Not all exercises are safe. Performing certain movements, particularly if you’re poorly conditioned, not used to exercising, etc. can significantly increase your risk of injury.

Such exercises can involve violent (i.e. Bouncing type motions) movements of a joint beyond its normal range (e.g. Bouncing to touch your toes from a standing position) or repetitive twisting. Such exercises are considered unsafe for the general population as they can either exacerbate an existing injury or cause an injury. 

Whenever commencing any exercise program consider your prior exercise history (what have you done of recent times), your prior injury history (e.g. If you’ve recently strained your calf undertaking violent stretching movements of the calf wouldn’t be a good idea). If in doubt seek expert guidance from an accredited exercise physiologist.

Some common no no’s

1. “Bouncing” your stretches. When a muscle is taken to its full range of motion and then taken beyond that range by a sudden bouncing movement (known as a ballistic stretch), a “stretch-reflex” reaction is produced which causes the muscle to contract/tighten in order to prevent possible injury. This produces small tears in the muscle tissue resulting in pain and discomfort.

Therefore:

1. Don’t bounce into a stretch.
2. Move slowly and progressively to the point of stretch and hold at that point for 10-20 seconds.
3. Once at the ‘point of stretch’, as the muscle starts to feel comfortable stretch a little further.

2. Touching your toes. We’ve all seen the classic “bend and stretch” where the exerciser bends forward from the waist with straight legs and attempts to touch their toes. This movement is often done in a ballistic manner (see point number one) and puts considerable stress through the muscles of the lower back (which are relatively weak) loading up the hamstrings, vertebrae, etc. in the process. Adding a twisting movement (e.g. “Windmills”) to the toe-touch with legs astride can cause damage to the delicate vertebral joints of the lower back.  

Therefore:

1. Avoid this type of movement completely.
2. Lie on your back and extend one leg upwards (while the other stays on the ground), grip behind the knee and extend the leg out to the point of stretch and hold for 10-20 seconds before alternating to the other side.

3. Full or deep squats that take the knee joint beyond a 90° bend. Done with or without weights can still strain the knee joint resulting with tracking issues for the knee cap pulling it out of alignment.   

Therefore:

1. Place a bench or chair behind yourself that limits your movement to no more than 90 degrees.
2. Get yourself “spotted” (watched) by a credible health professional (e.g. Accredited exercise physiologist).
3. Once you know the appropriate technique use a full length mirror to ensure you maintain your form.

4. Anchored or straight legged sit ups. Two common but potentially harmful variations of the sit-up include (i) anchoring the feet (E.g. Where you anchor your feet under an objective or have a friend hold them down) or (ii) performing straight legged sit-ups where the legs are fully extended along the floor and the exerciser clasps their hands behind the neck/head and performs the exercise. Both of these variations of the exercise increase the risk of lower back complications and target the hip flexors rather than the abdominal muscles they purport to exercise.

Therefore:

1. Don’t do either of these sorts of sit-ups. Do abdominal curls instead where you lie on your back, knees bent and feet raised off the floor by flexing the hips, arms crossed across the chest and lifting your upper body towards your knees.
2. Remember to exhale upon contraction.  
   
   

5. Leg raises. This involves lying on your back and raising both legs at the same time. This places enormous stress on the lower back. Another potentially harmful variation is to lie on your stomach and lift both legs at the same time.  

Therefore:

1. Don’t perform this exercise.

6. Lat pull-down or military press behind the neck. Both of these exercises should be avoided particularly if you’ve got unstable shoulder joints as both increase the possibility of shoulder hyper-extension under-load and resultant dislocation. Performing both of these exercises in front of the shoulders works similar muscle groups without the increased level of risk.  

General pointers to avoid injury:

1. Be mindful of your initial level or fitness and past medical/injury history.
2. Never hold your breathe when exercising. Exhale upon contraction of the muscle group.
3. Get specialist/expert guidance from an accredited exercise physiologist or physiotherapist to ensure proper technique.
4. Consider changing circumstances such as pregnancy, aging, returning to exercise post-injury, exercising for the first time.

Checkout our Exercise Section on how to perform stretches and strength technique correctly