15/10/2024
People make these claims all the time..that certain exercises are "bad" for you just because sometimes they hurt for certain people in certain situations
But what it really comes down to is if you're performing at your capabilities or outside of your capabilities
For example, if you don't have the strength to perform an exercise at a certain amount of weight but you put that amount of weight on anyway, your risk of injuring yourself is higher
If you perform an exercise outside of your mobility and range of motion capabilities, your risk of injuring yourself is higher
If you perform an exercise with a range of motion and/or weight that is close to your maximum but you don't have the experience to perform with a technique that is optimal for you, your risk of injuring yourself is higher
And consequently and also understandably, people want to try to push their limits with the bigger lifts like squats, deadlifts, and bench pressing, which increases the likelihood that they will perform these exercises outside of their capabilities
This doesn't mean that these exercises are "bad"
No one ever says that walking is "bad" for you even though a lot of people have foot, knee, hip, and/or back pain when walking
So why would we say the same thing about specific exercises?
What it means is that you need to be smarter about how to scale with exercise
How to regress, progress, or modify the exercise when needed in order to bring about positive adaptation without overdoing it
This isn't always easy, which is why there are experienced exercise professionals that can help you with this process if you're feeling lost or aren't sure how to do it yourself
But I hope this illustrates why labeling certain exercises as "bad" is unwarranted and silly.
Credit to: .caleb.burgess
