1. Leg Extensions: You’ve already spent most of the day in a seated position. The last thing you need to do is train your legs from that same position. As someone who spends any amount of time sitting we have to be sure that our workout routines are well balanced. Providing exercises that focus more on quality movement patterns and less on specific muscle groups. Truth is leg extensions may be doing more harm than help. Passive structures in the knee (ligaments) are stressed more in open chain exercises like the leg extension which can lead to future knee pain and range of motion problems. During the knee extension several stabilizing muscles are taken out of the movement creating an imbalance of work done by primary movers and synergistic stabilizers. In other words, this is an injury waiting to happen.

Alternatives

*Dynamic Lunges
*Step-Ups
*Front Squats
*Terminal Knee Extensions or Backwards Walking for any individuals with knee impairments

2. Military Pressing: Few people, not excluding high level athletes possess optimal shoulder build to be able to do this exercise “safely”. I put safely in quotes because you may not suffer an acute injury from shoulder presses, but chances are down the road you may develop some sort of impingement. Understand this is not a matter of poor training or weak musculature. It is simply a matter of how you are built. This is not to say that Military Presses can’t have their place in a well planned out exercise program. Let’s face it; the average computer guy geek has sub-optimal posture in the first place. The last thing we want to try and do is have him press heavy weights over his head. The outcome could be very dangerous. For our purposes in the gym, I believe much safer exercises can be used to create even better results without this risk.

Alternatives

*Push-Ups (there is a large variety)
*Gators
*Press-Outs

3. Sit-Ups: Everybody’s favorite exercise. If not for great looking abs then surely they are good for “core” strength and your lower back right? The truth is, when you perform a Sit-Up you are using very little abdominal strength and a whole lot of hip flexor strength. Contracting these hip flexors and flexing forward can create excessive amounts of compression on our lower spine. For anyone who sits for any length of time during the day this is not an ideal situation. Most geeks need more abdominal strength but there are much safer and more effective ways to go about getting it.

Alternatives

*Planks and Side Planks
*Reverse Pull-Ins
*Jack Knives
*Chop and Lift

4. Bench Press: Another favorite exercise to most average gym goers. But here we sit, not the “average” person. One of the last things we as geeks want to do is reinforce our tendency to be slumped with our shoulders rolled forward. After all this is the position most of us are in the majority of the day if we spend any time at a computer. Unfortunately our friend the bench press is only going to do more hurt than help when it comes to this negative posture. Don’t worry though, like the others there are plenty more exercises that can be used to get the same and most likely better results. Most of which allow our shoulder blades to move freely throughout the exercise which actually reinforces a more desired posture.

Alternatives

*Push-Ups
*Cable presses (unilateral or bilateral)
*Gators

5. Upright Rows: When it comes to the upright row I struggle to find a reason why anyone would need this movement. If this is in your routine I suggest you take a moment to re-evaluate what your goals are in the gym. Keeping your forearms internally rotated while you abduct your upper arms is a recipe for impingement.

Alternatives

*Barbell Rows
*Dumbbell Rows
*Face Pulls
*Cable Row Variations

Conclusion: When designing yourself an exercise program it is important to create goals and choose exercises based on their potential benefits as well as risks. As geeks we have to be mindful of our posture and the implications it will have on our workouts. It may not be a glamorous approach but in the long run it will be the most effective approach regardless of what our goals may be. Remember, if you get injured working out it won’t matter what those goals are because you won’t be able to work out at all.

The Reverse Lunge is a great exercise for people looking for something a little more challenging than a split squat, but are not quite ready for the dynamic forward lunge.  Because the driving leg of the reverse lunge stays grounded, you create less impact to the knee joint then you would when doing the dynamic forward lunge.  That’s why I suggest the reverse lunge as a natural progression from the split squat when it comes to training the legs.

Primary muscles worked.

• Quadriceps
• Glutes

Stabilizers

• Abdominals
• Obliques
• Glute Medius
• Adductors
• Hip Flexors

Tips:

1.  When doing the reverse lunge keep your torso tall throughout the entire movement and do not break posture.

2.  Coming from the bottom to the top, really drive through your front heel and squeeze your buttocks at the top of the movement.

3.  For added difficulty, try adding weight or alternating legs.

In our western culture we have adopted the habit of breathing inefficiently.  We tend to overuse our upper body musculature through lifting our chest and shrugging our shoulders upon inhalation.

This type of breathing leads to the overuse and fatigue of those upper body muscles that are picking up the slack of a weak diaphragm.  This faulty pattern can then lead to pain and dysfunction in the upper back and neck.

The solution: learn intra-abdominal breathing.  A few exercises worth trying out are crocodile breaths, loaded medicine ball breaths, and the practicing of taking in deep breaths while in various postures and positions.

Tips

When inhaling focus on expanding your abdomen 3 dimensionally.

Test your ability take a quality breath by watching yourself in the mirror.  Does your chest raise, do you shrug your shoulders?

It can be hard to strengthen the diaphragm at first.  Be sure to take breaks if you get light headed from training.

Practice one of the techniques in the video below for 5 minutes each day.  Notice a change in stiffness or pain reduction in your upper back, chest or neck.

Once you become proficient in the above techniques, start strengthening your new breath in different positions.  10 strong breaths in any one of these will take you to the next level.

Your hands; they’re the most sensory rich part of your body.  The amount of nervous system feedback from your hands to your brain dwarves any other part of your body.  Your shoulders, hips, knees, feet and back don’t even come close.

When you go through the paces of everyday life, your brain relies on signals from your hands, especially when something physical is about to take place.

This is why it’s important to have a strong grip.  A tight grip will reinforce a tight posture through that nervous system feedback.  The brain knows, if the grip is taking an activity seriously, the rest of the body should follow suit.

Test this next time you workout.  Grip those weights just a little bit harder than necessary and you’ll feel much more stable in your lifts.  You can even train your grip when opening and closing doors, carrying a brief case, shaking hands or even just putting dishes away (don’t break them of course).

A good but not exhaustive list of exercises that help with grip strength.

• Dead Lifts
• Pull UPs
• Body Weight Rows
• Kettlebell Swings
• Farmers Walks
• Dumbbell Rows

You should be using a variety of these in your workouts in order to strengthen your grip while your arms are in different positions.

In an atempt to make my blog better I’m looking to hear from you the reader.  I want to know what you would like to see more of on this little blog of mine.

I am making it my goal to create a website full of quality content which will help to educate and entertain people of like interests.

Please email your questions and suggestions to thebuffgeek@gmail.com

Some suggestions

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