{"id":46387,"date":"2025-08-05T21:00:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T21:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/46387\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T21:00:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T21:00:14","slug":"5-worst-exercises-for-building-strength-and-muscle-says-an-exercise-scientist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/46387\/","title":{"rendered":"5 worst exercises for building strength and muscle, says an exercise scientist"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou\u2019re doing a bunch of exercises that suck, we\u2019re going to tell you why they suck and recommend much better replacements.\u201d Blunt and brutal words from exercise scientist, Dr Isratel, in his latest YouTube video<\/a> and while his delivery might be direct, he\u2019s not wrong.<\/p>\n

If your goal is to build muscle (hypertrophy) and get stronger, exercise selection matters. Some popular moves simply aren\u2019t effective for maximising results, and worse, they could be holding back your progress.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Dr. Israetel doesn\u2019t just call out the underperformers, he offers smarter alternatives to help you train more efficiently, so that you can see better gains.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

1. The Bosu ball<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Dr Istratel says the Bosu ball is the \u201cnumber one worst offender\u201d. Even though he says you can do pretty much everything on the Bosu ball \u2013 like squats<\/a>, push-ups<\/a>, and even lunges \u2013 he says all of these should be done off the Bosu ball. But, why?<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause when you\u2019re on the ball you become unstable and precisely because your body detects instability it ramps down your ability to contract the biggest, most growth prone parts of your muscles, and the ones that make you the strongest \u2013 they\u2019re called fast twitch motor units \u2013 and they\u2019re basically almost completely off when you\u2019re on an unstable surface, like the bosu ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, whatever you\u2019re doing on the Bosu ball, Dr Istratel advises doing it on the floor instead, that\u2019s if you want to build muscle and improve your strength.<\/p>\n

2. Kettlebell swings<\/p>\n

Kettlebell swings are an excellent training tool \u2013 which Dr Istratel is in agreement with \u2013 however, he argues it swings (pun intended) more towards giving your lungs a run for their money more so than your muscles. \u201cIf you realise that the kettlebell swing is something you can just keep going with, but it\u2019s very tough on the cardio situation, then kettlebell swings are a wonderful part to include in a circuit for general cardiovascular fitness.<\/p>\n

Get all the latest news, reviews, deals and buying guides on gorgeous tech, home and active products from the T3 experts<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, for resistance training, for growing the hamstrings, or the glutes, or the lower back, or for sport training \u2013 developing strength and power and speed \u2013 all of those things something th ekettbell swing is not biomechanically not designed to do, because most of the forces are horizontal and in real sport most limiting forces are vertical.\u201d<\/p>\n

For strength, power and size, he says to ditch the kettlebell and opt for deficit deadlifts, power cleans, or the mid-thigh pull instead.<\/p>\n

3. Heavy carries<\/p>\n

Similar to the kettlebell swing, Dr Istratel argues heavy carries most definitely can have a place in your training \u2013 they\u2019re just not the most optimal when hypertrophy is the goal. \u201cDo heavy dumbbells<\/a> and every other kind of implemented carry build your traps? You bet. But, what they also do is fatigue the living f*ck out of you, because heavy carries put a lot of pressure on the skeleton, which gives you awesome strong bones, but also zaps the fatigue away that you could have dispersed over many more productive exercises.\u201d<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s just your traps that you want to target, Dr Istratel says any kind of shrugs \u2013 dumbbell, cable or machine \u2013 will work. Alternatively, he says dynamic movements \u2013 like presses, pulls and deficit deadlifts<\/a> \u2013 will deliver strength, hypertrophy and metabolic adaptation.<\/p>\n

4. Bicycle abs<\/p>\n

\"Bicycle<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u2018How to get a six-pack<\/a>\u2019 is one of the most highly searched fitness-related questions, but doing bicycle abs will never get you there. \u201cOne, it never stretches your abs a ton and two, most importantly, how do you progress on it?,\u201d says Dr Isratel. \u201cIf you can do bicycle abs for more than a minute and 30 seconds, you\u2019re already in really good shape, any more time added is just going to make your abs have higher endurance, it won\u2019t make them any more jacked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Progressive overload and exercises that focus on \u2018the stretch\u2019 are key if you want to build bigger, stronger abs. Dr Isratel says that the decline weighted sit up \u201c is GOATed for ab development\u201d or, if you\u2019re looking for a bodyweight alternative, he recommends the V-up.<\/p>\n

5. Turkish get-ups<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

Dr Istratel describes Turkish get-ups as a \u201cparlour trick\u201d. \u201cBiomechanists agree it’s not exactly certain what you\u2019re testing or training in the Turkish getup, but most would say its probably the ability to keep your shoulder mobile enough to stay totally vertical and the bare modicum of leg strength and total-body coordination it requires to stand up with a miniature kettlebell in your hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, for leg strength and overhead stability, the deep squat and barbell overhead are Dr Istratel\u2019s choices. Not to mention they\u2019re far easier to progressively overload and will probably target the muscles more that you actually want to grow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cYou\u2019re doing a bunch of exercises that suck, we\u2019re going to tell you why they suck and recommend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[6647,102,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-46387","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}