5 most dangerous weight-lifting exercises

Undoubtedly, it’s appealing to perform weight-lifting exercises like the guys you see in your gym who perform dead lifts and make them look so easy. However, the workouts you see them performing require a great deal of training and countless repetitions to get them right. Many times, the risk of lifting weights outweighs the exercise’s potential benefits and leads to severe muscle damage and injuries.

Although there are many effective exercises available, there are also a bunch of dangerous weight-lifting exercises that you should not be doing. While any workout done wrongly can be harmful, some exercises are way riskier than others. So, before you take the plunge and start doing any random exercise, here’s a list of some of the most dangerous lifting exercises you should stop doing:

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#1 The Romanian Dead Lift

Dead-lift is a dangerous exercise that can hurt your back. (Photo by Anete Lusina via pexels)

The Romanian dead lift is one of the most dangerous weight-lifting exercises that can hurt your back if you don’t know the correct technique for doing it. If performed correctly, though, it's an effective exercise for toning your hips and back.

When doing a dead lift, it's very common to face hyperextension while lifting and lowering weight. That could lead to muscular spasms or lumbar disk injury. Also, if the weight is not distributed equally through your feet, your lumbar extensors start to overwork, which could lead to lower back spasms and lower back pain. If you are a beginner, it is recommended to get proper training for this exercise to avoid injuries and pain.

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#2 Upright Row

The upright row is one of the most important exercises for building muscle mass; however, this exercise puts your wrists and shoulders prone to ligament tears and impingement syndromes. An overhead press with dumbbells or barbells is a safe alternative and will help you develop muscles better.

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#3 The Overhead Squat

Lifting weights overhead is very challenging and adding a squat to it is even more problematic and risky.

Doing an overhead squat not only challenges your body but is also dangerous for your nervous system. Since this exercise is a full-body workout, it won’t be beneficial if you don’t have enough mobility.

For instance, if you don’t have appropriate mobility in your knees and hips, it will be difficult for you to lower your body even without a barbell. That could affect your joints and other wrong muscle groups.

Whenever you perform an overhead squat, stop when your knees start to get past your toes, your arms start to shake or your lower back and spine start to ache.

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#4 Dumbbell Flye

Dumbbell flye is a great exercise for developing pecs, but this exercise can lead to various shoulder injuries, including acromioclavicular separation (shoulder separation), glenohumeral dislocation (shoulder dislocation), etc. The potential for shoulder injuries when doing dumbbell flye is too high to include this exercise in your regular fitness routine.

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#5 The Kettlebell Swing

You may think that this exercise is all about the strength of your arms. However, the truth is that it requires great power from your lower body, especially the posterior muscles, including your hamstrings and glutes. Yes, the kettlebell swing is one of the best strengthening exercises, but it’s not good for your shoulders.

The force and speed of the swinging motion puts your shoulders at risk for injuries. If performed wrongly, the swinging motion can lead to injury of your rotator cuff and inflammation of other points in your shoulders. To avoid shoulder damage, make sure to generate power from your hamstrings and glutes while performing a kettlebell swing.

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Summary

To ensure you don’t risk your body and get injuries, avoid doing the above-mentioned weight-lifting exercises.

Always accurately perform workouts, and make sure to maintain the right posture. Before you jump on any exercise that is new to you, seek out advice from your gym trainer to make sure your structure, posture and programming are all correct.

Do not overdo weight-lifting exercises, as they may strain your muscles and could lead to body pain, spasms and other muscle and joint problems.