How To Make Progress And Prevent Injury With The Following Exercises

There are a couple of exercises which you should try to avoid or change up, below are 5 exercises you can replace to prevent injuries or make more progress in the long run.

Number 1: Seated Dumbbell Press

Replace with: Standing Dumbbell Press

Why: By sitting down and digging your back into the bench you are able to lift the weights as hard as you can. But by doing so you disrupt the natural motion of the shoulder blades as you press. A better way is doing this exercise while standing up.

Number 2: Upright Row

Replace with: Dumbell High Pulls

Why: The upright row places your arms in an internal rotation which is damaging to your shoulder joints. By swapping this exercise for dumbbell high pulls you can let your wrists lead your elbows and get the arms and shoulders from an internal rotation to an external rotation. By doing this you will prevent future shoulder injuries.

Number 3: Dumbbell Flyes

Replace with: 3D Crossover

Why: There are different ways to adduct your arms accross your body without putting so much stress on the shoulder capsule at the bottom of this movement. Replacing the dumbbell flyes for the 3D crossover gives you the adduction that you want all the way across the chest without the risk of damaging your shoulder.

Number 4: Barbell Back Squat

Replace with: Barbell Front Squats

Why: With back squats it’s harder to notice if you’re having mobility issues. With front squats you can easily tell what needs to be changed in terms of ankle mobility, hip mobility, keeping your back upright and so on. Having addressed these issues you can switch to back squats and perform it with good form.

Number 5: Lat Pull-Down

Replace with: One Arm Standing Pull-Downs

Why: Many people do lat pull-downs or pull-ups but a great exercise to target these muscles is called the one arm standing cable pull-down and is done using the cable machine. By rotating into each repetition you can bring a great stretch into your muscles.

Make sure to watch the video below for a more detailed explanation on these replacement exercises.