a lot of different variations on the Row exercise.
What’s your opinion on Row machines, for example, plate
loaded row machines with chest supported, t bar rows
(Both are very cheap to purchase) vs a selectorized row
machine vs say a body weight row using a barbell placed in a rack
around waist height. Do you think variety is important rather than just working out on
the same machine every week?
I have ARX fit machine too, the seated row on that is good but feels
more like a grip workout and I don’t feel it in my back compared with a t bar row
Cheers
Matt
Hey Matt,
This depends on the machine, as there are some very good ones and some very bad ones of each type. That being said, your best option would be a chest-supported compound row with a path of movement with a congruent arc (like the MedX compound row or Hammer Strength low-row), straight (like the RenEx compound row), or with a segmented movement arm which allows for a more congruent arc (like the Nautilus Nitro mid-row).
I cover the subject of variety in The Ultimate Routine and in High Intensity Workouts.
I’m going to have to watch this again. Great stuff as usual Drew. The talk about the shoulders really hit home. Great stuff with the details about the biceps curls, the angles, joint axes, etc. “We are not a machine” made me think back to viewing the human body more simplistically and not appreciating or being aware of the organic, various intricacies of the build of the body. There is so much more I have to learn 🙂
Looking forward to more videos!
Hey Donnie,
Thanks. If you like the videos and want more like this one please subscribe to the channel and “like” and share them. The more subscribers and likes the videos get and the better the channel does ad-wise the more time I can devote to creating content for it.
I just did and thank you.
Hey Drew,
Thanks for the video and other material from you. I came across your site while researching the difference between sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar hypertrophy. Thanks for busting that myth for me.
I’ve purchased Kratos, High Intensity Workouts, and the TSC e-book. They are all excellent in my opinion. I use mostly Nautilus Nitro, Hammer Strength, bodyweight, and some Cybex machines. Occasionally Smith machine or free weights, though not often.
My question concerns some of the bodyweight feats of strength/tricks and their effectiveness/safety. These would include the following: Front Levers, Back Levers, elbow levers, planches/psuedo plances, maltese pushups, and gymnastic bridge (hands and feet on ground), any others you could think of
How would you rate them in terms of safety and effectiveness?
Would you recommend the usual progressions taught by other “Bodyweight Experts”, e.g. tucked front lever hold, straddlye lever hold, then finally full front lever?
Using them as Static Holds, and/or as dynamic movements?
By the way, I find that bodyweight squats with my feet close together (12 inches or less) really seem to work my legs and glutes tremendously so I include these. What is your take on these?
I know I’ve thrown a lot at you. Thanks for taking the time to read and respond.
Roberto
Hey Roberto,
While these are impressive displays of strength and balance, they are not the safest or most efficient way to build strength in the targeted muscles. Without going into detail, the principle for progression in these is the same – start by modifying the position or movement to minimize the lever against the muscles worked to reduce the difficulty to match your current strength level, then as you get stronger increase the difficulty proportionally by modifying the position or movement to increase the lever. Whether you use them as static or dynamic movements depends on what skills you want to develop.
I recommend a wider foot spacing because it allows for a greater range of hip flexion which allows people to squat deeper without the pelvis tilting posteriorly.
This is a new link to the above video: https://youtu.be/mD92SmkyHhM
Why do you include pistol squats in your Project Kratos Book while you strongly oppose Bulgarian Split Squats, due to the risks involved with uneven loading of the pelvis? Wouldn’t pistol squats be far less stable, and therefore even more risky?
Hey Joe,
Although you have two points of contact with a Bulgarian split squat it is harder to recover if you lose your balance because your rear leg is behind you and elevated and can not be moved under you quickly, and your hands are needed to control the barbell which can not be dumped without injuring the rear leg. If you lose balance while performing a pistol your non-working leg can be quickly lowered to regain it, and your hands are free to assist you or to hold something for balance during the exercise. There are also differences in how the pelvis and lumbar spine move during unilateral exercises which increase the risk of injury in combination with the significant additional axial load on the spine from using a barbell.