This article is a transcribed edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in December of 2023. For the original video go to https://youtu.be/J0TmOACWk4I
Mike: Today we're going to show you five common exercises that most people do that you should probably avoid, especially as you age.
Brad: That's right because if you're over 50, you probably learned how to do some stretches and other common exercises improperly back in the day. And now there are better ways to do it. Okay, the first stretch is for your hamstrings as well as your lower back. Traditionally, a lot of people were taught to touch their toes in either the seated position or standing and reach for their toes.
Brad: Now it does stretch the hamstring muscles, but the problem is it stresses the lower back and particularly puts undue stress on your discs and can cause problems with the back. So we're going to show you some alternatives that are really going to get to those hamstrings and stretch properly. Okay, here's the first option Mike is going to show. Now he does have tight hamstrings.
Mike: Don't tell them.
Brad: Anyway, go ahead, show him what to do.
Mike: So this is one option you can do in a seated position. You will need something to put your foot up on, like a stool in a straight back chair. This won't work so well in a recliner. So all you're going to do is try to push your knee down straight. You should feel a stretch. If you don't feel much, you can bend forward slightly. I'm not very flexible here but don't round your spine because this is the same position we were just in. So keep a nice straight back, lean forward, and yeah, I really start feeling it. You can do 30 seconds on one leg and then switch to the other. You could do both at once if you feel comfortable doing this.
Brad: Right, I suggest one at a time. Two is just hard to keep the back straight.
Mike: Yeah.
Brad: Now we're going to show you the standing option. This is my favorite. I've taught a lot of patients how to use this that are mobile and have good balance. And even if your balance is a little off, use a stairway. You have the handrails one or two if they're there, use those for balance and you simply use the steps. You're going to stretch one leg at a time. I'll do my right leg. Now the key to this stretch is to keep your knee straight. We don't want it flexed. Get it straight to start out with. You can start on the first step. Now I'm going to lean forward and feel those hamstrings stretch. Don't get real aggressive, just let them stretch and really relax and breathe.
Brad: Now Mike's going to show my back going to a bad position. So go ahead Mike, put the stick up there. So I have a straight back. Now if I lean forward, I lose that good posture.
Mike: He's losing contact with his head here and his upper back. You do not have three points of contact. You want contact in your lower back, your mid-shoulder blade, and the top of your head and we lost those.
Brad: All right, now I'm going to keep that upright posture so the stick is straight.
Brad: Oh and I already feel the stretch in the hamstringing and I'm only leaning that far. That's good, the goal is not to get your nose to your knee but to stretch the hamstringing. So do that, you can go pressure on, pressure off, you can hold it for 15 up to 30 seconds. I usually go pressure on, pressure off, and do both legs. It's an excellent stretch for those hamstrings and you'll feel it very nicely. Okay, the second exercise was very popular, particularly for strengthening the back muscles. So it's called the Superman. You lie down on the floor and elevate the head and arms and there we go.
Brad: The lower back muscles are really working well. It's a good strengthening exercise, but we have found out recently from Stuart McGill a back expert with a lot of research that it puts undue stress on the vertebra and actually can cause fractures in certain situations. So we're going to show you a better option, get the same strength and avoid that risk. All right, a great option for this from Dr. Stewart McGill is the pointer dog. You should do it not on a bed, but on a carpeted floor or with a mat. Go ahead, Mike.
Mike: It's also known as a bird dog for some people. So you're going to start in the all-fours position. I'm going to lift my right arm and kick my left leg out simultaneously. Hold this position with the flat back for up to five seconds if possible. Then you're going to switch. I'm going to do my left arm with my right leg. I'm just showing this separately so you understand what I'm doing. But you're supposed to kind of lift them out together.
Mike: Make sure not to extend your head up too much and don't reach up too high. It's just kind of a straight back and Brad can kind of show a straight line that I'm forming with this exercise.
Brad: Yeah, so you want to be in a straight line. Mike, lift that leg. Yeah, that leg is too high here. The head's too high, bring it back down.
Brad: And now Mike is working pretty darn hard right now. The one thing that you cannot see that Mike mentioned is to keep the back in a neutral or straight position. To do that, you really need to tighten up those tummy muscles and that's something you can't see, but you will feel it.
Mike: If this is challenging for beginners. You can simply do one arm at a time and you can do one leg at a time to begin.
Brad: Right, excellent job, Mike.
Mike: The next common exercise people perform that is not always the most optimal one is called the upright row. So typically it can be done with dumbbells, bands, or cables. And notice I am bringing the dumbbell up to my chest, flaring out my elbows. Now this is a shoulder-strengthening exercise, however, it can lead to issues like impingement or rotator cuff tears possibly over time.
Brad: That's right. Alright, a couple of good option that are not going to stress the rotator cuff muscles as much and go very well without pain. If you have bands, which I like bands because you can vary the resistance so easily. We're going to go out to the side but not higher than 90 degrees. Parallel or horizontal to the floor with your arms is as high as you want it to go. I actually prefer to go a little under that to be on the safe side. Mike, talk about the dumbbells.
Mike: Now it's okay if you're slightly forward a little. Just don't be out in front of you. You can be directly out to the side. Just don't position too far back. This is quite a stretch here. So you're just going to raise out to the side, hold for a few seconds, and control it back down. It's going to work a lot more and you don't need as heavy a weight versus people just flying through them, not doing much. Also, you don't want to shrug and lift. You want to keep your traps relaxed and just lift out to the side.
Brad: Excellent points Mike, I'm glad that you took over because I forgot about those.
Mike: The next common exercise to avoid is full sit-ups like Brad is demonstrating here from back in his day in PE class. So this is a good core strengthening exercise. It's going to work those abdominal muscles. However, it's putting a lot of pressure on the discs in your spine, which can be problematic over time. So we're going to show you an alternative way to do them.
Brad: And by the way, it wasn't PE class back in the day when I was in school. It was gym class.
Mike: So we're still going to do a sit-up of sorts. Brad is just going to do it with a neutral back. So to begin, he's going to put his feet on the table with bent knees. He's going to put his hand on his low back region here and he's going to push down into it, engaging his core, see how he engages his core. You should feel pressure on your hand if you're doing it correctly. Now once he's in this position, he has a nice flat back. He is going to curl up, but he's going to keep a straight back lifting his head up towards the ceiling. So essentially all you're going to really do is lift your top shoulder blades off of the mat like Brad is demonstrating here and you'll get a good abdominal crunch going on there and it really works the core.
Brad: Now one thing you'll want to avoid is a very common mistake people make, they will flex their neck, bring it forward, which really stresses that neck and it's not good. What I do is I have my hands across my chest and I take the back of my fist and I put it right up against my chin. And that reminds me to keep my head and neck straight. Just one of those little things that works well for me. So you can give it a go.
Brad: The next exercise, very common back in the day is feet out wide, arms out, and then you flex forward at the hips, right hand to the left toes, left hand to the right toes, and we called them windmills. Now the big concern about this is we're flexing the low spine and rotating at the same time. That can put forces on the lower back that can cause an injury. So we're going to show you some options to get some rotation without that injury risk.
Brad: Okay, we're going to show you a few options to do this one, to get that rotation, first of all for beginners or just to test out your back, lie down on the back on the floor, a carpeted floor is best, knees together, feet together and shoulders back, head back. And I call these windshield wipers. We're going to take the knees together, go to the right. This should be pain-free. If it creates pain, you do not go that far. And we're going to go back and forth right to left. 10 repetitions. Now if it does hurt in one direction, do not go that way or just go in the pain-free range, go the other way. And that may be pain-free all the way.
Brad: So if this is painful in one direction and not the other or whatever, do not go to the more advanced phase which Mike is going to show in standing. I'm going to show one other option if you happen to have an exercise ball. I use the exercise ball all the time, so I would like to promote it because it really works well and it works well for this. Let your legs go over the ball, let the weight of your legs on the ball, and simply roll the ball right to left. It's a little bit different, I like it better. It feels better. It gets a little more emphasis on the back rotation and is very controllable. Alright, 10 repetitions on that is a good option. Go ahead Mike, show the standing options.
Mike: Okay, a little bit more advanced version is standing rotation. So my feet are shoulder-width apart. I'm going to place my hands on my hips here and I'm going to start rotating to the right and left. This is just going to feel different because this time your feet are planted and your upper spine is moving versus the way Brad was showing if this feels good, both directions. You can take a broom handle or a stick, whatever you have, place it over your shoulders, and then it just kind of helps you get a little bit more rotation and you might notice one side your tighter. So maybe work that way a little more. Like I can feel this going this way a little bit, so.
Brad: Again, do this one cautiously if you haven't done it before, that should be completely pain-free. Just a normal stretch feeling, I happen to like this stretch a lot. I do it on a regular basis, it works well for me. But again, I've gone through all the other ones first.
Mike: And it is important to maintain a neutral spine with this because I'm not doing that flexing, rotating component like the stretch we showed earlier. Yeah, I'm just keeping a nice straight back and rotating.
Brad: Very relaxed, very comfortable, good. Alright, so I hope you've learned something new here and found some new waves to do exercises because they can get old and the other ones can be a little risky. So we're going to show you some other videos. Mike, are you ready?
Mike: So if you want to check out more videos on some exercises you should never do or can be problematic, check out the video "15 Common Exercises You Should Never Do! (Updated)."
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