Gym Exercises Ranked (BEST TO WORST!)

There are so many gym exercises, namely ones those done with machines, but which ones should you be focusing your efforts on if you want to build muscle and increase your strength? In this video, I’m going to give you that most popular gym exercises ranked from worst to best and help you to determin

And so the good girl bad girl machine is actually less good, mostly bad, boy or girl, and therefore deserves a big red X. What’s up guys? Jeff Cavalere, athletex. com. What you see behind me is a bunch of different gym machines.

Many of which I get asked about all the time whether or not they’re worth your time or really just worth holding your dirty gym towel. Well, today I’m going to help you to decide which ones are the best and which ones you could pretty much throw in the trash. We’re going to rank them from worst to best. Let’s get going. We got a lot to cover now.

First, it’s important to point out the criteria for our rankings. First and foremost, is the exercise actually providing a benefit? Does it provide something unique or an advantage that’s better than what you’re currently doing, let’s say, with free weights? Because if it does, it’s going to rank higher. Secondly, is it biomechanically safe?

In other words, does the exercise accommodate most people and most people’s body types? If it’s instead trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, which is your body, then it’s likely not going to rank high on this list. And of course, as always, if there are opportunities here to educate you on to how to make some of these exercises just a little bit better with some small tweaks, I’m going to take advantage and do that for you, too. So, with that said, let’s get to the first and the worst category. Now, when it comes to hamstring training, there’s a lot of different machines.

Actually, a lot of different hamstring curl machines, but I’m going to make your job a lot easier because I’m going to help to eliminate one of them from your options, and that’s the lying hamstring curl, which is probably the most popular. The issue I have with this machine is as a physical therapist, I believe it leads to the most low back issues when you perform it because you’re performing it from this hip flexed position. And what happens here is as you’re trying to move the weight, especially as they get heavier and heavier, you’re going to drive your knees or thighs down into the pad, further promoting isometric hip flexion, which is going to pull on your low back and often times lead to that low back pain I talked about. With so many better options available, I say let’s pass on this and instead give it the big red X as the first and the worst. and our gym machine rankings.

Now, these rankings were based on Instagram popularity. This next exercise would actually be the runaway winner, but it’s not. It’s based on effectiveness, and for that reason, it’s going to also go down here in the bottom of the list. And we’re talking about the good girl, bad girl exercises. Now, I don’t have to go into the science of how these exercises actually got their name, Jesse.

But we do want to talk about the science of how we’re trying to build muscle when we do these exercises. And for me, if anybody tells you they’re trying to build their glute max, then they’re focusing on the wrong exercise and they simply don’t understand the function of this one because this is actually targeting abduction, which is more of a glute medius function. Now, even that’s not really that great because you’re not performing it correctly if you’re sitting down and limiting your range of motion. Instead, what you should be doing is propping yourself up like this, turning your foot out to get some hip external rotation, and then keeping that posteriorly rotated, hip elevated position throughout the exercise. And when it comes to the good girl exercise, there’s just so many better ways to train the adductors that are far more functional.

And it starts with putting you on your feet and doing something like a slide lunge. The fact is, being on your feet is always going to train your hips more functionally in the frontal plane. So, sitting on your ass like this is not going to be my favorite choice. And therefore, good or bad, boy or girl, this is going to get the second big red X in our rankings. Next, we have a machine that may not be in everyone’s gym, but it’s in enough of them to have me raise the red flag and get you to focus on something else.

And it’s the side lateral machine. Now, the idea here is there’s only one small thing wrong. But that small thing to me is really big because it messes with the biomechanics of the exercise. And we’re talking about the fixed hand placement, not allowing for external rotation at the shoulder. I tell you all the time, we’re not pouring pictures when we do the lateral raise with dumbbells, and we’re certainly not going to do it here either.

And even though this helps you get to a more neutral grip, I rather see that thumb end higher than the pinky to give you enough clearance in the shoulder to prevent any shoulder pain that could come from using the exercise. I think you can skip this one, guys. There’s so many better options. This ain’t one of them. So, for me, it’s going to get another big red X.

Now, if there’s one exercise that’s blown more biceps than a deadlift, then it’s the preacher curl. Especially when the machine is designed like this. You see, the preacher curl puts your bicep in a very vulnerable position when the pad is angled pretty flat like this because the elbow becomes the fulcrum and the overload can quickly surpass where you’re capable of lifting. In that case, you’ve also got a seat there inviting you to sit, only making that situation worse. So, instead, either ditch the exercise or find one that allows you to do this, stand up and lean with your elbows into a downward sloping pad.

What this does is it changes the entire mechanics of the exercise, allowing me to drive my triceps or my elbows into the back of the pad, creating some additional assistance from the lats that will help to stabilize the exercise even with heavy loads. Give me all the benefits I’m looking for, but without the risk. But for now, if you got a machine like this, I say skip it and instead put another Big Red X in the preacher curl. Now, I’ve gone on record maybe once or a hundred times about being an anti-fly guy, but the fact of the matter is, as a physical therapist, it’s just not the best thing you can do to your anterior shoulder capsule. Now, what would I say about a chest fly machine?

Well, ironically, it may not be the worst thing that you can do, but it’s definitely not the right thing for everybody. You can see Jesse doing the exercise here, and note that it does have stops at the bottom range of motion, preventing excessive abduction of the arms away from the body. That being said, not everybody’s going to have that safety net because if you have a bigger body, a bigger chest, more of a barrel chest, you’re going to have more depth, range of motion, and not find the support that Jesse’s finding here, which would make the exercise no better than the unsupported version that we do on a bench. And therefore, it’s not the worst thing if it fits your body type, but it still deserves that run X, just maybe a little bit smaller than the others. And so, with the worst of the worst out of the way, I now get to break out my blue marker as I move into the better category.

Not perfect, but definitely better. And when we talk about the hamstring curl variations, we have something that’s definitely better. We’re talking about the standing hamstring curl. Now, first of all, I get to put you on your feet. And even though the working leg is in the air, it’s the benefit to the stance leg that provides additional functional carryover.

That being said, I can also help to discourage some of that hip flexor involvement that we