7 Exercises with High Risk of Injury

Despite the common belief that all exercises are safe, effective and good, it is vital to understand that some exercises pose high risks (especially for people with joint, muscle and other health complications). 

Here are some of the exercises that are considered to have great potential risk for  causing injury:

1. Back arches

Exercises that involve extreme stretching of the lower back including back aches are can be dangerous. These movements place excessive strain on your lower back and can be potentially dangerous, especially when performed in a bouncing manner. Although ensuring regular extension of the lower back is very important, strengthening and stretching should be done in a slow and controlled (passive) manner.

2. Straight leg sit ups

This exercise is associated with several potential risks. By keeping your legs straight, you exercise the abdominals as well as the hip flexors. When hip flexors contract, they cause a forward tilt of your pelvis and hyper-extension of the lower back. Therefore, straight leg sit ups strengthen the hip flexors but the abdominals will remain relatively weak. On the other hand, this exercise strains the lower back.
A great alternative for this exercise is the curl-up which is performed as a partial sit up with the knees bent. Therefore, curl-ups can exercise the abdominals efficiently and safely. Strengthening your abdominal muscles is a great way of relieving low back pain.

3. Seated knee extensions

This is a popular exercise that mainly targets the quadriceps (muscles on the front to the thighs). Seated knee extensions pose major risks to your knees when the knees are fully extended and the weight is heavy. If you use too much resistance when performing the exercise you can easily run into trouble because the resistance against fully straightened legs puts extreme stress on knee joints. This can easily strain the tendons and compress the knee cartilage.
Some of the great alternatives to this exercise include lunges and squats with or without any added weight. This works thigh muscles safely, naturally and effectively.

4. Upright rows

When performing upright rows, you stand holding a weight or barbell in the center, with the hands close together and bring your hands up just under your chin. This exercise is controversial because it cause the humerus (upper arm bone) to bang up against the acroimon process joint. This can damage the cartilage in the acroimon process (AC) joint and compress nerves in the shoulder area which leads to arthritis. The main purpose of upright rows is to work out the upper traps and the shoulders (deltoids). Therefore, instead of standing to perform this exercise, you can try bent over rows. Bend forward 90 degrees at your hips, holding the weights down beneath the shoulders and hands shoulder width apart, lift the weights up towards your chest until the shoulders and elbows form a straight line. On the other hand, you can try lateral or front shoulder raises using modest weights in order to avoid using momentum or leaning back for assistance. These variations keeps the upper arm bone moving behind the acromion process joint but still targets the same muscles.

5. Hovering leg lifts

To perform this common move, you simply lie on your back with your shoulders and legs either crunched up or down on the ground, and lift your legs up off the ground so they hover a few inches from the ground in order to work the abs.
Although it surely engages the abs, the main problem about hovering leg lifts is associated with lifting the extended legs off the ground which can easily cause injury because it exerts an excessive amount of pressure on the lower back. However, there are numerous ways of working the abs without such high risks.
For instance, you can work your abdominals without straining the lower back by simply starting with the legs up in the air in line with the hips rather than straining to lift them off the ground. Then lower the straight legs to about 45 degrees without arching or flattening your back. This movement can be made safer by doing it with slightly bent knees or work your abdominals doing standard plank or bicycle exercises.

6. Hurdler’s stretch

Hurdler’s stretch is performed sitting on the ground with your legs apart and tucking one leg behind while reaching forward to touch the toes of your extended leg. The exercise places immense stress on ligaments in the bent leg’s knee joint.

Hurdler’s stretch can be performed on the side of a firm bed, couch or on a raised bench. This ensures that your leg remains in a comfortable, neutral position. Moreover, you can bend forward from low in your back and not from your mid back in order to maximize the stretch on your hamstring.

7. Full squat

The full squat which is also known as the duck walk also places tremendous pressure on your knees. Besides being an ineffective exercise, it places your knee ligaments and cartilage in a very vulnerable and risky position.
You can perform partial squats instead to give the required stretch in the muscle without outing excessive stress on the knee cartilage and ligaments.

Exercising safely means choosing appropriate exercises based on your level of fitness and avoiding potentially dangerous exercises. Using proper techniques is very critical and you should generally start your exercises at an appropriately slow pace without increasing the level of intensity or difficulty too rapidly. On the other hand, it is vital to understand that some exercises are potentially risky for people with knee problems and others with back problems. Therefore, you should always examine your exercise routine in order to determine whether the potential risk of doing a particular exercise outweighs the expected benefit.

~Thanks to fithog.com