Small Tweaks, Huge Results

Josh Morehouse, fitness manager at the Hollywood Sport 24 Hour Fitness in Portland.

Tradition, routine, ritual. They’re all good in their place—but that place isn’t the gym. If you’re still doing the same moves you learned from your football coach or sixth-grade phys ed teacher, you’re blowing an opportunity to kick your workout up a notch—with increased weight loss and endurance as welcome results.

To get you started on a new, more targeted tack, we took a close look at five of the most popular exercises in the gym and improved them—either by tweaking them a little or replacing them with more effective alternatives.

With these new and improved moves, you’ll work more muscle mass, reduce the strain on your joints, and see real results. Big ones. And that’s a ritual worth keeping.

The Move
Leg extensions

The Tweak
Replace with lunges

The Reason
Uses more muscle mass and promotes better knee stability

Without question, leg extensions are one of the most overrated exercises in the gym. What’s with the popularity of a move that isolates the quadriceps in a way that you’d never use them in the real world? You’re much better off, from both a functional and injury-prevention standpoint, substituting lunges instead.

We perform lunging type motions almost every day (tying our shoes, doing yard work, reaching out to grab a runaway baby). And not only is it a practical move, but in the long run it’s going to save your knees because a lunge requires the simultaneous contraction of the quadriceps (thigh muscles), hamstrings (leg muscles), and glutes (butt), which takes the load off the most used and abused joint in your body. “Because it’s what’s known as an open-chain movement—in which the foot isn’t in contact with any type of surface as the leg is in motion and has nothing to brace against—the leg extension places a great deal of shearing force on the knees,” says Rob Zschau, a trainer at Plano Super Sport 24 Hour Fitness in Texas. “The lunge is a safer alternative because it’s a closed-chain movement that doesn’t take the same toll on the knees.”

To lunge, grasp a pair of light dumbbells and stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart. Draw in your navel, and step forward with your left foot, making sure, as your knee bends, that it remains over your ankle. Bend until your thigh is about parallel to the floor, then return to the starting position.

The Move
Cable Rows

The Tweak
Change your torso and hand position

The Reason
Promotes better upper-back activation and less back strain

This exercise is often done improperly, which minimizes its value. Make this your mantra: I am not trying to row a boat. “Rocking your torso to and fro lets you use momentum to get the weight moving. Not only is that ineffective, but it also places too much emphasis on the lumbar spine [your lower back, where most back pain starts],” says Zschau. To keep the effort focused on your upper back, align your shoulders directly above your hips, and sit up nice and tall. From there, it’s simply a matter of pinching your shoulder blades together to initiate the pull and then finishing it off with your arms—a far cry from the usual “lean back and jerk” approach so many people favor.

Now that you’re sitting still, let’s address your grip. Typically, the cable row is performed using a triangular-shaped handle, with the palms facing each other (also known as a semisupinated, or neutral grip) and elbows tucked in close to the body. The problem is this position mainly targets the lats, or latissimus dorsi, a group of large muscles of the midback that, when overused, can contribute to the act of pulling your shoulders forward—not an attractive look. Because it disturbs the natural alignment of the joint, it can also set you up for a host of shoulder injuries.

Instead, switch to a bar that allows for a slightly wider grip with your palms facing the floor (pronated grip). Keep your elbows out slightly away from your body, so that your upper arm forms about a 45-degree angle to your torso. This will focus your effort on the shoulder-supporting postural muscles of the upper back and result in a great V shape, making you appear more tapered at the waist, while strengthening your upper back.

The Move
Seated shoulder press

The Tweak
Do it standing instead

The Reason
Provides greater core involvement and less strain on the lower back

This one looks easy enough: Simply press the weights up over your head. But your position is of critical importance. If you do this move sitting down, you may be able to handle more weight, but you’re also creating more compression in your lower back if you have poor form. You need to establish a firm base with your lower body and core, and optimal flexibility in your midback. “As long as you’re not hyperextending your back to move more weight than you can handle, your lower body can help offset the compression substantially,” says Zschau. It’s also a more practical move: It works your muscles the same way you do when you’re lifting something over your head, like your carry-on luggage or the toolbox you store on the top shelf.

The Move
Lying leg curl

The Tweak
Switch to a Swiss-ball leg curl

The Reason
Allows for more complete hamstring development

Think of this as the ugly stepsister of the leg extension. There are far better ways to work your hamstrings—the thigh muscles that help control your knee and hip joints—than curling your legs toward your butt. That move works only on the part of your hamstrings that flexes your knee joint. Your hamstrings also help extend your hips, so leg curls essentially work the muscle to half its potential. A much better alternative: a movement that combines hip extension and knee flexion.

Enter the Swiss-ball leg curl. This inclusive exercise works pretty much everything on the back of your body from your calves to the base of your shoulder blades. It also earns points from Zschau because, he says, “it gets the glutes involved, and it really activates your core muscles, as well.”

To do it: Lie supine on a mat with your feet and lower calves positioned on top of a Swiss ball. With your arms on the floor and out to your sides to help you balance, begin by keeping your legs straight and pressing the ball into the floor with the backs of your heels. Keeping your abdominals braced tight, continue lifting your hips until only your upper back, head, and arms are in contact with the floor. Keeping your hips as high as possible, bend your knees and curl the ball in toward your butt with your feet. Pause for a second, then return the ball back out by straightening your legs, and lower your hips to the floor.

The Move
Barbell bench press

The Tweak
Use dumbbells instead

The Reason
Helps correct strength imbalances and reduces unnecessary shoulder strain

Long considered the king of all upper-body lifts, the traditional barbell bench press is not without its flaws. For starters, says Zschau, it’s too easy for your weaker side to be a slacker. “When you press with a barbell, your stronger side is always going to be working harder than your weaker side, but you won’t necessarily know it,” he says. “Dumbbells essentially enable you to separate the two sides of the body and correct this problem by working each side independently.” Once you’ve identified your lazy side, give it some extra work to catch up. Zschau recommends performing either more reps or sets until both sides are equally strong.

Another drawback of the barbell bench press: the strain on the shoulder joint. If you do the exercise as it’s usually done—with the elbows held out from the body—the bones of the upper arms and shoulder blades veer dangerously close together. If your shoulder stability is already a little shaky (swimmers, pitchers, tennis players, and quarterbacks, listen up), you increase the risk that your tendons and ligaments will get “pinched” between these two bones. Known as an impingement, it’s a common and very painful condition that can often lead to even more severe shoulder injuries down the road. The solution here is also to do your bench presses with dumbbells instead of a bar. By keeping your elbows closer to your body and using a neutral grip (palms facing each other), you can dramatically reduce the amount of strain on your shoulders while still getting a good chest workout. Plus, dumbbells offer the added benefit of more accurately mimicking the motion of the chest: They allow you to bring your hands together at the top of the movement, thus producing a more forceful chest contraction than you can get with a bar.