The Most Overrated Exercises:

The effectiveness of an exercise does vary from person to person. But from what I have experienced through my years of personal training is that some exercises are overused and generally less effective. This is why proper exercise programming through a personal trainer is so important. People like to stick to exercises that they are good at because they might give you an ego boost and are less challenging. If your body isn't challenged, it may halt your goals and results a little bit. So, here are some exercises I believe to be the most overrated:

Burpees: There are 2 main reasons why I believe this exercise is overrated. The first one is that they are programmed into a workout in a lazy way. What I mean by this is when you are having a high intensity exercise type of workout and you're thinking of what exercises to use this one always comes up first. Most of the time I see people program this in when they can't think of anything else because this always comes to mind. There are a lot of other exercises that can give you the same cardiovascular and explosive benefit. There are also better exercises that are able to engage muscles in a more proper and functional way than burpees will. The second and more important reason why I believe this is overrated is because most people just aren't ready for an exercise that is this demanding and intense. In particular, it is very common in group classes where people aren't ready for this exercise because they either lack the shoulder mobility, the core stability, or don't have the ability to activate those fast twitch muscle fibers just yet. If you try to push through it then you may end up hurting yourself.

Leg Press: I mentioned earlier some exercises giving an ego boost and this exercise will definitely give you that because it is easy to load up on the weight. In my opinion, it is the most overrated out of the 3. This exercise is very easy to lift a lot of weight because it doesn't require much of a demand with stability and strength in the legs. I have seen this certain scenario time and time again with people who want to grow or tone their legs. Their leg days consist of something like leg press, leg extensions, leg curls, and some calf raises. The problem is that on this type of leg day there are no squats, lunges, or deadlifts, which are the main leg exercises you have to include to see a change in toning legs, strength, or even fat loss. Squats, lunges, and deadlift variations are much more of a challenge for your body, which is why some people choose leg press instead. Another reason why leg press isn't superior is because it isn't a functional movement, meaning that this type of movement doesn't translate over the real life which is very important for training in general. Leg presses are okay if they are programmed properly, but they shouldn't be the main lift of your leg day.

Crunches: There are a lot better exercise that can be used for building your core and giving you abs. Eventually crunches get easy, and you will need to challenge your body and core a lot more. To build a solid core you will need to incorporate different types of movements and different planes of motion. Crunches are a movement where the spine flexes, which is an important movement to incorporate for core development but if this is all you're doing then you won't get anywhere. You'll need to incorporate some rotational movements like Russian twists, and some isometric exercises (where there isn't any movement of that muscle) such as any type of plank variation. Getting a good mix of all these 3 different movements are key for core development. Also, when it comes to building your core or trying to get visible abs, what you eat always comes first. So, you can do all the crunches in the world but if you have a poor diet then it pretty much won't do anything.