Best and Worst Exercises

Are These 7 Exercises Worthless?

Stop wasting minutes of your workout doing moves that are ineffective and potentially dangerous
By Emily G. W. Chau fitbie
 

Triceps Bar Push-down

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin measured muscle activation when performing eight popular triceps exercises, and found that the bar push-down ranked among the worst. “Your triceps is such a small muscle group that you really need to isolate it to build muscle,” says Jennifer Widerstrom, a NASM-certified and elite personal trainer in Southern California. “The problem with triceps push-downs is that you’re tempted to use your stronger back and shoulder muscles instead.” Plus, it’s easy to use momentum to complete each rep, so you might not actually work your tris as hard as you think.

Do this instead
A better way to target your triceps: the triangle pushup. The same study ranked the triangle pushup as the most effective move to hit the muscle. You’re working against gravity and your bodyweight the entire time, so you can’t cheat on your way up. (Video: Pump up your pushup position)

To perform a triangle pushup, get into pushup position, but place your hands together and make a triangle with your thumbs and forefingers. Lower your chest until it nearly touches the floor, then return to the starting position.

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