There's no such thing as a bad exercise

A client once asked me which exercises he should cut.

He had a list.

Squats were on it. Deadlifts were on it. Overhead pressing, gone.

Someone along the way had told him each one was bad for his back, and he had spent two years training around a shrinking list of things he was still allowed to do.

So I asked him to show me a squat.

It looked rough.

But the squat wasn't the problem. The way he was set up for it was.

His stance, his depth, where he was trying to find range he didn't have yet.

We changed the position. Same exercise.

Felt completely different to him.

Here is the thing I keep coming back to.

There is no such thing as a bad exercise. There are positions that ask for range you can express, and positions that ask for range you can't.

A squat that hurts in one setup can feel strong in another, and nothing about the exercise changed.

Only where you put your body did.

Most people get handed a list of movements to avoid.

What they actually needed was someone to adjust how they were doing them.

That is most of why "bad for your back" lists keep growing.

Every time something hurts, one more thing comes off the menu, and nobody goes back to check whether the movement was the problem or the setup was.

Here's your action step.

Pick one lift that's been bothering you.

Before you write it off, change one thing about how you set it up.

If squats bother your knees, try a heels-elevated squat instead of a flat-footed one. Same pattern, different demand on the joint.

If it still feels off, that's exactly the kind of thing I sort out with people one to one.

If you want me to look at it with you, book a call here: https://www.gmarco.ca/rebuild

Talk soon,
Gabe