Well, to start with, getting in shape is a simple process. 

1. Lift some weights

2. Eat according to your goal

3. Consume adequate protein

4. Sleep

5. Repeat 

Disclaimer: Every coach at MensXP Health has an individualistic opinion on different exercises.

No exercises are worth it if they injure you and keep you out of the gym for a long time. 

Here are the top 5 exercises you should avoid if your goal is to remain injury-free and stay in the gym more than staying out of the gym:

1. Behind The Head Military Press

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This is the most common injury-causing exercise, that most lifters, who blindly follow bodybuilders and how they train, suffer from. In terms of muscle recruitment and overload, it does not do anything different than a standard overhead press.  

What it does is that, it puts you in a position where your rotator cuffs are more prone to injury. It will automatically reduce the poundage you lift which will reduce your strength gain potential as well.

2. Behind The Neck Lat-Pulldowns

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Another pro-bodybuilder inspired exercise that has little to no relevance in reality. A lot of these behind-the-neck exercises put your shoulder in a very unnatural position.

For most people, they do not have adequate shoulder mobility to do these exercises and they, in no way, provide any additional benefits over the standard exercises.

3. Smith Primary For Compounds

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A majority of beginners are made to train with a smith machine on joining the gym. They believe that this is rather safer for them than free weights. 

But the reality is that a Smith machine severely reduces your range of motion. Another benefit of doing free weight exercises is that it enables core stabilization and activates your core muscles while lifting, not the case when you are using a Smith machine.

And it is more injury-prone than regular forms or free forms of exercises, as your range of motion is pretty restricted in a Smith machine.

4. Heavy Leg Presses

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I had written a standalone article on why doing heavy leg presses can be detrimental. Mainly, as it puts your back in a stiff position and you have seen a lot of people adding a lot of weight on the leg press machine and you would want to do it yourself. 

These heavy leg presses often lead to cheated reps and locking out of knees which have a very high risk of injury. If you want, just do an internet search on leg press injuries and you will be shocked.

Do yourself a service and do not press your ego there.

5. Upright Rows

A lot of people go very heavy when doing upright rows. Now, the problem here is that when you do upright rows, your shoulder rotates internally and you are overloading them beyond its capability. This often leads to shoulder impingement and can lead to severe shoulder injuries.

Physios or physical therapists will often put you in a similar position to test you for shoulder impingement. So, you are basically doing a loaded exercise which is actually used by therapists to check for injuries.

Not a smart move, right?

My advice: Avoid these injury prone exercises so you can spend a productive time inside the gym making progress and not otherwise recovering from injuries.

Author bio:

Pratik Thakkar is the co-founder and director of GetSetGo Fitness, an online fitness company. He is regarded as someone who will make it easy for you to understand the process by putting things in the right context and providing science-based recommendations for natural bodybuilding. You can reach out to him at pratik@getsetgo.fitness and follow him on Instagram and Facebook.